Acute Acoustic Trauma

Hi all,
Last Sunday, I suffered from a bad case of acute acoustic trauma in a gun range (I'm kicking myself incessantly for going.) I had almost complete hearing loss that day and I quickly put myself on 20 mg prednisone that night. Needless to say, I was terrified. The next day, I regained some of my hearing to a point where I can speak to people. I went to an audiologist that very morning and found out I have severe sensorineural hearing loss (80 db) in the 2k hz range, and also 4k hz range (60 db). The rest of the ranges was actually not that bad, and I have more or less intact hearing in the high frequencies. I was put on 60 mg prednisone which I've been on for the past 3 days. I think my hearing is getting better slowly, but definitely not great. And the tinnitus and muffled sounds are driving me insane.

I'm also taking 1500 mcg of vit B12, and 500 mg Magnesium, and 500 mg curcumin.

I have been reading incessantly online and all the papers I can find on pubmed. Are there any other supplements that I should really consider?

More importantly, it's almost 4 days since the trauma. From all the papers I've seen regarding intratympanic steroid injections, it may only have an effect in the first few days. Idk if I've already lost that window, but I plan on calling all the ENTs in my area to see if they would do this. Anyone have experience with IT steroids for acoustic trauma?

Would really appreciate all the help I can get!

 

Hiya, how long did you spend at the gun range??

You could also look into the decompression chamber treatment but unfortunately I think it's more of a waiting game too see how things improve.

 

I was in there for about an hour. I had foam ear plugs but I don't think they were all the way in like they were supposed to (being a newb to gun ranges). On the spectrum of acoustic trauma, I think mine is pretty severe. I'm actually lucky to have as much hearing as I do now... I just pray to God that I get more improvement and less tinnitus.

Do you mean hyperbaric oxygen treatment? I can look into it, but from the data I've seen, I wasn't too impressed. Have people here have good responses?

I am really considering IT steroids but I've also heard that it can make your tinnitus worse.

 

Yes hyperbaric treatment.

After my exposure to a powerful alarm in may this year my hearing was a mess I didn't have problems understanding speech but everything sounded wrong. Music sounded totally garbled and still sounds wrong but it did improve over the following months. T is up and down. I would say it is quite mild but it drives me mad and I just like you regret the event that caused all this.

Hopefully things improve for you.

 

For SSHL, I was told the window for IT steroids is in the order of a couple of months (but the sooner the better). I don't know if that window is different for acoustic trauma.

 

I would add in/consider the following:


. n acetyl cysteine
. nicotinamide riboside or IV NAD

 

The other very important point is to avoid loud noises - anything above 65db for the next 6- 12 months .
When you are in the healing phase any new loud noise can make it a lot worse very quickly

 

Do you know anyone that has completely recovered from acute acoustic trauma? Either in the form of full hearing recovery or at least cessation of tinnitus? Thanks.

 

Been there, done that: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/it-got-better-for-me.3150/

.357 Mag from a snub nose revolver. My hearing was messed up for about a month. After about six weeks or so it was getting back to normal but for the tinnitus, which I still have.

To this day high frequency sound can be distorted in my left ear. That means I have to listen to Foo Fighters at just a normal volume. Otherwise I'm fine and the T doesn't bother me any more.

It really sucks for you right now, I get it. But hang in there - it will get better. And when you go back to the range, make sure the foam plugs are in, and feel free to wear ear muffs over you ears as well - it's called "doubling up."

 

That's incredible. Thanks so much for sharing!

Getting your mind off tinnitus is definitely the only thing that one can do in such a situation. I went to my family's Thanksgiving get-together today and my T was manageable mainly because the interaction with them kept my mind off it.

One question, though. Right after your acoustic trauma, did you actually have hearing loss or was it just tinnitus? Like, was your audiogram significantly abnormal?

 

Not sure about permanent hearing loss. I had an audiogram done, and I had hearing loss starting at about 8k. Everything below 8k was normal. But being as I didn't have a baseline I don't know if the loss over 8k was due to gun shot or if it had occurred prior.

Of course, I had a massive threshold shift, and I was temporarily deaf for a few seconds and then the eeeeee started...

Hang in there K_Cbus, you will get better and you will adjust.

 

Why not <80db ?

 

This is based on a study they did a while ago on soldiers who recovered hearing after trauma - provided they kept under 70db for some time
(I don't remember for how long)

That is what was written but I do not have the link

 

Melatonin before bed will help you to sleep and there are some members here who claim it helps with tinnitus. I usually take 2.5 mg, slow release if possible. If you're taking B12 you need a type that dissolves under your tongue for it to be effective, methylcobalamin is probably the best form. You could take a full spectrum B complex as well, including biotin which at least one person claimed helped with their tinnitus. Since the parts of our ears that are damaged are essentially nerves, you could also look at an omega oil supplement containing DHA and EPA, there have been studies suggesting they help repair nerve damage. Not sure if any of it will help but at least it won't hurt. Good luck.

EDIT and I see this thread is necro'd from 2016. LOL