2 Weeks in with High Pitched Tinnitus (Noise Induced Gunfire)

Today is the two week mark since the beginning of my Tinnitus. I've spent every day since then browsing the internet for answers and what I should do next. I've repeatedly come back to this site so I've decided to create an account and share my story. (Sorry for the long post)

I was on vacation. I flew across the country on a Wednesday (8 hour flight) for a friends wedding.

Thursday (8/24/17) we had a 1 day camping trip planned. We set up camp Thursday, cracked open some beers, and headed to the river to go swimming.

About an hour after we finished swimming one of the guys brought guns to fire. I shot 10 rounds with a .308 semi-automatic rifle. I had foam ear plugs but my left plug fell out or I took it out and forgot to put it back in. This was my big mistake. I am right handed so when aiming I naturally point my left ear towards the bullet chamber.

Edit: Want to add here I am 34 years old. I am not an avid gun shooter by any means. I might shoot once a year so the noise induced hearing loss is from a single sudden event.

After shooting I had the "cave" effect in my left ear which faded after sometime but the ringing remained. The next few days I still had the ringing but I had enough distractions while on vacation to not focus on it too much.

It wasn't until I flew home and sat in my apartment alone that Monday when it hit me how loud and constant the high pitch ring is. It is 24/7 and has not reduced in severity over 2 weeks.

TLDR: I flew 8 hours. Next day went swimming. Less than an hour after swimming I shot a rifle with no protection in left ear. 24/7 constant high pitch tone Tinnitus now with some loss of hearing in left ear for two weeks.

Here is everything I have done so far.

Family Doctor prescribed 6 day step-down pack of Methylprednisolone. I finished that and it had no effect.

My ENT specialist looked at my ear for about 10 seconds and said he saw no signs of inflammation or soreness. He then shoved some q-tips up my noise to help open up my sinuses and talked about nasal sprays to open my sinuses. He chalked up the ringing to noise induced hearing loss, and told me to come back in two weeks for a hearing test. When asked how long the ringing might last he said "could go away in 2 hours, or you could have it the rest of your life". I know he wasn't trying to intentionally come off harsh... but... it was harsh.

Here is a list of all the supplements I've purchased. If you think there are others I should be taking please let me know.

• Vitamin B12 (I believe this seriously upset my stomach when I took it, or it was the tacos. Trying half a pill later)
• Vitamin C (using Emergen-C packets with B vitamins in them, it has B12)
  
• Zinc
• Gingo Baloba (taking this daily)
  
• Melatonin for sleep
• Lipo Flavonoid (ENT told me taking this is like playing the lottery. Seems more and more this stuff is useless in my case.)
• Magnesium (getting this today)

I've also started Acupuncture. I have my second session Today. Seems to just help me relax more than anything.

I've looked into hyperbolic oxygen chambers in my area. That seems like a costly extreme though and not sure if it is worth taking that big a leap just yet.

That's basically my story. I'm two weeks in so if there is anything you think I should try or look into please let me know. I'm not freaking out but I'm definitely in an early stage with a lot of worry right now.

Thank you for taking the time to hear my story

 

Sorry to read about your T
I have had T 2 times in my life, one 12 years ago from very loud power equipment, and my current bout from a outdoor concert from a local band. The first time (12 years ago) was a horrible piercing ring, pain,humming, ear fullness. It was real bad, and I thought it would never go away, but it faded to zero in just under 2 years.
My current T is about 11 months old, and has improved 75%-80%. So it is possible to fully recover.
IMO the best thing for you to do is get some High Fidelity ear plugs (around $20 Amazon) and protect your ears for at least 6-8 months from any loud noise. It will take many months (6-12) for you to see improvement, and possibly up to 2 years for you to (hopefully) recover.

 

The longer you wait, the less effective it is going to be.

If you end up doing it, make sure to ask them to use the minimum air flow setting (if you are in an individual chamber). Other settings a noisier. You might even want to wear ear plugs when the pressure inside of the chamber gets to its maximum. It can get noisy in the chamber.

Look into NAC (search this site for details).

Consider getting Ginkgo Gold/tebonin type of ginkgo biloba (searc this site).

Some types of magnesium can be used as laxatives. Magnesium bis glycinate is a good choice.

Look into taking alpha lipoic acid.

Make sure you don't take too much melatonin:
https://vanwinkles.com/the-dark-side-downsides-side-effects-of-melatonin
"In 2001, researchers at MIT concluded that the correct dosage for melatonin falls between .3 and 1 mg."

You can use sound enrichment (playing nature sounds) to give you something else to listen to besides T.

Buy Peltor X5A muffs.

Try to protect your ears from moderate noises like that of a vacuum cleaner or a blender.

Check out the studies listed on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/

There is hope that your T will fade or go away, but it might take a long time.

 

Thank you both for your replies. It really means a lot and it's great advice.

Only took the melatonin once for sleep and trying to stay away from it really and sleep naturally. Amazon prime video has some good natural videos for sleep I've found... they came up in a search for Tinnitus on prime video.

Looks like I can get NAC, lipoic, and tebonin off Amazon too. Thanks so much for those tips!

 

Welcome to the forum @Nova
When tinnitus is new or at a new irritating level, and the ringing is causing much anxiety and panic plus sleeplessness, it is advisable to get masking going so you won’t be so anxious and fearful and can sleep better. Stress and anxiety are toxic to T. So try masking if you haven’t done so. When my T was new, I used to mask all day just to prevent panic attacks from hearing my ultra high pitch loud dog whistle T. Try these if you haven't yet. Best of luck. Take good care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time if having trouble sleeping, by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

TT's excellent audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Your still young you have good chances it will go down over time - maybe Not completely go away but diminish by 80% in 2 years time - it will take time

I also got my T shooting large bore rifles and yes the left ear is most affected as it was pointing the muzzle

Other treatment to consider is light therapy or LLLt - may help a bit especially in the acute stage

 

I'm going to take a wild guess that this was an AR style 308? With a flash hider? If so that is even louder that a standard barrel.

Flash hiders are the most ridiculous addition to a rifle. They don't hide anything. They direct a lot of the noise backwards toward the shooter.

In nine years of this Hell I have taken every supplement imaginable. My ENT prescribed 2 mg. Valium three times a day. He said it interrupted something between the inner ear and the brain. It didn't. I instead take about 4 mg. every night just to go to sleep.

I hope yours eventually goes away. It appears that mine never will.

 

It was an AR but not sure about the flash hider. I'm not personally even big on shooting, I might shoot once a year at most if friends are doing it.

Update on my situation: Today is the 4 week mark and the Tinnitus has not subsided. Constant high pitch ring in left ear.

• Methylprednisolone prescribed by family Doctor 5 days after the event had no effect
  
  
• 1st ENT visit offered no treatment but "time and hope" and recommended steroid nasal spray for sinuses. I chose this ENT because he performed my sinus surgery for a deviated septum (left side as well) about 10 years ago.
  
  
• Supplements bought and taken regularly: Vitamin C, B12, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Magnesium, Zinc, Ginko Biloba
  
  
• 3 acupuncture sessions, no change.
  
  
• Called local hospital H-Oxygen therapy treatment center directly and went in for consultation. Lead doctor said they hadn't treated T from sound induced sources before but is willing to try, waiting to see if insurance will cover it.
  
  
• *The ear with the T feels different, like there is pressure, and it clicks/squishes whenever I swallow.
  
  
• Valsalva Maneuver, Neti pots, Sinus Buster spray, Afrin (used once), Flonase (starting daily), a Vicks sinus steam machine, and this Eustachi thing all used to try and open up my left Eustachian tube with the hope it is just inflamed or clogged causing the T... no change or drainage noticed.
  
  
• Got a Sova mouth guard and started using it 2 nights ago to reduce any jaw clenching when I sleep.
  
  
• 2nd ENT visit. Took hearing test. Told I have hearing loss in both ears at high frequencies, just a bit more so in the left. I asked what he though about the pressure and squish/click sounds in my left ear... he said it's probably just because that ear is 'hearing differently' now. Said he saw no signs of fluid in the left ear. Told to come back in 6 months, again no treatment offered and recommended to use steroid nasal sprays. Asked about the oxygen therapy I setup myself and he said it's worth trying.
  
  
• To add insult to injury I came down with a really bad head cold last Friday, started in throat and now head/chest congestion. So taking alka-seltzer cold, mucinex, and cough drops to clear this up.

So 4 weeks in, no change. Tons of $ spent on doctors visits, supplements, and gimmick products. Tons of time spent online researching.

My ENT offered no tinnitus treatments in 2 visits other than time and steroid nasal sprays for my sinuses. I have a decision to make soon on the Oxygen therapy, other than that all I have are my supplements, gimmicks, and hope tomorrow this will heal.

 

Well thats all about it, you pretty much figured this out already
You should give HBO a try if you can, i didnt, but i am not sure i regret it, my doctor who happens to be a military ENT told me that probably i wouldnt see any difference BUT you do HBO for hearing loss, not for Tinnitus, i dont know if its worth putting it like that to your insurance

Give it time, dont isolate your ears (for me that also means dont stay all the time in a quiet place) expose yourself to sounds (normal db levels) and above all give it time, there is no supplement like time

i only take a complex of B Vitamin and Gingo for the last 4 months, couldnt stand all those supplements for more than 2 months, i came to a point that i felt my stomach was made out of concrete

Ear fullness, ETD and such...for the first 3 months, constantly, sometimes i would wake up ok and after 2-3 hours it would be the same story with the pressure, after 6 months this is gone, it was less and less day by day...give it time

All the best, be patient (adj.) (we all are in someway the n. :q)

 

One thing that might actually cap the shit is stem cell therapy. Search this site for posts by attheedgeofscience, as he is the most ambitious (and non-bullshit) poster on the topic. Very expensive and there's no guarantee it's going to work, but if you're financially secure, it could be used as a last resort.

But first of all, wait and see how your T develop for the nearest year or so. For some people, it settle down. I advice that you stay away from psychiatric drugs, and protect your hearing from noise accidents, i.e. carry properly inserted ear plugs when you go outside so no ambulance siren makes your situation worse out of nowhere*. I would also be weary about sound therapies where you carry an in-ear sound device of any kind. I understand that your instinct is to fix your ears, but realistically, what can be done is to stop it from getting worse while waiting and see how well your body and mind adjust. Stuffing yourself with antioxidants is a good idea, though**.

*Actually, ear plugs may be insufficient. I carry ear muffs on top of them as I like to stay on the safe side.

** This entire paragraph is my personal opinion. Don't be surprised if they're contradicted by some medical professionals.

 

Decided I'm going to use this thread as an occasional personal story update. If it ever goes away I promise to update here or create a new thread and link to it.

5 weeks since "The Event".

I found out today HBOT therapy at my local hospital wound care center will not be covered by my insurance. I'm considering this an "experimental" treatment and not a cure and will probably not look further into local private companies to do it (one was around $200 a session). I haven't seen much full HBOT success stories in my research. Just some diminished tones that might be just an increase in recovery time that will still occur naturally just a bit longer.

My head/chest cold turned last week turned into a full on Sinus infection. I believe using the Valsalva Maneuver and this Eustachi thing probably wasn't the best idea during a cold and that could have lead to the infection.

Was put on 2 pills/day for 7 day course of Augmentin antibiotic. Infection seems to have cleared up. No increase or decrease in T.

I have ordered these Vibes decibel canceling ear plugs. I have been avoiding going to the movies and out to loud areas like bars. I may give these a go at some point in an area like that on a test run to see how they work.

I cut back on the ginko and vitamins while on the Augmentin. Will start that back up again tomorrow.

For now I am relying on time, supplements, and protecting my hearing.

 

Nova, just curious how everything turned out? I had the same thing happen to me while firing a pistol. My right ear plug did not seal properly apparently. Its extremely depressing and frustrating. Did you see an overall improvement of symptoms?