Golfers... Desperation

Hi all,

Yesterday, I tried to get out of the house and play golf with friends. I have been wearing hearing protection too much (I can accept) and I am now unsure whether it is working.

I have worn earplugs for 2 days straight (including to sleep). When I went out to play golf I kept them in. Everything seemed loud. From the trolleys on the gravel path, to the balls being hit, to people talking in the clubhouse and talking out on the course. I persevered thinking I would be ok with the plugs in!

I have come home and taken the plugs out. My right ear feels incredible full and watery and there seems to be a new tinnitus tone as well.

Guess, I am asking, does anyone have any experience of tinnitus being worse from golf?

Scared now and thinking that I should not have left the house, or that I should have worn muffs as well!

Help and support appreciated family!

 

Wearing plugs for many hours will feel like your tinnitus is worse.
You can make your ears over sensitive to natural sounds over protecting your ears.
Love glynis

 

I've been playing golf for 37 years with tinnitus and have never heard of wearing ear plugs. Actually golf helps me too forget about my tinnitus and enjoy the day. Golfing and going to my gym for two hour workouts are my savior when it comes to blanking out the ring.

 

hi @glynis thank you for getting in touch. If over sensitive, will noise result in damage, or just more anxiety?

 

thanks @ole gray do your ears ever spike following golf? sometimes the ping of the driver seems so loud!

 

Nope I don't actually notice it however my tinnitus came from loud noise exposure during the vietnam war. I'm a rookie here and now learning all the different forms of tinnitus and what sets off the spikes. Maybe you need to look at picking up a different driver. My Cobra F6 has more of a solid thwack and not a loud pinging sound. By the way there is a great golf forum that no doubt you would enjoy that I'm a member of. Check out: mygolfspy.com and join us!

 

@spikedears ,
You need to build up time around sounds to desensitize your ears slowly.
Love glynis

 

Would you say that your home is noisy?

If you wear hearing protection a lot, it is a good idea to expose yourself to Some form of Controlled noise. I would watch video files with the volume set to the loudest level that I could easily handle for hours.

 

Wow @ole gray what sort of noises were you exposed to in Vietnam? Did you get issued any hearing protection or was it all unprotected?!

 

Hi @bob bauer my home is not unusually noisy. My house is near a road, say 20-30m from it; we have single glazing, though. I am concerned about road noise though and the vibrantion and hums from lorries which pass by. They can be heard within the house.

Other than that the noise is just the usual: microwaves, doors slamming, dog barking at postmen etc.

I think I need to take the protection out, but anxious of making noise worse or getting additional tones.

 

Sorry, @Bill Bauer - meant to tag you for the above!

 

Explosions, rife fire, etc. and nope we did not wear noise protection. You had to be able to hear if the enemy was approaching and if you plugged ya ears up, you would be in deep dodo.

 

I have T in one ear from a rifle blast. I golf a lot and I haven't noticed anything different after. Although I am lucky and my T doesn't react to noise at all...just stress. I am having a really neat silent day and thought about golfing today but it's to cold and wet. Actually I find the golf course to be one of the safest sound environments around. I did think about hitting my driver also at first and wore a high fidelity musicians ear plug at first. Dbls from a titanium driver like mine do make it past 110 right by the ball though...plus it was just a db meter app that i used to measure. Probobly not accurate.

 

I can see why you might want to have protection at this early stage when you feel like those noises are bothering you. If it gets quieter in the evening, you might want to take out the earplugs and exposed yourself to controlled noise (that you might want to gradually increase over time). You might also consider not wear earplugs to sleep. Instead, you could try using sound enrichment. It will make it easier to fall asleep by giving you something else to listen to besides your T, and it might help prevent you developing H. Sound enrichment might also prevent you from being woken up at night by passing cars.

 

Yea golfing is a huge relief for me.

 

Thanks @Bill Bauer - do you reckon it is overprotection to wear them at night and that it should be ok without the plugs?

to be honest, if I do not take them out, I will be forever wearing them!

 

thanks Jason. And do you no longer wear the plugs when hitting the driver?

maybe I am just being a bit paranoid...

 

If you feel comfortable with the ear plugs the go ahead and weat a pair of the 17 dbl filtering ones and you can hear everything like normal...but yes I hit it without them. But honestly I suck with it and hit my three wood mostly and it's quieter.

 

You should definitely be ok in your house from outside noise...but i do wear muffs for sweeping and blender.

 

I am a strong believer in listening to your body, and protecting oneself from the noises that feel to be too loud. However, wearing earplugs 24/7 can cause bacteria to grow in your ears (manifested as redness/irritation of the eardrum). Of course making H worse is another unwanted side effect. You don't want to wear earplugs 24/7. Try to minimize the time you are wearing hearing protection, subject to the constraint that you are wearing protection when there is a reasonable chance that you might be exposed to an unreasonably loud noise.

 

Over protecting your ears is not what I would do. You train your mind the wrong way and not all sounds are bad either.

 

I've tried to play golf a few times to try and relax but my T is too loud and i can't get passed a few holes before i have to leave because the ringing in my ears and buzzing in the middle of my head gets too much, my balance seems to have been affected too plus my game has gone to shit.
I can't realy lift weights anymore either every time i try my head starts buzzing louder and feels like my ears going to explode.

 

Maybe you're focusing too much on your T and not enough on golf? You can do this so keep trying and don't let the noise overcome your fun. It's not worth it! Dig deep and do it....