Exposed to Loud Noise for a Few Seconds. When Will the Noise Go?

Hi all,

4 days ago on the 7th September I was online with some friends and we were communicating via microphones. One of my friend's soundcards bugged, which made is microphone volume shoot up really high for a sudden few seconds. It stunned my ears and made my hearing muffled and caused them to ring/hum at a relatively low pitch. In the previous few weeks I had been listening to music almost every night with these headphones, never would I say at a terribly high volume, but occasionally quite loudly. So for the next four days I experienced some problems with my hearing that I will now outline.

I'll give a brief chronology of the next 4 days:
- day 1, stayed the same as after incident
- day 2, the ringing died a little, hearing was still muffled, began to get a bit worried
- day 3, to my relief the ringing had stopped and across the course of the day I lost the muffledness. However, at the same time a very high pitched hissing (much like the sound of turning a TV on) came to the forefront, mainly concentrated in my right ear. On this day I had gone to see a nurse, at the time most of the ringing and muffledness had cleared up, so I didn't bring up the hissing and he said that my eardrums were fine and that my ears were just healing.
-day 4, the hissing remains, except its focus has changed to the left ear, only really audible at quiet times (e.g. when trying to sleep). It's not unbearable, just annoying and upsetting. It's giving me anxiety as I am continuously fearing that it won't go away (as I did with the previous ringing and muffledness).

Throughout the 4 days I have felt pressure and a little pain in and behind my ears and still do to an extent.

So my question is, will this final 'hissing' go away? I am going to see a doctor again tomorrow to bring up this hissing sound with him and see if there's any advice/supplements that he can suggest to help maximise my recovery (do you know of anything that'll help?).

I've heard stories of people having been at concerts and getting the same sort of thing, but it lasting for sometimes 3 weeks. However, I am worried that though I have not been exposed to such things as they have, and thus you'd expect me to recover in a few days, that I am nearing the end of my 'recovery' period without fully losing this hissing noise.

Is it just a case of, it will take as long as it takes, even if it didn't feel like a severe exposure to loud noise, or am I likely to be stuck with this permanently? I am quite young (turned 18 in August), does this improve chances of healing?

Past health of my ears: I had some ear infections when I was a young infant and I believe I've had some form of extremely mild tinnitus all my life: when I 'squeeze' or 'tense' my ears there is a light, low pitched 'swooshing' noise. It's not audible when my ears are in their relaxed state. At the moment this swooshing is the same as its ever been. (it's in my right ear)

So yh, I am just very worried and wish to know if anyone has any statistics or expert knowledges (or even similar life-stories) that can indicate whether I'm going to fully recover from this or not.

Thanks,

Evan MF

 

I almost want the pain and pressure to continue, because as long as it does I know it's going to get better. Just getting really worried and worked up about this. I've been obsessed with it the past 4 days.

 

Hello Evan,

I think there is a high chance you will be fine since you are gradually getting better every day, give it some more time to heal.

I doubt it is even possible to cause permanent damage to your hearing in few seconds like that. Things like gunfire can cause instant damage, but no headphones are possible to be that loud!

I agree with Markku, there are things that might help you, especially since it started just 4 days ago. Some people have experienced relief with prednisone treatment, according to wikipedia large doses of magnesium are also beneficial in recovery from noise trauma.

Please let us know how it goes!

EDIT: Oh, one more thing - I guess you'd like to know that I had similar "accidents" in the past. Some years ago I didn't notice that the volume knob in my guitar amp had shifted to maximum and once I turned it on, the LOUD feedback nearly knocked me out I remember having tinnitus for few days then but I didn't pay much attention to it and I don't even remember when did it go away. That is, until now... But I don't think my new T is related to that really.

 

Evan -
I agree with Markku's advice: Ask your doctor if you can get some prednisone for a few days.

Here's a post that should relieve you: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-having-a-similar-effect-on-nerves-as-ms.554/

which says, "The scientists found that myelin lost as a result of noise exposure regrows in time, meaning hearing can recover."

 

Thanks for the swift replies guys, I appreciate it greatly. I will certainly get some of those supplements erik, since I am easily able to and there's no harm in trying them.

However, I am a bit more apprehensive and generally unknowledged regarding what Markuu suggested: Prednisone and HBOT treatment, and mainly Prednisone: Is Prednisone easy to acquire? (is it prescribed or given across the counter?), should I be consulting my doctor, or even an audiologist whether I should take it? does it have side-effects that can make tinnitus worse? (as I have seen vaguely mentioned across the internet), depsite it being early, and therefore a good time to help fix my hearing, is it worth it in my case? where I've just got pain and high-pitched hissing?

Also, I live in the UK and am unsure how soon I will be able to see an audiologist. Referrals from doctors here can take weeks. Do you think it should be easy to see a private audiologist within the next couple days, with or without a referral? Tomorrow I will be speaking to my doctor, but I need to know what to do should I be given a referral that lasts weeks, as I would like to understand/improve my situation earlier than later.

Thanks a lot once again for your advice and support, and I will give you an update on how it's going, should it get better or worse.

 

- day 5, the intensity of the hissing has decreased, I'd say by 30-40%, which is a good sign I guess. The 'focus' of it has now switched back from the left ear to the right ear. Hopefully it's a sign of my ears healing bit by bit. Still got a bit of pressure in and around the ears, and occasionally little pin-pricks of pain, hopefully implying that it's gonna heal over the next couple days even more.

Yesterday I did all I could to aid the healing: ate lots of fruit for vitamins, incluing bananas for magnesium, I did about an hour or exercise (running, pedalling and rowing on the machines) to help get some more blood and oxygen flowing around my body, and I got a full 12 hours sleep, I was recommended to take some paracetamol by a pharmacist to help reduce pain and inflammation, which in turn ought to have aided healing. I won't be able to see the doctor today, but definitely tomorrow.

However, I guess I'll just keep this routine up and hope that it'll fully recover. Guess I'm just a bit of hypochondriac, so sorry for babbling so much.

 

Babble away...I think it's fair to say all on this forum have a raised awareness of their health issues, it's a natural reaction to something as intrusive as T.
Very glad to hear you've had some lessening of the hissing. It's good for you and it's for others to read, that it does happen. All the best to you.
DD

 

Well, it hasn't completely gone yet. Still getting in the way of sleep a bit. I saw a Doctor today. She checked my ear to find that the ear drum was in good condition and that there was no swelling or anything. I've just been told that the shock to my ears probably wasn't very damaging and that I should just wait some weeks for it to heal fully.

I'm still a bit worried though. I don't know whether to push to see an audiologist (kinda hard in the UK when you often have to get it through your GP - who hasn't got much of a case to do so for me), or just to be patient and see how it goes.

 

Ok, I'm starting to think I've got some sinus problem/allergy that's inducing this 'hissing' tinnitus. I have intense pressure 'behind' my ears, and the tinnitus gets worse if I tense my jaw. I have no idea why neither the nurse nor the doctor picked up on it though, despite me mentioning it. Maybe they assume it's part of my noise-damage recovery, whereas I'm starting to feel as though it is not entirely. Very confused at the moment.

 

I'm from the UK; my doctor was extremely understanding and referred me for an audiogram just to reassure me that my hearing was OK. He was convinced that my problem was anxiety not hearing (I wanted to believe him but really didn't, at that time). My point is, try not to assume your doctor won't refer you "because he doesn't have much of a case".

 

It's been 2 and a half weeks. I still hear a hissing noise in my ears, prevelant when it's quiet, not so much in the bustle of daytime activity, but it's still there.. and I'm beginning to think I'm going to be stuck with it.

 

So? What was of it? I would really like to know. Did your ears heal?

 

Yeah, sorry to bump the thread, I suppose I should have sent a PM.

 

My ears weren't muffled at all after a similar incident, but I did feel a spike that lasted 4 weeks maybe.

 

Had similar experience 3 days ago; recording guitar when accidentally put mic volume to full, resulting in an extremely loud high pitch noise through my headphones. Two seconds exposure. After that T started immediately.

Went to doctor; hearing ok, eardrums ok, but T remains.
After a long discussion and second visit got 10 day perscription for prednisone, but I'm hesitant to start it based on all the side effects I've heard.. Any guess on how likely this is to resolve by itself?? I feel as I'm in some sort of crossroad here....

 

If you are within the window-of-opportunity (deemed to be of the order of 48 hours after onset of tinnitus - but opinions vary), the benefits of a short course of steroids outweigh the side-effects. Probably.

 

just small update here: after a lousy night I still decided not to start predisone. I think this will resolve itself and actually at the moment I feel it's gotten lots better. I tried matching my T on http://generalfuzz.net/acrn/ , and it's somewhere in the 11k range, but even listening at extremely small volumes non of the pitches were really muffled by my T, which lead me to believe this is not that severe.

 

Take the damn prednisome as your doctor prescribed. You'll be sorry you didn't if it doesn't go away.

 

Ok I caved in and started the meds this morning I'll report if any changes happen. At the moment T level is the same. Hardly noticable until going to bed. Haven't tried masking or anything like that.