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So sorry to hear, Mike. I remember reading some of your posts a while back and thought I should have posted something. But I couldn't find the words, being in the middle of my own problems with the same, and being so lost in it. I'm glad you were able to post here. This stuff is really hard to sort out. I saw two ENTs before the one who helped me - the first said everything looked good, she had nothing for me. The second was a specialist in neurotology and I was referred to him by the audiologist I called, to get some relief from the tinnitus, thinking I'd get a similar device to what you're trying. But she said she saw something in my hearing test that suggested something wrong to her. She set up an appointment with this 2nd ENT who was a 'specialist in hearing'. I wrote up my whole history and handed it to his nurse. He never saw this writeup that I gave to his nurse, and didn't want to find it, but he said my hearing is normal, there's nothing wrong. Everyone has tinnitus, just sit in an anechoic chamber. 'The only thing that works is the antidepressant Elavil ... so you know what THAT means' . The ear infection? 'Yes, you had a viral labyrynthitis. That will resolve in time. It can take a year - what has it been, 8 months? You only have 4 months to go.' I said nothing and nodded, but seeing the disappointment in my face, he said 'well, we could get an MRI, but it will be normal. So don't even bother coming back, I'll just call you to tell you it's normal. ' I didn't bother going back, but I also didn't bother with an MRI. I didn't have the symptoms of a tumor, and everyone I talked to agreed. A year later, having given up on the whole thing, and just figuring I'll always be dizzy, have horrible tinnitus and be in pain with every moderately loud sound I hear (movies, my dog barking, my treble-voiced daughter laughing) and I would just never hear normally again, an audiologist I worked with was willing to hear my story, and said there is definitely something wrong. I should do an extended hearing test to higher frequencies (suggested to me by Antonio a year earlier, but I had no one else to see in my original health system). She did that test herself for me on the same day. She said yes, my hearing was normal in the usual testing frequencies, but in the extended frequencies, she saw a clear hearing loss above 8khz only in the left ear, and said anyone who has one sided hearing loss and gets dizziness that's worse with loud sounds, suggests something real going on, and I should go see the ENT she trained with at Northwestern. I did that, and that's when he said I had this condition, the rare (or under diagnosed?) result of the inner ear infection I had 3 years prior. He gave me a diuretic, and this has helped immensely. Day to day, I'm so much better. I can even go to a movie without pain. My dog's bark is annoying, but not horribly painful. I can enjoy my daughter's laugh again. I still carry my ear plugs and use them at loud movies, but I might be fine if I didn't, I'm just afraid not to. I won't go to an amplified rock concert, and avoid going to loud bars. I still can't listen to my high end rig, as that still makes me feel queasy, and my left ear is uncomfortable above 80db. And it worsens the tinnitus, which is still there slightly. Plus it just doesn't sound good any more. Oh well, enough about my problems. Don't give up, Mike. Look around in your area for someone who has an actual interest in this stuff. Most ENTs are not interested. See my guy, if you want, just PM me and I'll give you his name, though I know it'd be hard to travel here just for a doctor's visit. I also found that one of the nation's leading experts on this stuff is in Chicago, Dr. Timothy Hain. He's a neurologist who specializes in hearing and dizziness, so he's an otoneurologist, instead of a neurootologist. I was going to see him next, but mine has gotten much better. Maybe I still should still see him ... but I feel like I have a good explanation and treatment at this point. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to at least read his web site. There's a lot of good information there: http://dizzy-doctor.com Keep in touch, and feel free to PM me if you want to take this offline in more detail. Or keep it here, if you'd prefer. Hang in there , Antonio! Keep in touch!

Sorry Mike, vertigo is much worse. I just had an episode as a side effect of one of the intratympanic injections I got as a treatment, due to Lidocaine used as local anaesthesia to avoid the steroids being painful into the middle ear. The episode lasted for six hours and was really awful. If I had that on a regular basis I'd take whatever they'd feed me. The condition in my case is just affecting hearing. I can stand the tinnitus pretty well though. The worse part for me are loud and high pitched sounds becoming annoying and not sounding right. You spend your life learning to listen and to become a discerning audiophile and once you can tell good from bad all becomes bad

Yes, I understood you were on them and that they caused more problems than they solved, sorry if my wording wasn't clear and it seemed more a suggestion to try them than the expression of the two I knew you tried. Have you been prescribed other things? You definitely need a good otoneurologist or neurootologist who can help you with the dizzy feeling. Is it continuous or does it happen on attack-like episodes, are they long? Tinnitus is a whole different story, sometimes rather innocuous drugs like betahistine or ginkgo biloba extract help a lot, but at other times nothing is really helpful. Feel free to PM me, I won't be playing the online doc, but I could make some suggestions so you can ask your specialist.

Leftovers become chicken hash

Marked up a board gerber with the part designations as best as I could from the CFA2 schematic.

Not trying to rant about doctors and the medical field in general or go into specific details, but I've been exactly where you have with so-called "specialists" and had a lot of doctors misdiagnose or tell me I'm fine. This seems like the case with pretty much everyone I know, with any category of ailments. In fact, the people who have claimed to specialize in certain sub-fields have generally been even worse because they are more confident about their misdiagnoses, just like with you. IMO it's always a good idea to find as many opinions as your wallet and patience will allow, because going to five doctors can easily give five different diagnoses.

Shit, Mike, I was hoping that things had gotten better.

Browsing the site, finding some interesting things. Thanks to Google Translate, I now have a new build level to always shoot for:

In sockets

Chicken & Waffle + cornbread. Yay!

RIP Enigma. Good kitty.

Nope, those are his pics. It's a fake listing...

Sorry to hear about this John. I've been having issues with a form of vertigo, maybe related to migraine for more than a year. I also have a finding on one side similar to yours. I am finally able to go some days without almost constant nausea. Despite some improvement in that regard, I still have tinnitus in both ears to the point that I am on a 30 day trial with hearing aids that produce a white noise which my brain should adjust to and cover the tinnitus. Not sure whether it is going to work but since I get a full refund within 30 days, I figured I would try. I stopped listening to music, in particular headphones for a while. It wasn't painful but I was afraid of making things worse. I am not back to listening to speakers and headphones without an issue. With the headphones I can either take out the hearing aids or turn off the white noise as the music covers up the tinnitus. I've tried topomax (never again) and diamox for the vertigo. I find that the side effects of the meds are worse than the vertigo symptoms. Fortunately, I do not have much in the way of hearing loss other than. Certainly nothing that would justify hearing aids.

Good luck to the both of you, and I hope the vertigo issues are minimal as well.

Listening to this and his back catalogue on Tidal— melikey, thanks for the intro.

Sorry Carl and Bonnie. Rest In Peace Enigma. I’m going to go hug Effie. She’ll still hate it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

New England brisket fairy in effect!

Getting in some late season smoking tomorrow.

Test Tone @ Home live right now: http://mixlr.com/illuminator/chat

Work went great. I think I'm going to fit in just fine. After work, I drove the scooter back to Fairfax, where it promptly died in the 7-11 parking lot. Glad it got me back to Fairfax at any rate. So Al's tenant Frank (the motorcycle whiz) helped me get it into a friend's yard and off the street. Then when going over the charging system, we found a loose battery cable. Cleaned and tightened up the terminals. It was down to 5 volts, so we put it on the trickle charger overnight. Hopefully, the battery will be fine, hold a charge and work well as transportation again. It really is kind of ideal for working in the city. Fingers crossed and major kudos to Frank! I did have to listen to a 40-minute speech on the history of motorcycles but it was well worth it for all his help. Then he insisted on buying Suzy and me dinner at Good Earth foods, though I tried hard to treat him. No go, Frank is a hard guy to repay a favor. But he sure knows his bikes.

Ceviche Roll Yellow Ferrari Roll And Tarantula Roll Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another CFP lives. Started with a single-ended, two-board pilot, proceeded to testing a four-board, balanced setup. Have been listening to it for the past hour or so. Have to settle with 22VDC rails from a Sigma 22 owing to the limit of the transformer I have. Bias set to 150mA. Heatsinks barely get warm. Next is to build yet another GRLV for it with possibly 30VDC rails and higher bias current. Even in its somewhat compromised state, the speed, transparency and resolution of this thing is just incredible!

Just finished taking my 5 hour long, every 10 years Specialty Boards recertification test. I’m thinking this is the last time I’m taking this damn thing. (Assuming I passed this one!) Treating myself to lunch at Shaw’s Crabhouse, which I’ve always wanted to try! Hot appetizer combo Seared George’s Bank Sea Scallops with cremini and maitake mushrooms, red wine-balsamic butter sauce

Enigma has passed away. We loved her with all our hearts. She was kind. She was tough. She was smart. I'll never be able to express my gratitude for all she gave me. Tears on my keyboard.