u/Top_Historian73

I like to meme shitty things, do you guys want some or is that a no-no

Hey everyone,

Go gentle, this is my first reddit post and im 40 years old. After battling and struggling to diagnose what was raging hydrogen and methane based SIBO for 10 years, I took 2 weeks of xiafaxan and neomycin (500mg twice a day). I noticed immediate relief from sibo and had no issues completing the course. 2 days after completing the course while trying to sleep I noticed the faintest tinnitus.

The next morning it was still there and through research I learned about ototoxicity. A day or two later (as it grew from a whisper to deafening) I went on 40gm of prednisone (roughly 3 days after symptoms very first appeared). After 3 days on 40mg another doc (Mass Gen ENT) upped it to 60mg for 10 days. Just at the transition point from 40mg to 60mg the tinnitus was gone for a day, but on the 60mg its back and seems different. Originally it was high pitched in both ears. Now I have a low in the left, high in the right and chains dragging on concrete in the center of my head.

It is softer in the morningaround 9am, then I take 60mg of pred, and then ramps up through the day and calms in evening (similar to a prednisone time effect chart) but kicks up again in the early AM. Im wondering if anyone else has gone through this with neomycin and prednisone and if their experiences are the same.

It could be the 60mg of prednisone making me nuts but could that be doing damage too? For reference, the Mass Gen doc was very optimistic about the fact that the tinnitus went away for a full day during any steroid treatment and said recovery isn't linear ( AI said after any damage like that the audio cortex is going to be haywire and potebtially sensative to the orednisone), and I am in the in-time steroid treatment cohort, not the untreated cohort.

Ive seen both success and horror stories. Im beyond crushed that all my years pursing health has led me to this, a potentially intolerable permanent condition.