Hi,
I thought I would make an account on this forum as, I have recently had a multitude of ear problems which have literally driven me to the point of mental breakdown and I have strongly considered suicide because of it. I am sorry this will probably be long post but it is the only way I feel I can get my questions hopefully answered.
I think it would be beneficial to start from the beginning in order to put my situation into context.
I have always suffered with ENT problems, as a kid, I had Grommets fitted and my enlarged tonsils, and adenoids removed.
Because of this I have always been very protective of my ears taking great care not to expose myself to excessively loud noises and always wearing ear protection. this is been doubly true since I'm also a musician.
Because Ive taken good care of my ears I've not had any problems until recently, I've been involved in a number of events where its been more of a case of wrong place, wrong time rather than deliberate exposure.
It all started back in july this year when I was in my back yard and my neighbor began playing excessively loud music suddenly. They never normally do this and as it was unexpected I didn't have any hearing protection on me at the time. Instantly I went into my house and put on some ear defenders - couldn't find my musicians earplugs at the time.
After this I went out but the exposure to the unexpected noise had muffled my ears - this started to go off, but then a few days later it happened again despite me speaking with the neighbor who promised it was a 1 time incident.
This time I couldn't go out as my car was in for repair and I live in one of those places where you need a car to get anywhere. Instead i put in my musicians earplugs and the eardefenders over the top. I wore these for so long like 4/5 hours that I ended up giving myself an ear infection.
I went to my doctor and they proscribed me some antibiotics which I took for a week and I had a lot of fluid coming out of my ear.
After I had finished the antibiotics, the fluid was still there, but was gradually coming out. My ears were slowly improving everyday until exactly 1 month later.
I live on a busy road and literally the moment I exited my house there was an extremely loud bang from an exhaust which made my ear hurt and blocked again, I was also worried about ringing and all that day I kept listening for it but thankfully nothing.
Since then My ears started listening to any cars passing on the road when before I had not even paid attention to them. Every time I'd go out I'd pay over attention to really noisy bikes and cars I hadn't before.
I got so over obsessed with this I had a mental meltdown and started thinking about suicide. I became obsessed with every little sound I could hear constantly worrying if everything has given me tinnitus.
As I was so stressed my wife decided to take me away to a resort that was supposedly quiet. After the first night there I discover that the military detonates bombs and fires guns 4 miles away ! Its safe to say we never spent another night there.
This has just made me feel so depressed I just feel like I want to completely give up. My biggest fear ever is developing tinnitus. My mom developed tinnitus 14 years ago not from loud noise exposure, but just randomly woke up one day with it and this just add even more to my fears.
Playing music is my life and without it I have nothing.
I hope after reading this someone could answer the following for me please.
1. Would bombs being detonated from 4 miles away be enough to cause hearing loss / tinnitus? My ears feel a little blocked but I still think I have some fluid retention. The actual site is 15 miles off shore but people can till hear it on the coast and I was 4 miles from that so overall I was around 19 miles away, but after everything I've been though its still very worrying.
2. Sometimes when it has been real quiet I can hear the sound of a hard drive getting stuck for a few mins but this soon disappears, but still worrying
3. What could still be making me retain so much fluid in my ears? I'm scheduled in to see my doctor but my appointment isn't til Sep 21 (soonest I could get!)
4. Why are my ears still muffled slightly? I've taken loads of hearing tests that say my ears are fine but the anxiety of this is probably making it a lot worse.
Thank you so much to anyone who actually reads through all of this and helps me to put my mind at rest.
I thought I would make an account on this forum as, I have recently had a multitude of ear problems which have literally driven me to the point of mental breakdown and I have strongly considered suicide because of it. I am sorry this will probably be long post but it is the only way I feel I can get my questions hopefully answered.
I think it would be beneficial to start from the beginning in order to put my situation into context.
I have always suffered with ENT problems, as a kid, I had Grommets fitted and my enlarged tonsils, and adenoids removed.
Because of this I have always been very protective of my ears taking great care not to expose myself to excessively loud noises and always wearing ear protection. this is been doubly true since I'm also a musician.
Because Ive taken good care of my ears I've not had any problems until recently, I've been involved in a number of events where its been more of a case of wrong place, wrong time rather than deliberate exposure.
It all started back in july this year when I was in my back yard and my neighbor began playing excessively loud music suddenly. They never normally do this and as it was unexpected I didn't have any hearing protection on me at the time. Instantly I went into my house and put on some ear defenders - couldn't find my musicians earplugs at the time.
After this I went out but the exposure to the unexpected noise had muffled my ears - this started to go off, but then a few days later it happened again despite me speaking with the neighbor who promised it was a 1 time incident.
This time I couldn't go out as my car was in for repair and I live in one of those places where you need a car to get anywhere. Instead i put in my musicians earplugs and the eardefenders over the top. I wore these for so long like 4/5 hours that I ended up giving myself an ear infection.
I went to my doctor and they proscribed me some antibiotics which I took for a week and I had a lot of fluid coming out of my ear.
After I had finished the antibiotics, the fluid was still there, but was gradually coming out. My ears were slowly improving everyday until exactly 1 month later.
I live on a busy road and literally the moment I exited my house there was an extremely loud bang from an exhaust which made my ear hurt and blocked again, I was also worried about ringing and all that day I kept listening for it but thankfully nothing.
Since then My ears started listening to any cars passing on the road when before I had not even paid attention to them. Every time I'd go out I'd pay over attention to really noisy bikes and cars I hadn't before.
I got so over obsessed with this I had a mental meltdown and started thinking about suicide. I became obsessed with every little sound I could hear constantly worrying if everything has given me tinnitus.
As I was so stressed my wife decided to take me away to a resort that was supposedly quiet. After the first night there I discover that the military detonates bombs and fires guns 4 miles away ! Its safe to say we never spent another night there.
This has just made me feel so depressed I just feel like I want to completely give up. My biggest fear ever is developing tinnitus. My mom developed tinnitus 14 years ago not from loud noise exposure, but just randomly woke up one day with it and this just add even more to my fears.
Playing music is my life and without it I have nothing.
I hope after reading this someone could answer the following for me please.
1. Would bombs being detonated from 4 miles away be enough to cause hearing loss / tinnitus? My ears feel a little blocked but I still think I have some fluid retention. The actual site is 15 miles off shore but people can till hear it on the coast and I was 4 miles from that so overall I was around 19 miles away, but after everything I've been though its still very worrying.
2. Sometimes when it has been real quiet I can hear the sound of a hard drive getting stuck for a few mins but this soon disappears, but still worrying
3. What could still be making me retain so much fluid in my ears? I'm scheduled in to see my doctor but my appointment isn't til Sep 21 (soonest I could get!)
4. Why are my ears still muffled slightly? I've taken loads of hearing tests that say my ears are fine but the anxiety of this is probably making it a lot worse.
Thank you so much to anyone who actually reads through all of this and helps me to put my mind at rest.
