Exposed to Snowblower without Hearing Protection — Tinnitus Now Very Loud and High-Pitched

A man came to help me with my driveway after a snowstorm with his snowblower and I did not protect my ears. I already have hearing loss at 50 dB at 6000 Hz. I never imagined the noise could get this loud and high pitched. I'm struggling. Back to a few hours of sleep and panic. I was finally making progress going from 2 Zopiclones to one at night and 1mg Ativan daily to .5mg. I can't cope. I called my employer and told them i can't work and don't know when I'll be going back. I was finally cutting back on the vape to quit as it was causing other health issues and now I'm back to chain vaping. Headaches and ear fullness are back. The hyperacusis is worse.

What do i do? I can't live like this anymore. I will not go back and see my doctors they tell me it's anxiety, ignore it and take antidepressants. I've been suffering with this for quite a few years now with noise from everyday living making it worse continuously, and my doctors told me motorbikes, going to the carnival, car mufflers, machinery could not make it worse unless I was on a tarmac with plane engines running or standing next to a jack hammer. I can't even be near a transport truck.

Why is this condition so misunderstood? I would kill to have my original tinnitus sound when it started when I could still sleep, fall asleep watching a movie, read a book, not hear it in the day, going to work making a living, go to the gym and going out for drinks with my friends.

You are very lucky if your tinnitus has remained stable for years without progressing into something worse. I can't imagine what profound high frequency hearing loss would sound like.

 

I guess the only thing you can do is maybe take prednisone, protect your ears and hope it goes down. Doctors are absolutely useless when it comes to this condition. Don't want to sound like a dick, but be glad that you don't have severe hyperacusis. I can't leave the house and have to sit in a soundproof box all day to stop getting worse. Vaping is ototoxic and horrible for tinnitus so I suggest you try your best to quit that as well.

This condition is misunderstood thanks to so little research done on it thanks in part to Jastreboff's idiotic theory being considered to be an absolute truth for decades. So I guess "rehabituation" and "not reacting" is the only option.

 

Hey, I do have hyperacusis and it's a bitch. I took Prednisone before and it made it worse so I stopped the treatment.

Do you have measurable hearing loss?

 

Protect your ears vigilantly for the next several months, and try to not overprotect. Only thing is to wait it out and see at this point. Avoid additional noise exposure. Need to stop the vaping as well. Hope the tinnitus improves at some point.

 

Hi @Derek26 -- I got exposed to a snowblower about a month ago, and was quite distressed by the spike it caused. I feel fortunate that after a week, it was back to baseline. I would give this recent spike of yours at least a few days to see if it will settle down. It could take a few weeks, but my best guess is it will subside somewhat over time. -- Take care!

 

@Lane, ok, it’s been two weeks and it hasn’t come down. I knew better then to continue to shovel with the snowblower so close but I didn’t want to be rude and just leave when he came to help.