Hello @carol1024, I moved you discussion and combined it with an existing discussion titled: Tinnitus - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/tinnitus-15/ in the Hearing Loss support group.

I did this so you could meet other Connect members recently discussing their battle with tinnitus as well. @buddysmom07, @cvzird, @bettersleep68 recently shard their experiences and frustrations with tinnitus.

@carol1024, you mentioned your next step will be to potentially seek an audiologist, have you discussed this frustrating issue with your current provider?

I cannot tell if you've had responses.and I want to say may God bless you and comfort you. Did you look at your chemotherapy drugs? My husband was on a chemotherapy drug Cisplatin at a higher dose and he had the ringing of the ears and it was pretty bad… So they lowered the dose twice, and the ringing stopped.

@carol1024 Hi Carol, I'm a North Texas lady and I just read your comment here while searching online for tinnitus answers myself.
In 2010 when I had stressed out myself from driving to our vacation with my family for about 13 hours. 3 days later I headed back to Dallas, TX driving 8 more hours. When at a job fair I started breaking down crying. My nerves were literally shot. I thought I was having a nervous breakdown. I went to the ER as my sister took me and her son. And the doc there said that I was just having a stressful breakdown. So I drove back home to Louisiana 8 hrs. It was then that I started getting Bells Palsy on the right side of my face. My back of my neck really bothered me and I started getting my face droop. 6 months later it happened on the left side. Well, the right side was so initially painful that I went to a doctor and he gave me prednisone steroid to stop the pain. And believe me, it stopped it real quick. However, ha ha, and it's not funny, but that medication literally FROZE my face nerves!! Now, my right side of my face I has looked younger than my left side of my face. And when the palsy occurred on my left side, it wasn't as painful and I endured it and I didn't take medication. But! my left side did droop and I didn't get the return to normal as much. So, my check area is nearly gone, and my eye area is more droopy too on my left side.
Then, back in 2023 I had upper eyelid surgery 'because' of the droopy eye lids from the palsy.
Well, my left side STILL wants to droop more than my right eye area side. And my cheek are is very droopy. Makes me look a lot older than what I am on my left side.

Bottom line is, I did NOT have tinnitus BEFORE Bells Palsy. Period! I am convinced that this Palsy problem CAUSED this tinnitus. Palsy is triggered by "Severe stress, sleep deprivation, or illness can lower immunity, reactivating dormant viruses (like herpes simplex), leading to nerve swelling that causes the sudden facial weakness." And this 'nerve compression' caused or triggered this tinnitus to start. Because I DID NOT have this hissing at all before the Palsy!

So, this is my conclusion that this tinnitus is mainly a NERVE problem. Since Palsy, I believe that my nervous system is out of wack. Because when I had onset of the paralysis my neck and arms were affected and I felt off. Like I didn't feel normal. My hearing has never been affected at all.
I do believe that this nerve problem affects every person differently according to how their nervous system has reacted to what created the problem. Some people hear the hissing worse, and some hear different sounds.
I do not believe that it is the brain at all. Alzheimer is a disease I do believe that is caused by our environmental stressors like our horrible food chain, the modern everyday inventions we use. I notice when I use the blow dryer the sound I hear, hissing sometimes gets worse!
If there was a WAY that humans could reprogram their nervous system and revamp it, these modern day health problems would disappear.
My mother died from kidney failure. The LAST thing to deteriorate was her brain. She developed gray areas in her brain and began losing her cognitive abilities. She'd sit in her rocker and just stair out the window when there was nothing to look at. Her kidney organ affected her brain function. However, she never had tinnitus. Neither did my father. And he lost his hearing from loud sounds he used to work near and didn't protect his ears. But neither of my parents had NERVE problems at all. Nor did they develop tinnitus!
I am not a medical doctor. However, I can tell you from experience that Bells Palsy, and shingles ( I had this as well and it affects the nerves horribly with excruciating pain as well) can affect normal nervous system function. And as I said before, the nervous system is very delicate and it can be affected by our modern day stressors.
So, I live with the facial aspects not being symmetrical or normal from B.P. complications, from shingles, and from stress that still affects me. And the tinnitus is just annoying. The only time that I really notice it is at night when it is quiet. But I know why it is there. I did NOT have this before the Palsy. My nerves were mostly normal. When I was younger I used to go to rock concerts with friends. My hearing was not affected at all. I wasn't until the virus attached my nervous system that I became all out of wack like this.
I hope that there are medical professionals that look into this nervous system problem. Ten to one it is what is causing all these tinnitus problems.
People are trying to sell snake oil products, I call them, to make money off of all kinds of lies claiming to heal tinnitus. No, this problem comes from the nervous system dysfunction. I KNOW! And it is the brain that reacts to the nervous system dysfunction in different ways.
It is surely not the brain being impaired by the hissing sounds. Hogwash. Which is what these snake oil salesmen are trying to promote. And A.I. is playing a part in this garbage sales as well. It is all fake products that time again do nothing to help the nervous system I believe.
I do hope some day there is a cure for our ailing bodies that are overloaded with stress in this day and age. Look at all the celebrities who've had Bells Palsy, like Justin Beiber who had to cancel many concerts because of his facial paralysis. Too much stress can trigger this paralysis.