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Ototoxic drugs that can cause hearing loss or tinnitus

Hearing Loss | Last Active: Oct 22, 2023 | Replies (28)

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@tykehome

She thought I had a compressed nerve after a blood draw and that the ibuprofen would take down any compression internally on that nerve. I had numbness and weakness in my hand from the band used around the arm and blown vein. She was a NP that I had never seen before. Stopped in just to have it checked out. I had no idea tinnitus could be made worse. I asked my ENT about it last week after the major spike and she was no help. She said that once you have Tinnitus, it can't get worse by a medication. If you don't have Tinnitus, it could cause it but not worsen existing Tinnitus. I beg horribly to differ. She said it was my anxiety. I'm very scared. I had a hard time with the last noise but this is to the point where I feel so out of control and not even sure where to go or what to do.

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Replies to "She thought I had a compressed nerve after a blood draw and that the ibuprofen would..."

Hello, almost 2 years ago my wife was experiencing similar, siren level tinnitus. It too, was medication induced. In speaking with her, I understand how horrible and scary it is. All I can say is, hang in there, and once the medication can get eliminated from your system, the siren level tinnitus did come down for her. She still experiences lower level tinnitus, mostly at night but it is nowhere near how bad it was 18mons-2 years ago. Now that she knows she is sensitive to medications, she is super cautious of what she takes now.
I hope this gives some hope that it may come down with time.

I have had severe tinnitus for 3 months now that is blaring loud. The only thing that has brought the noise slightly down is acupuncture for me specifically as I know everyone is different. My heart goes out to you as my doctor also did not tell me that the erythromycin that they had me on was ototoxic. It was given to me as an off label use to help my gastroparesis (slow stomach emptying condition). After 11 days of use I woke up with the sound of a siren in both ears. I find it difficult that tinnitus isn't the center of more research and trials as it is debilitating and takes months to years to habituate to if you do at all. Give acupuncture a try, it takes a few visits but even if it helps reduce it slightly that's better than full volume. I wish medical providers were more educated about the side effects of medications as many of us could have avoided this terrible fate if we were told everything. I hope you find relief in different therapies like acupuncture or tinnitus retraining therapy.