OMG! I have been going crazy with the ringing in my ears. I went to a very nice ENT here in PSL, and I was given a hearing test, and yes, I do have high tone hearing loss. Lying in bed listening to this loud ringing, I thought, if I was completely deaf, would I still hear the ringing? There is no cure. She told me to get one of those machines that make the nature sounds. That doesn't work. She didn't think it was related to scleroderma though. I was wishing I had some valium to ease the anxiety I get from the ringing and not being able to sleep. Doctors will readily prescribe Xanax, which to me is a horrible drug. I cannot take it. I would also like a little relief from the throbbing and tingling in my hands and feet. It seems like we are being tortured for some reason. I had lab work done last week. The nurse called me and asked if my back or stomach hurt. I said no, which is not really accurate, I wake up with cramps all the time, but I would have attributed it to my chronic condition, IBS more than likely. And if you tell a doctor that, they just look at you with a blank look on their face. She called me back and said it's probably a UTI. Luckily, I started an antibiotic for the sinus infection, so I will be killing two birds with one stone. It doesn't seem to be helping though, I'm still very weak. I see the Rheumy on Wed, for all the good it will do, but I need a Plaquenil refill.

If you continue having sleep difficulty, you should have a sleep study done. The reason I say that is that scleroderma (if that's what you have) can cause a narrowing of the esophagus that can create obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). I have the narrowing and SEVERE OSA. I can only sleep with a CPAP machine. That includes naps.

So I not only have to deal with ringing in my ears, but CPAP mask making my breathing sound like that of Darth Vader, and my husband snoring next to me. Put all that together and it was driving me crazy. Someone gave me a nature sounds machine for Christmas, but it was a waste. Firstly the sounds were on a cycle, and I would find myself anticipating a certain sound that occurred regularly once on each loop. Bad! Then after a few months the machine started shorting on and off, waking me each time. But by then I was really glad to toss it out.

So then I bought a different one, cheap, but highly rated on Amazon.com, and it simply has a steady humming sound that you can vary in pitch and volume. It has been great! It drowns out Darth, my hubby, and the ringing, all three. No nature sounds, no frills, just steady, reliable white noise.

Here's what I suggest. Go to Amazon.com. Where it says Search: All Departments, use the drop down menu to instead choose Home, Garden and Pets. Type "Sound machine" into the text box. Hit "Go". Then use the "Sort" drop down menu to sort by "avg customer review". Item 6 is what I bought. I say this, realizing other products may be ordered or dropped in the future, that would throw off it's order in the queue of hits. But I don't think I should mention brand and model name. As of this date it has received 51 reviews, averaging 4.5 stars No repeating loop sounds, no fancy or cutsy design, no waiting for a particular bird to tweet, no shorting out, no nonsense. Just steady, reliable white noise to drown out annoyances. It's much cheaper than many of the other noise machines also.

I like using Amazon.com in deciding what brands to buy. And then I scope out that particular model on the net to find out who has it cheapest, including shipping. Be aware though that if you want to do a sort of "hits" your search must have been restricted to a single department. That's why I said to choose "Home, Garden and Pets" instead of letting you search "All departments". Searching "All Departments" does not then give you the ability to sort your hits by "average customer review".

I use this technique any time I want to decide on a brand and model of something to buy. Then I read the product reviews, especially the 1 and 2 star reviews to see if there is a consensus about flaws on the product. Another warning sign is if the reviews are polarized, clustered at each end of the spectrum with relatively few in between.