To follow up on this story, I saw the audiologist yesterday. He did a complex range of hearing tests and identified I had some hearing loss at the high end of the frequency spectrum. It can come from a number of causes, including Aerosmith (Nickelback in my case) but chemo is a big cause as well. Given the tinnitus arrived quite quickly, they expect the chemo to be the primary cause in this case.

The audiologist was very good at explaining in relatively understandable detail about tinnitus, the misconceptions and the wild theories and treatment on the internet.

He said they have a conference each year and they have a prize for the most bizarre cure they find on the internet. There are many crazy theories and treatments. It is an extremely misunderstood condition, even among doctors.

There are coping strategies like noise generators (as mentioned above). The noise of rain falling on a tin roof or waves crashing on a beach. It all serves to distract the brain for registering there is a constant tone in my head. Stress makes tinnitus worse, so if you can relax (although its hard to relax with the constant ringing) you can actually reduce tinnitus just by relaxing.

Tinnitus doesn't go away, but it becomes less annoying. Like moving next to a busy road, you don't sleep the first night but 6 months later you can't hear the traffic.

If you are reading this because you have searched on tinnitus caused by chemo induced hearing loss, discuss it with your oncologist during treatment. They may change your treatment. For me I skipped the third Cisplatin dose because of tinnitus.

Some months after treatment finishes and everything settles down you should ask to see an audiologist.

The audiologist said the options for me boiled down to this. I could learn to live with it, or they could put me on a special training course to train me to learn to live with it. Its called Neuromonics and it takes 9 months and $6000. Needless to say I'll be trying the "learn to live with it" option first.

The best thing the audiologist did for me was clarify my understanding of what tinnitus was, what it wasn't, and what my options were to deal with it. I left less anxious about it, and better equipped to deal with it. I know I'm miles in front of my original 2.30am post back in May, where I was really pretty distressed.