Air Pressure Accident Started My Journey with Tinnitus

10 weeks ago, nearing mid-April, I had a noise accident. It was with air being sucked into an opening of a vessel. I felt a fullness in my right ear but certainly no pain anywhere. A day later and I think it gave me a tone in my right ear that came and went. I didn’t thing much of it and the tone eventually went away after around two and a half weeks.

I then completely forgot it had ever happened.

I then used my lawnmower (late April), realising about a minute into it that I hadn’t put in my earplugs, after feeling a tiny bit of pain in left ear - I felt silly, immediately stopped and put my earplugs in. I continued with the lawnmower for another hour. Later that day, I noticed that tone in my right ear again. I just thought “Well, it’ll be away in a couple of weeks like before, just remember to put your earplugs in next time”.

By late May I realised it was a month since I’d mowed the lawn, that although the tone came and went, it hadn’t completely gone. At that point I looked up tinnitus on the internet (not any forums) and read that earwax can cause it. I then over, the next couple of weeks, just to be sure, used ear drops to dissolve the wax in my ears and subsequently syringed them. A significant blob of wax came out both ears along with some small bits. I have successfully syringed my ears a number of times in the past and thought it may help reduce the tone.

A few days later and I heard another tone (this time in left ear), and then another sound; this one like a sort of high frequency synthesized tones (HFST). These extra two sounds weren’t there all the time, in fact neither was the original tone in right ear. If I went for a walk, if it was early in the morning, if I was relaxed, I had a baseline of near normality. Additionally, in the instructions for the ear drops it said that using the drops can cause tinnitus for a while.

Still not too worried at that point.

THEN...

Two weeks ago, when I was out for a walk, I did a rather loud sneeze. This changed what I heard with the tones, though it was a bit of a delayed reaction. Around 24 hours later; the HFST sort of went up to ultra high frequency synthesized tones (UHFST) and then for a short while, to a ‘scratchy’ sounding UHFST.

I couldn’t believe that a sneeze could do this!

Anyway, around 40 hours after the sneeze, the scratchy tone was gone and it was like it never happened; things were back to the tone in each ear and the original HFST with it able to go back down to near normality of baseline. I put it down to a spike and told myself to be more careful and try not to sneeze.

I should point out that around this time (a few days before the sneeze) I have been wearing earplugs most of the time. I started doing this because I was finding that since a few days after syringing, the slightest high frequency noise was gradually taking me up the scale with my tinnitus, ie baseline, tone right ear, then tone left ear, then HFST etc. I thought it best to rest my ears completely, give them a chance to heal. I’m also terrified of any loud sounds at the moment and wear earmuffs when walking around the house. The only time I’m comfortable to take my earmuffs off is when I’m watching TV with subtitles or sleeping. I occasionally get a fullness feeling in right ear if there is a moderate noise exposure (sometimes even with ears plugged).

BUT THEN...

A couple of days ago and I sneezed again! I had no chance to stop it; it just happened, but it wasn’t as big as the last sneeze. Once again, there was a delayed reaction of around 24 hours before I got this horrible scratchy UHFST again. It’s now 50 hours after this sneeze and I’m still getting this dreadful scratchy tone.

Am I going to go back to my baseline, like I did a couple of weeks back after sneezing?

Am I doomed to have continued worsening tinnitus every time I sneeze?

As for sleep, for now, I can get to sleep fine but have been wakening up during the night with the sound of my tinnitus. It usually calms down enough after around 45 minutes or so and I can get back to sleep again. Last night though it was a rhythmic scratchy UHFST and I couldn’t really get back to sleep.

I’ve also noticed if I ever go for a nap during the day, even if I’m close to baseline, it always sets my tinnitus off, usually for hours.

Thoughts?

Advice?

 

This perceived loudness after a nap is called awakening response. It is the body's way of checking for all necessary vital signs upon waking but unfortunately it mistakes tinnitus as a vital sign. You can search in this forum for awakening response for more detailed explanation. It should get better over time. Take care and God bless.

 

Just to update you, things started to calm just a few hours after I posted.

And after a good night's sleep I woke in the morning in a better place with the noise; scratchiness not present (for now).

That's me 65 hours from the sneeze.

 

I think I have REACTIVE tinnitus and hyperacusis.

In the morning my tinnitus is usually relatively calm. At night, when things are quietening, my tinnitus can also go relatively calm.

However, most sounds will spike me up my scale of varied tinnitus noises.

I'm wearing earmuffs for a lot of the time now for fear of aggravating my tinnitus and adding new sounds. When out, my earmuffs are ALWAYS on. I've been this way for around a month now.

Today, I tried listening to a faucet set on low flow. It was emitting sound at around 38 dB (measured using sound meter). I listened to it for three minutes and then turned off. I also got that 'full feeling in right ear' (which I'm familiar with). This water running spiked my 'calm' tinnitus to hearing a strong tone (which I'm also familiar with) for around 30 minutes before it reverted back to baseline.

If I'd kept the water running, my tinnitus noises would have just got worse and spiked me for much longer. I have tried similar things with TV and music.

 

Can you describe the initial accident where the air was being sucked into the opening of a vessel? Was it a vacuum chamber? Not that it matters, but I'm just curious. My initial tinnitus was set off by air pressure (the loud hiss of a lot of air flow passing through a small opening). There is just something about the frequency and decibel level that seems to be especially damaging at least to my ears.

Reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis is difficult to deal with. I've found gets better and worse depending on sleep, diet, and stress levels, but it's never fully gone away for me. Sometimes it's all you can do to just calm yourself down and rationalize that a spike is likely only temporary.