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I had tinnitus off an on for years as probably due to being under a 5 inch gun in the Navy with a head phone with one ear covered for awhile and then reversing it. I also did a lot of skeet shooting and trap shooting for about 10 years after getting out of the Navy. We used the little gum rubber ear plugs in the head phone protectors used in shooting now.

About 6 years ago it went from moderate ringing in the day time to really bad every evening until I went to sleep. I went to my doctor, and in a few months I had developed high blood pressure. He felt the ringing was due to the high blood pressure.

He put me on Vasotec 5 mg twice a day. I basically don't have any wrong numbers ringing until after dinner and after the evening on the Vasotec. In social situations, I don't notice it. When at home it starts in about 6:30 pm and rings until I go to bed. Then it seems to die down and disappear.

My wife is an RN, and she would check my BP at first in the evening incase I became refractory to the Vasotec in the evening. Actually my BP dropped about 5 points in the evening, so it wasn't high blood pressure.

My hearing has not deteriorated the past 6 plus years since I took early retirement. In fact my hearing and vision have improved since retiring. In the old days when we went out to a restaurant with a group, she knew when I didn't want to listen to someone or her. I sat so they were on my right side. In a medium to high noise restaurant, I could not hear anyone on my right side. It was an inside joke with us.
Now I can hear too well some times.

Hopefully we can buy this machine and use it at home a few times a week to reprogram the old auditory nerves.

My Dad and Grandfather on my mother's side had tinnitus. My mother at age 86 does not have it unless she is getting sick with a cold or a virus infections. She gets the ringing in her ear 12-24 hours before the onset of the cold or virus.

It's sucha spooky affliction that it helps to have people to talk to about it.

You still didn't tell me which ear to have the ring in ta keep frum bein queer!!!

I think, since it really isn't a noise, per se, that I don't notice it when I get busy, which is why I'm cognizant of it more in the evening hours, like you said you are. It doesn't keep me awake, although that's when it's the loudest, just as my head hits the pillow like it's gonna do right now! G'nite!!!

"He put me on Vasotec 5 mg twice a day."

I was on that for a while but had to stop, I developed non-stop coughing from it. I am on Avapro, Plavix, and Norvasc now, but none of these has affected my tinnitus that I can tell. I attribute mine to too many front-row Grateful Dead concerts in the 60s, and too much pistol shooting without hearing protection in the 70s. (Yes, I was an idiot.)

"Hopefully we can buy this machine and use it at home a few times a week to reprogram the old auditory nerves."

If Blue Cross won't cover it, I'm going to build one. Piezo discs are available dirt cheap in a variety of sizes, with frequency response ranging up to ultrasonic, and the circuitry to drive them shouldn't cost more than ten bucks or so.

For some reason gorush sent me a Freepmail re this old thread on the ringing in the ears. That was timely as I have some ringing in my ears this morning.

A little update on the ringing. The pharmacy company that provides our Rxes made a generic substitution for my Vasotec about a year ago.

The ringing in my ears came back with a roar in the evening and for a couple of hours in the morning. I bought one of the personal electronic bp monitoring units, and my BP was high during these ringing spells. My wife, an office RN, bought her gear home to check me, and she confirmed that my BP was up for a few hours in the morning before and after the morning generic Vasotec and the same with the 6-6:30 pm generic.

My doctor wrote a Do Not Substitute rx, and I had a go around with one of the pharmacists and got the real Vasotec. After a week or so on the real stuff, the ringing went back to minimal ringing a little before and after I took the Vasotec. Then it would go away for the rest of the day.

Merck changed the look of the Vasotec Tablets and maybe the fillers. The ringing has basically gone away except when I wait more than 12 hours between doses with the new tablets.

Last night we met friends for dinner at 5:30 pm. I took my Vasotec at 5 pm, normal dosing is between 6 and 6:30 pm. This morning I got up at 5:30 am, and by 6 am the ringing had started. I took my morning dose of Vasotec at 6:30 am, and the ring is going away 15 minutes later.