Tinnitus

Symptoms & Treatments
21

Hi JayCS,
I do have a thin mat somewhere that I have tried before but it is so hard for my back, but maybe try again?

I am not sure if the chiropractor made my back worse or not, but definitely didn’t make it any better. He had one thing where I had to lie sort of scrunched up and he would ‘jerk’ my back once, he did that for a few visits. I do the exercises he gave me as they were for my lower back. The rest of me wasn’t as bad back then. I also went to an osteopath a few years ago-another one that said she knew about fibro. Second visit she really sort of ‘pounded’ my back and then said it had gone very red. Needless to say, I didn’t go back for any more visits.

I don’t know if any exercises help me as I tend to feel the same pains every day. I try to walk most days, just around here or into town which is only about 5 minutes away. They say walking is good for you, but later that day and into the next my back is worse.

Guessing, when I lie on the floor is just ‘pain’, can’t think how to describe a certain pain, sorry, it just hurts more. Maybe like a sort of ‘stabbing’ pain.

I agree that soft places to sit are no good, we went for a coffee one day and sat on a squishy sofa as everything else was hard seats-and was a struggle to get out of it. I take a thin cushion with me if we do go out so I can put it on the chair back to lean on if I have to. I can’t sit on a hard seat for long as I tend to stiffen up again, which makes things worse. I need ‘something’ to make it better!

I do get acidy stomach sometimes, usually if I’ve eaten something maybe richer than I should have, then I take a Rennie tablet when I go to bed.

The sun is shining at the moment, which is nice to see, the seeds for the birds need filling up again, and we have to go food shopping. Luckily it’s only across the road, so not far.

You have guinea pigs?

Take care, have a good day,
SueT.

1 Like
22

Hi Sue, I can’t remember when I didn’t have tinnitus. It’s worse on my left ear than the right. I use the TV or music to help me not hear it as bad.

23

Hiya Sue:

My suggestions based on similar experiences:

Thin mat: I wouldn’t simply try it again, I’d vary, like adding various kinds, praps starting with a blanket or 3. Some parts of my body need it softer (tailbone and thighs), some harder (‘hunchback’), so I sleep with a lambskin under my tailbone, with a fairly hard mattress, but a soft topper. (Just as examples: my back will be very different to yours.)
And keep the exercises down to a few minutes or even seconds, starting with an amount that hurts so little that it stops hurting quickly when you’re up again.

Lying down exercises: For convenience (like whilst waiting somewhere) and comfort (if it hurts) I adapted lying down exercises to standing up exercises, like ‘python’ standing up by arching backwards, additionally moving the legs backwards.
Chiropractor & osteopath: oh, yeah, jerks and pounding are usually the wrong sort of treatment for us, agreed. The only aggressive treatment that has helped me, to my complete surprise, was deep tissue massage. My osteopaths made so gentle movements that they were barely susceptible, but when I tried the one that had helped me pre-fibro again, I felt fluey-achey for a few days after all the same. 3 other osteopaths did help a little, but not enough to continue.
Exercises perhaps not helping: Does nothing change on days you don’t do those exercises? Then I’d look for new ones. When I was young my 5th physio was the one that showed me how to do the exercises properly. The 6th showed me about 100 exercises, which I quickly tried to make matchskin man pics of after and then sorted out my best 8. So I thought I knew it all. But then a mate gave me a back yoga DVD-book, which did give me a lot more variety.
Most important again for me: low and slow - start with a few seconds many times a day and work up from there.
Walking not good for back: When I walk, it’s also all joints. But (for) all these I gyrate slightly while walking: arms for elbows and shoulders, legs for knees and ankles, and a slight salsa hip move as far as possible for the lower back. And and/or take breaks to do so.
Hard and soft places: In the fibro clinic I was in for 2 weeks, the chairs for the pain talks were very hard, it was an ordeal. So first I sat on my hoodie, which only helped a bit, then I stood at the side. Only one other person did, sometimes. But at the end, the others complained how hard the chairs are. Instead I’ve learnt to overcome any social anxiety (story of my life) and do what’s best for my body. In offices, churches, talks: I’ll be the one sticking out like a sore thumb by sitting at the back for a few minutes, then standing walking, doing exercises a bit, sometimes half-lying with a mat.

Yeah, the guinea pigs are my wife’s, but I’m their nurse, cos it needs patience and understanding what they need. I’m a patient nurse, LOL. At the moment I need to feed the brown one 3x >1 hour a day, a big strain, so I task-switch while he’s chewing, not easy…

Sun’s shining a lot here too, but thunderstorms possibly coming up.
On some days birds are bathing so often that I have to fill the 3 main bird baths up every 1-3 hours.
Thankfully I haven’t been bitten too much yet lately, which can get an enormous histamine problem. Maybe cos the insects realise I’m now interested in them and am putting them on the Big Web :wink: .

All the best, Sue!

24

Hi JayCS,
Ok, thanks so much for all you help with me with. Will try the blankets on the floor when I feel up to it. This week has not been good with one thing and another. Opticians for eye test, surgery for blood test-when they will tell me again later that I am overweight and cholesterol is too high, my sister moaning about me not wanting to go out, trying to food shop etc. Seems to go on forever.

Not sure I would like the deep tissue massage. My husband sometimes gives me a soft massage and that seems to ‘bring it out’ and makes things worse.

Days I don’t do my exercises really don’t seem too different as I feel stiff and achy/painful all the time now, especially in the morning. I do try to do ‘something’ every day though even if it’s only arching my back while waiting for the kettle to boil or something.

Everyone says ‘get out and walk more’ but that makes it worse, no matter how hard I try to stay ‘loose’ as I walk. I will keep trying though, I hate being inside when it’s sunny.

Hard chairs are dreadful, that’s what they had at the opticians, and had to lean forward a bit as well-not good when I had to stan dup to leave. Everywhere seems to have the hard chairs these days. Standing for a while is ok but then I feel I have to move again.

Hope that you are a good patient/nurse, and enjoy looking after the guinea pigs. We don’t have a bird bath here-too much traffic really for the birds. When we lived in our own house I used to put out a cat litter tray filled with water and the birds loved that-and even the odd squirrel or two would come for a drink.

We are having problems with flying ants at the moment, the sun is bringing them out and into our apartment, horrible things. Have to keep a look out for them and the other ants.

Take care, have good weekend,
SueT.

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25

Oh Sue, sorry, I didn’t see you’d replied almost immediately!

But loads of rabbit holes here, spose my new “therapy” trying to keep up with pics on the blog, now even with that proper camera, which I have to get to know. Funnily it doesn’t seem to make any difference so far to the amount of views/interest, only sometimes. But for me it’s exciting.

I’d be completely floored again if I had to do the things you did that week, optician and surgery. For ‘cholesterol’ I’ve found a new ‘rare’ and expensive supp with evidence for it being very effective. But I can’t afford not to take it seeing as I don’t tolerate the lipid meds any more, so I’ve decided to take it.

And even 10’ of my shop “across the road”, much as close as yours, floors me for an hour or more now. So I’m working out what I can do. It seems instead of pushing thru in 10’ like I’ve been used to, I now have to pause a minute or 2 after each 1’ action. That way it takes 20’, but the recovery after seems much quicker. That’s first try, next test if that holds. And probably go a 2nd time for rolls&bread.

Deep tissue massage isn’t comparable to a soft massage, even by a professional. But the possible mid-term benefit outweighs the probable short-term risk of a few hours of more hurt.

Doesn’t sound like your exercises are the right ones, then, or the way you do them? In my experience they are less for stiffness and achiness, more for local pains.

When I used to be able to go out to eat sometimes and I didn’t know the place, I often took a cushion with me, asked for one, or even went back home to get one.

Traffic yeah makes it harder, but some are hard amazingly tough. The only blackbirds I occasionally hear singing now are those directly next to busy roads or shopping centres. I’m wondering whether that’s got a reason…

Yeah, good thing about ants flying is they do no harm, and it’s usually only half a day. Or was it longer?
I’ve got lots of ants all over the garden now, cos they’re good for that, and that takes them away from the house. I leave the sand on the concrete they dig up thru the cracks, cos I think they need it to store heat. There’s about 3 small heaps in the meadow and a few areas at the front.

Hope you’re ant free now and enjoying more sun, less rain, have a good week! :open_hands:

26

Hi Barb3, I take Savella, and find it helpful. I can explain more about it tomorrow when I have more energy. I’m getting over covid for the second time.

27

Hi SueT! Oh what fun it is to have ringing in your ears! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: I’m super tired because I have covid. My brain doesn’t want to think. I will reply back soon when I’m feeling better. I would get more information about using hearing aids.

28

Hi JayCS,
It seems no matter what I do or don’t do I feel the same way-awful and full of pain everywhere. All across my back and down both sides (sometimes one side is worse that the other) and then my chest decides to ache as well. Nights are not good either as I can’t lie long on left side as the pain increases and the right is not as bad, but not good either. At the moment the left side is worse again. I think I will stop about pain now and try to forget it.

My husband did some research in Omeprazole (the last medical drug I couldn’t take) and said that St John’s Work was the herbal equivalent, so for the last nearly 3 weeks been taking it, but no change for the better yet.

Yes, my cholesterol was up and again tried to talk me into taking statins. I did agree to go back in January for another blood test to see if any change, and cutting down on butter/cheese etc.

I wonder has anyone tried Reiki for the fibro, another thing my husband mentioned. I’m wary of things right now as feel rotten and the cost as well to consider.

The flying ants were over a few days, but not seen any since (crossing fingers) last year we had a lot and also the ordinary ants in the house as well. So many we had to get the vacuum out to get rid of them.

Hope you are doing ok this week and having sunshine as well, we have some about time we did.

SueT.

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29

Coming back to this forgotten one, sorry:

Omeprazole you are saying here you couldn’t take it…?

St. John’s Wort I can’t see as an equivalent, it’s more for depression than for stomach problems. Just looked that up again, to be sure.

As said in the new thread I’d try almonds or almond milk and other natural forms for GERD, if it’s that. Just looked up that omeprazole isn’t an antacid, altho it’s for indigestion, it’s a proton pump inhibitor, and can be taken together with an antacid, cos it does work antacid (funny that, ey?). That makes me think of stuff for indigestion, for which’d I’d for natural recommend Iberogast = STW5. It works for many people for indigestion. I had to switch to something similar without peppermint, cos my acid overreacts to it, Gastritol.

30

Hi Jay CS,
I’m taking Omeprazole at the moment along with Ibuprofen to hopefully help with my pains. She said it would help my stomach with taking the Ibuprofen. Not seeing any change yet though.

I don’t think it’s GERD, I just have a stomach that doesn’t seem to like much, and had it for years. My mum was the same with indigestion. I tried peppermint capsules few years ago and had to stop as they made it worse.

I buy almond milk and sometimes switch it with Soya milk or oat milk as well. I don’t know, think I need a new body, but no one will give me one.

Take care,
SueT.

1 Like
31

Get it.

As said, lots else we can do with supps for indigestion.

My dad was a supp junkie but never got his IBS-D under control, I think cos he didn’t listen to his body properly, overdid what he read, didn’t look properly for the right diet (via eliminiation) and didn’t have web experts at his finger tips until late.
So just cos our family had it doesn’t mean we’re stuck with it.

Peppermint making it worse like with me would mean too much acid. Doesn’t mean other herbs won’t help: try Gastritol or similar, definitely not STW5/Iberogast. Or homeopathy, even less risk.

As said, Omeprazole might work temporarily, and could well then backfire.

Soy milk was OK for me, until histamine, but oat and rice milk give me heart burn, again acidity.