fMichael's right, it's not really ringing I hear, either now that I think about it.

Debbie, do you think it was activity related, or just random?

I always thought my tinnitus was a function of the ole college-band days playing at one too many bars, weddings or dances that finally caught up with me. But in thinking about it, it has definitely worsened since my CRPS onset many fold, enough so, that I have had lengthly discussions about such with my PM doc. It was decided that there was a sympathetic "connection" and there was probably not much that could be done to resolve it. I have qualitatively noticed that there seems to be a reduction of the tinnitus immediately following a series of stellate ganglion blocks and a gradual return over the time between blocks. I'll have to pay more attention next time around...

After a little poking around, seems there is some association:

Kurume Med J. 1984;31(4):295-300.
Stellate ganglion block for the relief of tinnitus in vibration disease.
Matoba T, Noguchi I, Noguchi H, Sakurai T.
PMID:6543892[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Arch Otolaryngol. 1976 Jan;102(1):5-8.
Stellate ganglion blocks for idiopathic sensorineural hearing loss.
Haug O, Draper WL, Haug SA.
Abstract
Fifty-six patients, treated with a series of anesthetizing blocks of the stellate ganglion for idiopathic sudden sensorineural loss, were compared with 20 patients of similar diagnosis who were treated by other means as to amount of pure-tone gain, speech discrimination improvement, nature of symptoms, and delay in start of surgery. Seventy percent of the stellate-ganglion-block-treated patients achieved substantial hearing improvement. Only 15% to 20% of the non-stellate-ganglion-block-treated patients achieved substantial hearing improvement in discrimination or pure-tone levels. The delay time from onset of symptoms to start of stellate block therapy appears to be important. The type of tinnitus, presence or absence of vertigo, and fullness in the ear may be useful prognostic signs.

PMID:1244832[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Let's see, where've I heard that before? Wait . . . don't tell me . . . oh yeah: Efficacy of Stellate Ganglion Blockade for the Management of Type 1 Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Ackerman WE, Zhang JM, South Med J. 2006; 99: 1084-1088.

Sounds like I best follow my own long standing advice regarding RSD/CRPS and get on this sucker ASAP! (After all, it only stands to reason.)

And THANK YOU DUBIOUS for that wake up call!!!

Mike

Thanks Mike, nice to finally see a supportive citation! Hope you are (relatively) well!

Hey! Not so bad, and truly, deeply, I appreciate your insight on this little connection. And yeah, feeling better at least, if still frankly somewhat frail, with a significant word recall issue that - interestingly enough - rarely occurs to me as I compose away one my own, but is manifest at once when my own mind is no longer controlling the agenda, in that thing that we call social interaction. Seriously - friggin' seriously - so long as the mind frames the rules of the conversation, it has no problems coming up with all the words it needs. Funny how that works, ain't it? (And as my wife points out, when I'm on my own, I'm otherwise able to fill in the blanks with the assistance of a search engine of some sort.)

As you inferred from my return to posting, after thinking I was going into a stack-crash on Wednesday, I managed somehow to hobble through Thursday and by Friday - Muzak and all - realized I was not as bad off as I had been the day before, which came as a pleasant relief. Especially where I was by then committed to driving into Westwood (not nearly as far off as USC and reachable by city streets nicely), then heading back to my house to pick up my son home from college, whence over the hill again for lunch with Ian, his old teacher and now my good friend, and then back home by way of reptile shop in W. LA to pick up crickets for our 12 y.o. tree frog, then come again. a normal day for healthy folks. I doable day for me on tDCS - albeit with some Schedule II support after crossing the finishing line - and a cause for celebration that I pulled it off today at all!!! So the post-tDCS CRPS rebound thing may be no more, and we're back to bo worse than the pre-tDCS "normal" - save and except the enhanced tinnitus which should hopefully be remedied by the hair of the dog that bit me, once the replacement machine comes in this week. (See, above.)

Seriously, the only thing untoward that happened this evening was not that my pain flared (and it didn't) but that I was physically spent beyond anything I could ever recall. Hence the reference to frailty. And the only thing that pulled me out of that, once it felt I was close to letting go of one last breath and not being there to catch the next one, was when I popped 4 Nirtostats and was back in the game. But more on that in another thread.

My Sat. MD appt. went well and I should have new machine by mid-week. So all things considered, I'm a lot happier than I had been a few days ago. Thanks for asking.

Mike