Didn't Wear Earplugs — Regret It Big Time :(

Hi all,

I had been coping really well over the past two weeks, and I start my new job on Monday so I thought everything was getting better.

But then, yesterday I went for a meal for my leaving do. We went to a restaurant which was fairly loud. I recorded the decibel and the average decibel was about 84-85, then when people spoke it got to about 94-95. But there were also people laughing really loud on the table behind us which recorded 100 at one point.

I was too embarrassed to put in my ear plugs, but after an hour and a half I did, and everyone was making jokes about it. I instantly noticed my T was louder, and I woke up this morning hoping it would have gone back to baseline. This hasn't happened, instead I have an extremely high pitched and uncomfortable noise in my ear - it's about 16khz, compared to 12-13khz before. My ears also feel full and I can't pop them properly, they keep crackling like I had when I had a bad cold.

Really hope it goes down, just need some reassurance if possible. I feel like such an idiot.

Thanks for any help.

 

Dude you will be ok . Just because your T gets irritated doesn't mean its going to morph into another beast. Just wear your plugs next time if it gets that loud. You will be ok . I promise.

 

Thanks! I'm so easily paranoid, still in the panic phase of all of this.

 

I know how it feels. For me the journey out of the panic phase is still active but I truly believe that after sometime your emotional system just ends up getting bored of freaking out and stops reacting so harshly.

 

Made a similar mistake. I went to a movie with my earplugs in - I seemed to be OK during the movie, but the day after, my anxiety and ringing increased.

Not doing that again . . .unless I have some of those heavy duty cups that landscaper workers use .. .

 

Hi Johnster, has your ringing gone back to baseline now?

Going to the movies with ear plugs shouldn't cause any damage at all! Some people on here go without plugs. (I personally wouldn't.)

 

One thing that sucks is that movies have, unquestionably, gotten LOUDER over the years. It used to be, that people were expected to just shut the fuck up and watch the movie. Now they just crank the volume so you can get that ear-splitting THX at 100db.

 

Yeah, it's about the same now. Didn't realize until now how LOUD the movies are. If I watched at the same volume at home, my neighbors would be giving me dirty looks . . .

 

Yeah, it's a shame they're so unreasonable! But surely plugs with a movie would expose you to max of 75db so wouldn't cause harm?

 

That's great to hear yours is back to normal, hopefully mine will go back down too.

What ear plugs did you use?

 

Yes, I do not personally believe that movies I've been to could possibly be damaging with plugs in. It is not the same as being at a rock show or something.

 

I may try going to one, I've been so hesitant until the last couple of weeks where I've been coping better - that was until last night.

I just feel like such a burden on my girlfriend, we used to love having date nights at the cinema!

 

I used the orange spongy ones. There were times where it was super load, so i put my hands over my ears for extra protection . . .we were in the back row

 

100db??......and the rest!!!!! My local movie theater reaches 115db in some action movies! ....It is truly ridiculous.....someone should open a nice reasonable max 85db cinema so all us T people can go :|

 

I really regret not wearing earplugs and I practiced thousands of hours on loud church organs and pianos.
Is there a good ear plug, hearing protection to save the rest of my ear cells? I'm just going to have to wear hearing protection for the rest of my life

 

Musicians plugs. Custom molded to your ear are good. The have filters that attenuate the sound with a pretty 'flat' response .

 

I'm having improvement in hearing now taking medications and vitamins that I posted on this site.
that's really fascinating, church organs are just terrible for the ears with those mixtures, I felt I had to make this sacrifice as an act of service. I had an organ professor tell me that his colleague from Curtis went deaf from mastering both the piano and the organ but I was just a little kid and didn't know what a horror that would be

 

I think to myself: look stupid or suffer And then put in the earplugs

 

Man, some people can be horrible...I'd never tease someone using ear plugs..Sorry that it's gone up, hopefully it's only a temporary thing. To be honest, I had a bath with no ear plugs once and it freaked me out as I was scared of another ear infection, as that's how I got tinnitus. I can't explain why ears feel full, but hopefully it will subside. Keep us posted.

 

I've had T for 40 years. It took me about 20 years to smarten up. Sounds like you're way ahead of me.