Booom

[ScienceGuy]

Hi,

my name is Alex and roughly 3 weeks ago I had a tire blow up in my face a close range. Since then the usual symptoms: strong ringing on both ears, hyperaccusis, fullness and pain in the ears. I have treatment with HBOT every day since about 6 days after onset and just finished a round of cortisone. However after three weeks, the symptoms are still there and sometimes feels worse than ever. Every sound that reaches my ear seems to make things worse again and I don't know what to do anymore - constant broad band ringing over everything. Anyone who experienced something similar? When does it get better? How long until I can be a normal person again?

best wishes and thanks in advance,
Alex

 

[Foncky]

Hi,

Sorry for this painful experience. Was it a bicycle tyre ?

You had tinnitus prior to that, right ?

Seems to me you did what you had to (emergency treatments). Rest your ears now, things will slowly improve.

 

[Sebastians]

Blast trauma here as well, no Hbot but a course of steroids shortly after trauma (did not help). Things were really, really bad the first 3-6 months (hyperacusis, sound distortion,...) but started to improve very slowly after that. Many setbacks along the way too.
Give it lots of time, eat healthy, do sports and take supplements, try and sleep/rest as much as you can and wear filtered earplugs whenever you leave the house, especially when taking trams/trains/cars etc.

 

[ScienceGuy]

Yes I had a little tinnitus before that but not very severe... and also yes, it was a mountain bike tire right next to my head.

 

[ScienceGuy]

@Sebastians Thanks for the reply How did you manage with work and so on, I dont feel like I am in the game at all? I have the suspicion the earplugs have the potential to make it worse (hyperacusis...), its a delicate balance i assume. Did you have special earplugs made by an audiologist or similar? Did you recover to a good level?

 

[Jason C]

Have you had a hearing test since the incident??

I would describe I'm injury as blast trauma as well. I was exposed to a powerful alarm.

I am in month 5 and it hasn't improved. Tinnitus, ears feel full on and off, everything sounds wrong, music sounds broken, balance is off, can't sleep properly, cant go anywhere that
Might be slightly noisy.

Plenty of rest and staying away from noise
Could help you in the coming months.