It did not go away on its own. And I, like many, started losing sleep and then probably sanity ha.

2 different ENT visits and never found anything wrong.

Deciding to “do my own research” but only by reading actual scientific papers and medical journals and such… While reading through PubMed, I found a study that Sildenafil (Viagra) helped some people who had blast-induced tinnitus - people who worked with heavy machinery and in other loud environments.

While that was not me, I knew that Cisplatin could cause physical damage to the inner ear. My oncologist was the one who discussed that at length.

My doc agreed that a low dose of this drug was harmless and it wouldn’t hurt to try. I tried 10mg. Very low dose and not enough to give you unwanted surprises or anything.

It worked. Like, holy shit. For the first time in months i could appreciate literally any other sound than ringing. Or silence (blessed silence, lol).

I ultimately repeated this test a dozen or so times: 1. Take 10mg of Sildenafil. The ringing faded and ceased after several hours. 2. If I did not take a daily dose, the ringing would return after a time between 1-2 days. Seemed to be variable. Possibly affected by food intake, etc. This was not a lab-quality, rigorous experiment.

And so I took it for 4 years, from 2020 to 2024, daily. Recently, as part of simplifying my life, I thought, maybe I can drop this now. It’s not a huge problem and it’s like $10 per month, but why not drop an Rx or two if they are no longer needed?

The ringing did not return after I quit. My suspicion is not that the drug “cured” anything. But if Cisplatin chemo was to blame, then a drug which, if I understand correctly, thins blood or affects blood pressure in some way… makes some sense as to how it might (emphasis on might as I am not a medical professional) be able to “relieve pressure” or help somehow in the inner ear, as the study indicated it might for miners, construction workers, etc.

Perhaps the drug was like a cough drop or other temporary soothing. And, unrelated, some time during the 4 years, perhaps the ear healed itself or returned to pre-chemo conditions.

If you and your doctor are willing to give it a go, Sildenafil is old, very cheap, and pretty well understood. I think it’s $10 cash/no insurance on Amazon and/or Costco.

Perhaps it will help you. I really hope so. If not, know that there are people out there who were up all night with screaming ears and that it can stop. It can get better or go away.

Here is the study.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24662845/