Tinnitus

Tinnitus first emerged in December of 2006. It was a horrible time. A very dark, despondent time in my adult life. I posted about the experience here.

My last post on the subject was here. I was pretty proud of how I had adapted to the tinnitus. It no longer impacted my life and I did not notice it most of the time.

Until this week. On Tuesday, something happened and the tinnitus roared back into my left side. Although I did not have the same degree of emotional response as when it had first emerged, the symptoms of intense nausea, headache, stress, lethargy, discomfort and despondency all merrily jumped in. In a way, I was hoping that I had come down with a flu. Despite experiencing some severe nausea, no other flu symptoms emerged.

The intense ringing is back. Overshadowing life.

I suppose I am most upset because I did not think that the tinnitus would re-emerge. I am not the only one to have it return with a vengeance. And I have to be optimistic that I can re-adjust to the perception of the sound. It took about six months to adapt the last time it emerged. I’ll just have to accept it and learn to deal with it again.