Bagpipes... Ahhhhh. Potential Risk for Hearing?

hi all,

I am visiting relatives in Scotland. They live near Gretna Green, so we decided to visit. At the visitor centre there was a man playing bagpipes. He wasn’t when we arrived, hence I went in.

As we were leaving he came outside and began playing. I had earplugs in and left after a minute (gathered my things and said I was leaving).

Worried their noise has worsened hearing. I was about 10-15 feet away. My iPhone read 97db, but online I’m hearing figures of 111-122db!

Panic attack.

 

Try not to worry as that alone will spike your tinnitus and just try have a nice weekend and hope any spike will soon pass.
Enjoy your family time and see how you are after the weekend.
If your really worried you might get prednisalone prescribed but I'm sure you will be fine.
I love Scotland.
love glynis

 

It might cause a spike that's it.

 

yeah those are really loud

 

Do you reckon a minute exposure is enough to cause permanent damage? Bloody hell, I couldn’t get away from it.

 

Should this spike settle. I am trying to sleep now but the noise is unbearable. Awful. Loud pure tone

 

Thank you, Glynis, I will try. Just wish things weren’t so noisy. Concerned I’ve done some permanent damage here

 

Dude YES! I when I had mild tinnitus back in December I went to the mall, they had a small orchestra of kids playing some xmas songs. I walked right next to them..just walked and got a massive spike which lasted 5 days, my T went to baseline.

 

I hope so. Struggling to sleep with this noise. Had other exposures as well. Was driving along and the car was apparently 100db on certain road surfaces! I had plugs in and phones firmly on and it still felt loud!

Felt trapped as I couldn’t get home without driving this car.

Finally, I had to walk a portion of our route back to my in laws about 30m from a motorway. Again, I had plugs and earmuffs but the noise seemed to cut me.

Life is awful at these volumes!

 

You are fine it will go down in 4-6 days.

 

Thanks bro @dpdx

You struggle to sleep with spikes?

 

Unfortunately, we live in an environment full of surprise-noises.
We need to deal with them constantly ! That is sad !

 

I dont have spikes anymore. When I had mild t I had three spikes: loud resturant, busy street, and orchestra. They all went down in 3-5 days, however since January when I went to the ENT to do the ear tests my T increased permanently and I developed hyperacusis. But dont worry this wont happen to you with the bagpipe I am certain 100%.

 

Unless you are experiencing ear fullness or a T spike, there is no reason to worry.

 

Hey bill, no fullness, but definite spiking.

Hate this and the in laws for taking me out

 

It is most likely temporary. Also keep in mind that temporary spikes can last a long time:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/head-movement-spikes-tinnitus.25179/#post-290614
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-do-your-tinnitus-spikes-usually-last.23110/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-was-your-longest-spike.22099/

 

Thanks Bill. I don’t see how I can engage in life again, even with protection

 

How do you define "engage in life"? Is there more to it than attending rock concerts, restaurants, loud parties, and movie theaters? What else is there that you would be missing? Personally, I haven't cared much for any of those even before T.

 

Agree and I’m not too fussed about them, but I mean just going out and doing things. Yesterday I didn’t attend any of those things and was confronted by a man playing bag pipes and road traffic noise as I was taking a photo. And then driving along a road in a hire car with my in laws. None of these behaviours would seem dangerous, yet here I am!

I had plugs and muffs on so hoping that is enough. Not sure what else I can do, really

 

Hopefully what had caused this spike was the fact that it took you a little long to get out of there once you heard the bagpipes. In your case you had family there with you, so you could have asked them to get your things and then you could have ran out of there. You might have been able to be out of there within 15 seconds...