MRI and Tinnitus stopped - briefly!

[SueX]

So yesterday I had an MRI scan on a 3 tesla MRI machine. I am really claustraphobic and at the end of last year I had an MRI with contrast and an MRI without contrast but both on an OPEN machine. I was told that the results were not accurate enough. I was advised to go in a 3 tesla closed MRI scanner. I was very nervous - partly because of the claustraphobia but also because I'd read that the noise in a 3T scanner is much greater than a convention scanner. Imagine my surpsied when after the scan for the whole of the rest of the day my tinnitus was much much quieter....!! Sadly it hasn't lasted and it's back today but it was so weird (and nice) yesterday getting that brief break 😀

[Hidden]

I couldn’t do the mri sue for same reasons so they have referred me for ct scan instead and a vestibular brain stem test

[SueX in reply to Hidden]

I have not been in a lift for over 10 years but...I managed to get myself in a closed MRI machine yesterday! What helped was telling myself that only by doing that could I potentially get a diagnosis and maybe a cure. I have also had a CT scan with contrast but that doesn't give a full picture. Ideally it's good to have an MRI on a closed machine AND a CT. There is a type of closed MRI machine called an 'open bore'. This is still a CLOSED machine (ie you are in a tunnel) but the open bore is much wider. Also, the tunnel itself is shorter. I found it fairly easy to tolerate yesterday. I could see out through the end. And I checked that in an emergency I could crawl out the tube easily (not that I ever would but I needed that to get the confidence to go in it). So if you had the possiblity of a convention 'closed' scan but on an open bore machine that would give them the images they need.

[Hidden in reply to SueX]

Thanks that information is very helpful

[cheapo in reply to SueX]

Congratulations on managing your fears for an important event like that. 🏆

[SueX]

Everyone here will have different experiences - I was told at my very first appointment (which was literally in a hut with an ENT associate) to just live with tinnitus! I decided to not accept that view. I will live with it if I have to - ie if there's no cause established. But without doing the tests one can't know that. So I have had to push for other appiontments and it's been stressful. Sounds like you are already under a hospital who are offering tests, which is great. Maybe see if the MRI they have in that hospital is an 'open bore' one. That might make it possible for you to then have a conventional scan. As I say an 'open bore' is still a closed machine - but the bore (tunnel) is wider and shorter. I would not have believed I could have got in a closed machine....even my partner dropping me off at the station yesterday was preparing himself for me returning saying I hadn't been able to get in the machine. But it really was not bad!

[perlcoder]

Severe as my T is, and has been for more than 20 years, a crisis of some kind, or sometimes a less dramatic event that suddenly demands my entire concentration, will usually switch it off completely and the silence will remain until the next time I sleep.

[Buzbee50]

Well done.... must be great to have a rest from it , maybe now you will get more quiet times.....

[SueX in reply to Buzbee50]

Was the first rest in 6 months! The fact that it did 'switch off' for a while does give me hope.

[ToetappingPoet]

I wonder why it switched your t off. There's a research subject tight there for Tinnitus UK. Some people claim there's a link between tinnitus and electromagnetic energy of the kind that mobile phone masts emit but nothing conclusive and lots of arguments that it isn't powerful enough to cause changes in the brain. But think of the ramifications if it turned out that electromagnetic energy does affect tinnitus. The legal cases alone! I find your shared observation about the 12 hour silencing of your tinnitus afterwards fascinating personally. Will let you know if I experience that. Haven't got my date yet. What sort of tinnitus do you have? Mine is high frequency static noise, non pulsatile and on one side.

[SueX in reply to ToetappingPoet]

Hiya - Yes I have no theory at all as to why the MRI switched it off for 12 hours. That was a head MRI. I'm having my neck MRId on Monday so it will be interesting to see if it happens again. Mine is also high pitched static noise (electricity sounds) but it is pulsatile.

[ToetappingPoet in reply to SueX]

Had the head MRI scan on Monday. Had high hopes it would give me a day's silence too, but it didn't! Ho hum. (Or rather ho hiss!) Results in a week.

[Persevere99]

Hi SueX

How T (or anything else) affects you, me and everyone else, is 100% related to how much of your time you spend thinking about it and then the rating you give it.

I used to focus on my T all the time and, as a result, rated my T as very high, and needed Benzos to sleep.

The epiphany came 6 years ago, only when I started thinking about others’ far worse problems, and slowly, the rating I gave the T started slowly dropping. From 50 to zero.

And, as a result, no benzos needed to get to sleep for over 6 years now.

Please read my own T post for the full story.

All the best

Persevere

[SueX in reply to Persevere99]

I get that - but I think habituating does take time. I have worked with a psychologist for a few sessions but haven't yet got there on being able to ignore the Tinnitues or distract my attention away. I am hopeful that it will happen!

[Persevere99]

Hi SueX

Another way?

My wife constantly reminds me, X, make a long, long list of what’s going well.

And, you will find that whatever’s bothering you will fade away.

I remember, as a teenager, worrying about the spots on my face.

To the extent that I didn’t mix with my pals, as much as I should have.

What I’d give to be a teenager again, bursting with life and energy.

So, it’s not the problem, it’s how you view it.

All the best

Persevere

[Fridays_Child_62]

When I am exposed to loud sounds, my tinnitus is driven down. It has always been like this. I first noticed it after attending loud concerts. Once when I had wax removed by microsuction, I could barely hear my tinnitus afterwards - it was bliss, but my hearing was also dulled for a while. In fact, the reduction doesn't usually last for long, perhaps a few minutes at the most. I suspect it's a case of the brain turning down its internal volume control in response to loud sound and turning the tinnitus down with it. But the loud sounds that cause this effect can't be good for our ears in the long-run.