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Meniere's Australia encourages contact between people who have Meniere's. Knowing how others have experience and coped with Meniere's can help you feel less alone. However please note that the advice, opinions and information given in, or implied by these personal stories remain those of the stories' authors and are not in any way endorsed by MA.
 Thoughts on the Traralgon Tinnitus Seminar
I recently attended a Tinnitus Management Seminar in Traralgon and thought that it may be useful if I forwarded some comments regarding the information presented at that function.
‘My tinnitus...is something that I have and I live with... ’
My history is that I have had tinnitus in my right ear only for some fifteen plus years. My tinnitus is a low ‘whistle’ noise. I assume that it is low-grade, as it has never really given me any undue cause for concern. It is something that I have and I live with it. I was becoming aware of a reduction in the quality of my hearing - nothing more than that my wife commented that I must be becoming deaf because I turned up the volume of the TV more than she needed and that I did not always hear when she spoke to me - the latter being a bit of a joke about ‘selective hearing’ .
‘… I had developed a vestibular schwannoma…’
In 2004, I consulted an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) specialist about a completely unrelated matter and, having mentioned that I had tinnitus and was alleged to be ‘hard of hearing’, an MRI scan was arranged. You can imagine my surprise when it was found that the initial matter was of no concern but that I had developed a vestibular schwannoma on my right side.
Fortunately the tumour was small and was surgically removed without any of the really adverse effects in October 2004. I have retained my tinnitus and have experienced no change in its intensity or frequency. It continues to cause me no undue concern.
‘…severe depression is not an in exorable result of (tinnitus)... ’
You will perhaps understand from the above my motivation for writing to you. Both the presenters at the seminar experience severe tinnitus and both claimed to have been suicidal before being able to manage their condition. As a consequence, much was made at the seminar of the risk of severe depression as a result of the condition and the difficulties experienced in coming to terms with it.
As my experience was very different, I suggest there is scope to use such a seminar to reinforce that there is a wide range of responses to the onset of tinnitus and that severe depression is not an inexorable result of the condition. I suggest that this would be of considerable comfort to those who are not affected by severe tinnitus and who are travelling well on the path to habituation of the condition.
‘… symptoms demand a thorough ear examination to exclude the possibility of something more sinister’
My second point is that there was considerable down playing of the probability of tumour associated with tinnitus. While I concede that tumour is associated with a low percentage of cases of the onset of tinnitus, there is scope to better explain the interrelationships between tinnitus, vestibular schwannoma and Meniere's disease (and perhaps a number of other diseases/conditions about which I know nothing).
I accept that the seminar did not wish to be alarmist but if the logic that was presented was followed i.e. have the onset of tinnitus investigated then get on with your life (and I would suggest that I did this unwittingly over a number of years), then the development of other perhaps mild symptoms may be trivialised or at worst ignored.
In my case I may have had tinnitus long before the onset of the tumour and my tinnitus was apparently unaffected by the progress of the tumour. Coupled with this, the hearing loss I experienced was sufficiently subtle that it caused me no concern. I contend that it would do no harm to inform seminar participants that, while hearing loss, dizziness and tinnitus are common symptoms of many inner and middle ear problems, unilateral or asymmetric symptoms and even subtle changes in those symptoms demand a thorough ear examination to exclude the possibility of something more sinister.
I thoroughly enjoyed the seminar, found the information and handbook useful and compliment the presenters on the style and quality of their presentation. I also appreciated the opportunity of attending the seminar on ‘home turf’.
Alan MacRae
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