Flying & Tinnitus

If I could go back and edit I would... I didn’t mean for my reply to sound like it was a competition... lol.
No offense.

 

And then you have some A-hole slam the overhead bin right as you walk by, and it’s like a gunshot going off in your ear... ask me how I know... :-(

 

This thread makes me feel down. You end confused after reading all the precautions. Normal people travel a lot without issues. Imagine that you take a trip for pleasure, 5, 6 or 7 days and you get a temporary spike. You spend all the time worried about your ears and can´t really enjoy.

I´m a 35 years old man in a 80 years old body.

 

To those of you who have air travelled with this condition...

I can imagine many with moderate to severe tinnitus or hyperacusis have become aerophobic. But to those that have taken that brave plunge I would be interested in knowing how it affected you if at all.

 

Planning on going to Hawaii here later this year. Concerned about loudness from plane. To others who have flown, how was it? Has anyone gotten worse from flying?

Also, has anyone noticed any changes on their tinnitus from changing time zones? Concerned that changes in sleep time/habit might affect tinnitus.

 

Buy some noise reducing earplugs 18 to 30 decibels should suffice. Take the flight and have a great time in Hawaii. Try and relax and don't worry yourself about tinnitus and loudness of the plane. Without realizing it you are working yourself up into a frenzied state and this isn't good.

Keep away from headphones, earphones and headset. Click on the links below and read my posts. Go to my started threads and read: Tinnitus and the Negative mindset, Acquiring a positive mindset. Try and read my articles a few times to help reinforce positive thinking. Engage in things you like to do and this will take your mind off worrying over the flight. You will be fine.

Take care
Michael

Tinnitus, A Personal View | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
Hyperacusis, As I See It | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

I flew a 6.5 hour flight yesterday. I wore both foam plugs and also Peltor X4A's. Even with double protection, the ride was louder than I would have liked, but my ears are completely fine after the flight (no better or worse than usual).

Also, some might ask me if it was boring just sitting there with muffs and plugs on, not watching a movie or anything. I played chess the whole time, which I found quite enjoyable

 

I developed tinnitus in 2011/12. Over the years, it went down to the point where it was hardly noticeable; only enough that I still needed some white noise to sleep. But it didn't affect me during the day.

I travelled overseas to Europe in 2017, 2018, and 2019. And on each occasion, without fail, the first night after the flight there, my tinnitus would spike terribly (not during the flight, but on the night once I arrived), and I'd have a heck of a time trying to sleep (jet lag aside).

The first time this occurred -- i.e., in 2017 -- I was panicky and thought I'd permanently worsened my tinnitus back to its original 2011/12 level. However, fortunately, the very next day, it went back to baseline and was fine the rest of the trip.

When this same phenomenon happened in 2018 and 2019, I wasn't too worried, as I knew that it would go down in volume after the first-night spike. And it did.

However, this year (in about five weeks from now) is the first time that I will be flying after having my tinnitus permanently spiked back up to its original, horrible 2011/12 volume level (due to two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, one week and six weeks ago). I really don't know what will happen this time.

It will the first trip that I have ever taken with already-loud, actively annoying tinnitus.

What will that first night bring me THIS time? Will the enjoyment of the trip help to ease the tinnitus back to its pre-COVID-19-vaccine level? Or will it persist in loudness and ruin the trip?

It's an awful predicament.