Acoustic Trauma from Gun Range

Hi Everybody,

I am 30 years old and might have made biggest mistake of my life this past Saturday. I went to the gun range with a few friends. Owner of the gun shop gave us all ear plugs but I don't believe they were the best quality as once we began shooting I thought it was a little louder than I was expecting. About 30 minutes later we exit the range and my left ear is ringing and I can not hear any of my friends talk. I instantly knew something was up. By the time I got home my hearing had returned mostly but the ringing was still there and my GF voice sounded distorted.

I went to Urgent care the next day(Sunday) and the Doctor just snapped his fingers next to my left ear and I told him I was able to hear it. He then said he thinks it may just be earwax and prescribed me Debrox for earwax removal. I told him I strongly doubted it was earwax and decided to make an appointment with ENT the very next morning.

Next morning I go to my ENT appointment and do audiology exam which revealed I had a ~45dB hearing lost in my left ear (moderate) at 4kHz. My right ear wasn't great but not too bad I think ~10-15dB. I met with the ENT and explained what happened and reviewed the results. He gave me a prednisone injection into my ear and told me to come back next week to do another audiology exam and do shot number 2/3.

I went to sleep that night hoping to see some type change today but so far nothing really has changed. The tinnitus is still ringing and it seems to get louder if I use my headphones to work from home. Even though I only put the headphones on my right ear. I also called the doctors office to see if I could get prescribed the prednisone pills as well and am awaiting his callback.

I have read that my hearing loss could recover over the next few days/weeks but I am honestly frightened by the idea that this one gun shooting event may have changed my life forever. Has anyone else here experienced a similar event and recovered full/partial hearing? Also, my tinnitus was very mild since the event on Saturday but as stated earlier seems to be getting louder today after being on conference call for about 1 hour today. I also went to the store and bought vitamin B-12 and NAC to hopefully help restore my hearing.

 

Last night I slept very good. I didn’t need any music. I could hear Very low Mild T like tv hissing but wasn’t too bad at alland I was able to ignore it to the point that Sometimes I wondered if it was gone. Got the best sleep since Saturday. The T has stayed pretty mild all morning so far as well. Hopefully it continues to trend in this direction.

 

This sounds promising, I hope the trend continues and the tinnitus disappears. All the best.

 

Sounds like you did the right thing and may be able to fully recover. I wish I took this sort of action when I woke up with T. It's taken me almost 2 years to have any noticeable improvement. The thing I have a hard time understanding is how so many people get T from firing guns WITH hearing protection, when I've fired guns multiple times without it and didn't get T until I drank too much one night and probably got otoxicity. Go figure.

Just don't use headphones for a while and try to really follow up on getting prescribed prednisone. It's ridiculous how misinformed doctors are and are so quick to blame wax.

 

Thanks man I hope so. Has it improved in the past 2 years? If so, how much? As of today the T has remained mild to the point where I am still able to sleep unaided. When i wake up it spikes for some reason. Also I noticed my hearing in the affected ear seems to have returned although I won't know for sure or to what degree until i take my next audiology exam in couple weeks. I also managed to get the prednisone prescription but I am a little hesitant to take them now that I noticed hearing and T have been getting better in past 48 hours.

One weird thing is although my T is very low I find that before I sleep every movement i make i hear a little distortion in the bad ear. Like a short high pitch whistle. Anybody experience that? Do you think I should take the Prednisone anyway? Part of me thinks it why not if it can help but the doctor kind of scared me a little when he went over the potential side effects.

 

If you noticed it getting better, that's a great thing. When I first had tinnitus, I noticed that my brain was on high alert and amplified normal internal aural sensations, which everybody has but are usually filtered out of consciousness. This subsided in time. I don't know enough about Prednisone to offer any advice about it.

At this point, the most important thing you can do is protect your ears from harm, and eventually the practice will become second nature. Good luck, and I'm sure that you'll improve even more, soon.

 

I would start taking the prednisone immediately regardless if you're already getting better, since you're still in the window of recovery. Those hearing distortions will go away. Sometimes it's your mind reacting to certain sounds and overtones that you wouldn't normally notice, but the more you focus on your T the more you'll hear weird overtones and think it's related to hearing damage.

Mine fluctuates all the time, so I still have bad days or go through bad periods, but overall I get less of a high-pitched squeal and more hiss and static. Sometimes it is completely silent for a day. So I guess I see that as improvement.

 

I decided to take the prednisone this morning and so far so good. Mild T all day sometimes it seems to disappear. Doc prescribed me 60mg for 14 days, then 50 for 3, then 40 for 3, 30 for 3, 20 for 3, 10 for 3. Is it just me or does that sound like an awful long time to be on steroids? Along with getting the dexamethasone ear injection 2 more times in < 2 weeks...

Yeaa I'm not sure if I'm going to follow that script exactly - leaning towards tapering off earlier then that. I'm still wary of the side effects and I'm Pretty sure my GF would not approve of any testicle shrinkage during the treatment of my ears.

 

Thanks for the info and well wishes! I ordered some ear plugs off amazon yesterday.. Plan on wearing them daily going forward.

 

Trust me just go with what the doctor said to do. I've been on steroids for 14 days and tapered off like that for hives, and it's necessary to do it like that. I have never experienced any side effects from steroids besides getting really amped up at night and finding it difficult to fall asleep. But it's just temporary and way better to deal with that for two weeks than a permanent sound that rots your brain for years.

Good call on the ear plugs, I really recommend to not overuse them and only put them in when you're in environments around 85 decibels or louder, like live music, lawn mowers, etc (don't use a phone app to check this all the time, it'll amp up your anxiety). If you overprotect your ears you will start to develop self-inflicted hyperacusis, and that's a rabbit hole you don't want to let yourself go down. The last best advice I can give you, since you're already getting better, is to stop checking this forum or the Internet at all for tinnitus.

 

Say less! I’m going to sign out and hopefully all the great advice given will help me recover these next few weeks.

thanks again I truly appreciate it!

 

Please see if you can access nicotinamide riboside. Have a read of the thread on here about it. Can still be useful even after an acoustic exposure.

 

I hope you recover fully. I had the same thing happen right before Christmas. 55 pistol rounds. Ten rounds of 40 S&W and 15 rounds of .22 LR. I only have tinnitus and hearing loss in my right ear. Left ear isnormal, no ringing. After almost four months I'd say 80 to 90 percent of my hearing is back, but I have a loud high pitched ring and loud low pitched hum.

I started using a eustachian tube exerciser and some decongestant. My right ear was completely stopped up. It has helped quite a bit. I had my tinnitus measured at the Audiology clinic and it was around 65 decibels. It seems on good days I can mask it now with 35-40 decibels. I like you feel so dumb and guilty this happened. I talked to another member that had this happen and after 1.5 years he went from severe to mild/nearly non-existent. I hope that happens for us both.

Josh

 

Hi Josh,

I am very happy to say that my hearing completely returned to normal. I still have a little bit of tinnitus that I can hear in my left ear only in quiet room like before I go to sleep. I am still hoping it completely goes away but it doesn’t affect me at all and I go days/weeks without even noticing it. I hope you are doing better as well! This board helped me a lot during this terrible period of time and I thought the least I could do is come back and give an update in case anyone else experiences acoustic trauma and is looking for information or support.

 

@Hoping4TheBest I am glad to hear you have made a recovery and are living normally again. Something so simple can cause so much grief. I wish I could report the same, but unfortunately I developed cochlear hydrops or secondary Meniere's disease. I'm 10 months post trauma and my tinnitus is unbearable along with extreme ear pain and fullness. I honestly cannot believe that 10 or 15 shots caused this much damage. I know I was protected shooting the .22 and overall I only shot 25 rounds in total in an open field by myself. I've been unemployed after losing my high paying job due to this shit. You were smart and saw an ENT immediately after the trauma. I honestly will never forgive myself for not rushing in to get steroids. I wasn't offered them until 3 weeks after the trauma which was apparently too late.