Almost Total Recovery 2 Years After Gunshot Induced Tinnitus

About 2 years ago I went shooting for the first time at a private outside range and the person who guided me taught me nothing about ear protection. We were all drinking alcohol and smoking weed. I had never been shooting before.

I fired off about 20 rounds with a 12 gauge shotgun in addition to like 100+ rounds from a .22 (I don't think the .22 caused much hearing damage), without any ear protection whatsoever.

Anyway, after the shooting session it felt like my head was in a fishbowl and I had like 95% deafness in one ear and like 50% deafness in the other.

It took about a week for the underwater "fishbowl" feeling and deafness to subside, but I was left with really bad ringing in my right ear. Couldn't sleep on my right side at all due to the ringing, had to have a fan going at all times just to stay sane.

Anyway, it's been about 2 years and I can safely say that the tinnitus is almost completely, if not completely gone.

To be honest, I haven't even thought about my tinnitus in the past 6 months. I'm posting this because I saw tinnitus mentioned recently in a lawsuit against 3M which claims the ear protection they were selling to the US military was defective or ineffective, leading to tinnitus in military personnel.

Just wanted to post this so that anyone suffering from recently induced tinnitus as a result of gunshot sound exposure without hearing protection will know there is hope. Obviously I can't say whether or not your case will resolve as mine did, but don't lose hope.

Also, if you smoke cannabis, consider quitting as I can say with certainty that cannabis severely exacerbates the condition.

The human body has a remarkable ability to heal itself. I had intense sciatica from a deadlift gone wrong when I was 18, and thought it would never get better. That took about 5 years before I was finally back to normal.

Anyway, I hope this post ends up helping someone out there who is feeling some despair.

 

Thanks for sharing. We really appreciate it. And congrats!

Did you have hyperacusis? Or diagnosed hearing loss?

Can you also describe progression of your improvement? When did you start seeing improvement? Was it gradual?

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

This isn't the best example of a success story as this person only joined the day he posted his success story.

 

Well, it is better that he joined now and posted than not at all! I really do hope these are not false stories (why would they be?), but let's not assume it is... I hope @GunshotRecovery will follow up and answer questions. Please do so!

But, of course, seeing people with a track record here post success stories - like @Jason C's story (although the story being earlier posted by @Michael Leigh under "pseudonym" for unknown reason makes me wonder about its veracity).

Real improvements are possible. I just contacted @whiskeykonteq and he said tinnitus over time not an issue, "still hears sometimes". I do not know how bad it was, but bad enough that he went for stem cell therapy in Russia some years ago. He does not know whether to attribute improvement to that or not.

 

Wow! I relate with your sciatica story. I had a hernia for 3 years. It healed, but after I had a lot of nerve pain lasting 2 years. And believe me it was hell! And then this lovely thing, tinnitus, happens, but that's another story.

Congrats.

 

If the data I saw were correct. 3M will be paying around 17.000 USD per military veteran injured (those who sued). It's a pittance. It's nothing in exchange for ruining their hearing.

And 3M has been held accountable only because the US government was paying a ton of money to those veterans for their hearing injuries.

So to me, this is again a victory of the bad guys (3M) disguised and portrayed by the press as a company defeat. 3M has gotten away with it.