Seems like I'm joining the Tinnitus bandwagon

I noticed ringing/hissing in my ears about 4 weeks ago.  It is like when I was younger after leaving a club, the hissing noise I heard.  But it always went away.  I'm 59 years old.  I've been a DJ for 14 years, but manage most of the time to be "behind" the music so I'm not in direct flow of the sound.  I also have worked this past year as a Personal Care Assistant, caring for a woman in her home.  Her husband is deaf and plays the TV so loud I can't stand it.  He refuses to wear a hearing aide.  So I got to thinking that maybe that had something to do with my ear issue and have since stopped going there.  My doctor checked my ears and saw no ear wax, gave me a Zpak, and a referral to an ENT, who I have yet to hear from.  I've had a few days when I noticed nothing at all, and it got my hopes up that it would be getting better, but the past 2 days it's right back.  I can't concentrate on anything when it's there.  I dont' feel like ME.  I have read stories from others with this, and have a friend who has had it for 11 years!  She has found ways to live with it,but it's still there!  I'm getting very depressed feeling that there is no hope.  As others have written, there are people living with much worse things, cancer, heart disease, pulmonary disease, and so forth.  Tinnitus is like a torture though.  You can't get away from it no matter what you do.  Actually, when I sleep I do, but as soon as I open my eyes it's like it's there saying, "good morning!"  I feel like I can't live with this, but I sure as heck am not one to give up either.  I have six children and 3 grandchildren.  No one seems to realize what it's like to have this other than my friend.  I stopped whining about it because they don't know what to say, and I think they are tired of listening to me.  After all, it sounds like something minor and who am I to complain about it, right?  It's awful, as anyone with it knows.  I'm looking for hope.  REAL HOPE.  That I will get past this and be able to live again without the first thing on my mind being this hissing.  Today all I want to do is cry.  I have much to do, but it's so hard to get myself in gear.  My house is going to pot because I just don't feel like doing anything anymore, yet sitting doing nothing is even worse because it's the only thing being focused on.  I need some help.  I need some hope.  I'm scared that I'll be like this the rest of my life.

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