Great Concert, Bad Results

Hello everyone,

35-year-old male from Denmark. Went to a rock concert 1½ weeks ago on a vacation travel and stood all the way at the front. Fantastic show, wouldn't have missed it, if not it was for the fact the the ringing in the ears afterwards didn't stop this time. Haven't been to a lot of loud concerts in my life (<10), but rarely used protection, and though i have used in-ear plugs for music and conversation, I'd say that my use has never been extreme or using very loud volume. So I never figured this would hit me...

After the concert our ongoing travels sort-of made me put it in the back of my mind thinking it might go over. When returning to work this Monday, I could immediately feel the hyperacusis, loss of concentration, brain overload and headache. Since then it's been a roller-coaster of emotions, as well as (subjective?) changes in symptoms. In silent places, I have a white noise, high pitched noise - like an old TV set picking up static. During the day, I sometimes forget about it, which is a fantastic feeling (of blissful ignorance, I guess).

Most of the time though, I have come to terms that this might be permanent, and in any case, my days of using earplugs and going to concerts are over. I think I can adapt, as long as the f-ing headaches and concentration issues back off a bit, so I can do my work. Sometimes though, fear strikes me that it will intensify and all dreams seems to collapse.

I have read a lot of posts here and currently try not to isolate myself and instead adapt to normal sound levels, without exhausting my brain. Of course I avoid all loud environments. I guess that is the general way to go?

I have an appointment with the GP on Monday, so I can get sent to a specialist.

Any recommendations to next steps are greatly appreciated. Everyone seems to talk of magnesium supplements; should I start taking those?

Best regards and thanks in advance.

 

It might be a bit late, but I advise you to take prednisone NOW.

 

Go to the hospital, tell them that you had acoustic trauma at this concert and your ears are ringing, they will check your hearing and probably find hearing loss and then probably give you prednisolone.

It's effective in the first 2-3 days so sadly you missed that time frame but there are also sources that say that it can also somewhat help during the first 30 days. I wouldn't wait for an appointment and just go now to the hospital, really there's no time to waste.

Also you can supplement yourself with a mix of vitamins A+C+E + Magnesium (source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950331/)

 

Local hospital not allowed to give Prednisolone without EMT orders apparantly. Trying my best to find someone who can.
Thanks - Will update later.

 

Hunted my GP (it’s Friday afternoon here in Denmark) and got him to prescribe Prednisolone 37,5 mg/day, which I just took now, along with 375 mg of magnesium, 1000ug of A, 500 mg of C and 100 mg of E-vitamin.

It’s now 8 days and 18 hours after trauma. If this works, I owe you two a present.

 

Normally they prescribe 1mg per 1kg of weight with maximum daily dose of 60mg if you don't have any other diseases or any medicines that could interfere. But it's good that you got something (i assume you have 60kg+ of weight as a male ). This mix of vitamins and magnesium should help you too based on research posted above.

We'll see, keep us updated. I hope for the best

 

Well at least 37,5 mg is better that 0 and I am a small guy of 70 kg, so that increases the relative dosage, I guess. The GP had to make the prescription over the phone, so he might have been conservative. Still have appointment with him for diagnosis on Monday, so I’ll let him know that 60 mg is what to aim for according to the internet

Joke aside - thank you so much for quick reply ; crossing fingers here and will update later. Hope to end this in the success stories forum.