Ear Protection is important. 15 years old from Australia :D

I'm 15 and from Australia. I have had T since march of 2013.Here is my story

It started on a Sunday morning back in march, heading out to the shooting range for my weekly clay trap shooting comp with a small group of friends.I stand up, borrow my friends shotgun and forget to put my ear muffs on. *BANG* "Crap forgot my muffs." Little did i know it was a little more serious than i first thought. About a week later i come down with a cold.

I visit the local doc with a ringing ear. He give me antibiotics due to my cold I have gotten a ear infection. a month later and not missing a single drop, still ringing in my right ear.This time we go to a different doctor. He notices a perforation in my left ear. this is about 2 months after the ringing starts. we go back to him a month later (Ringing still there) he checks and said " Yeah i thought so we didn't give it enough time to heal." Gives us the name of a highly recommended ENT doc. We visit this ENT about 2 months later. No perforation at all but the ringing is still there. After talking with him he recommends a hearing test to make sure the shot didn't cause any hearing loss and a MRI to make sure it isn't a tumor.

After the MRI and hearing test i don't have a tumor and no significant hearing loss, T has become a part of my life.Using noise machines to help my get to sleep. always having some music playing in the back ground. Kinda surprising to myself and my ENT about how calm i am working with it. It is by no means a quiet ringing. Using this scale http://www.hearing.nihr.ac.uk/public/auditory-examples-sounds-of-tinnitus it is number 9.

If you have friends or family, kinds or neighbours. Ear protection is not a simple thing you can skip every now and then. Its the good old Nah it will never happen to me thought. I had that exact same thought after i pulled the trigger. that went away after my ears were still ringing 10 hours later.

Mars, Physics and ear protection enthusiast, Alexander.

 

That's rough but it seems you have a good attitude about things, keep it up buddy!

 

Hi Alexander: You strike as extraordinarily thoughtful and determined, given you are so young to have tinnitus. You also already have done a lot of research. Would be great if you could get involved as an advocate, spreading the word about the need for ear protection -- and for more research for those with tinnitus. Maybe you could connect with the hearing association in Australia?

Anyway, welcome to the TT forum.

 

Totally agreeing with you on that one @Alexander Mike! There are so many people who do not know about the ill effects of hearing protection. They know only when they suffer from it. I try to spread the word about this as much as I can always. My sound's similar to the number 9 too. But to be more accurate, it's like a blend of number 9 & 11. Doesn't bother me much now though, it's very faint.