Hi! You All Have No Less Than Saved Me and I Wanted You to Know

I'm Bill. I'm 46 and am an audio engineer. I have Asperger's Syndrome and music/audio is my freak out. I've had a lifetime of exposure to sound in the mid 80's to 90's with some shows getting much louder. Generally I'd be in earplugs for them... but still I know it weakened me. back in 2012 I got this really bad head cold and my right ear was reall badly stopped up and I tried to clear it... BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!

I popped my cochlear window, felt the fluid drain out, got an intense wave of vertigo and nausea and knew I had really screwed up bad. I was 30 db down at 12K last time they checked and I had to make them test me at 12K- the standard test only goes to 8K.

So the ENT I went to didn't know about use of Prednisone, so oh well. Too bad there. There was low level T in that ear for a while. No big deal I could ignore it and it was way up high. I still had one good ear. A month an a half ago I was carrying a bag of cat food, a large bag over my left shoulder and it made a crinkle and a POP. Instant tone around 1K that hasn't gone away. Sometimes sort of but never really.

It's not as bad in the morning- none of it is but by 8PM it's getting bad and my ears feel really tired, like the compression mechanism is going on, they hurt. The pulsile high frequency stuff in the "bad" ear is pretty loud now, and gets much louder and with a serious harmonic spectrum if I look up and things seem to be getting kind of loud so maybe starting to get into hyperacrusis, I'm sorry about the spelling Im sure I clobbered it. There are really loud days like today and yesterday was not so bad.
I'm going back to a different ENT tomorrow... The last guy just didn't even try to appear like he gave a shit or could do anything. I'm reading in here this is common. Sigh.

So. Needless to say especially considering how important music is to me some of you can imagine what this means to me. I'm not a musician, It's worse then that- I make very high end custom control monitors. I'm not saying this to be an ass but just to give you some context for the impact this is having on me; there have been #1, Platinum and Grammy winning records recorded and mixed on my monitor systems, i won't say which but records and songs most of you will have heard... and now... Well. Shit.

Anyway- That's who i am and what I do and I told you all this just so you'd know what being able to come in here and know that you understand means for me, and I have been reading and have gotten some FANTASTIC advice, everyone is humble, and it feels like a family in here. Kind of a sad family sometimes how could we not be but a family nonetheless.

My family wants to thank you all maybe even more than me because this has gotten bad enough for me that it's very hard for me to stay here right now, even given how much I love them which is indescribable but you've all helped make it bearable. If any of you find yourself in the Charlotte, NC area any of you are welcome for dinner! That isn't talk, I mean that. I'm not entirely sure I would still be here had I not found you, and I love you all.

Bill

 

30db at 12khz for a 46 years old male who was regularly exposed to Loud sounds since the 1980's is actually pretty good hearing

Don't beat yourself up we all do mistakes

 

Welcome to the forum Bill. It is heart warming to know our effort here in the forum can help the newer members. You are welcome to visit the various forums especially the success stories where you can learn many good insights how to get better. Hang in there and be positive to keep stress down.

 

Again thanks everyone! I'm here for the long haul, and am preparing to put my engineering knowledge relative to how certain things work to use here- such as a good explanation of why people with T who still need to listen to music should NO DOUBT AND AT ALL COSTS avoid headphones, even open back ones and especially in ear monitors- but under the correct circumstances can actually do less damage with larger room speakers that create much less damaging, narrowly focused harmonic distortion to produce a given sound pressure level.
Anyway cheers again and thanks for the warm welcome.

 

Interesting about headphones. What about over-ear bose sound canceling headphones at low volume (same volume as human speech)? What about using headphones for a remote conference call on skype instead of music? Still bad?

 

Rings-A-Bell, There have been several threads in here I have seen which touch on parts of it in some very constructive ways... however I am a transducer engineer and I think I may be able to make a few things more clear. For now- suffice it to say when you are listening to music or any reproduced sound, it is distortion that gives you the cue that it is getting loud. Quality headphones are able to create very clean audio that does not give you the distortion cues that you have gotten loud with them, so the volume creeps to (what are for those of us with existing damage) dangerous levels while you think it's low enough to be OK. In a room you can use an SPL meter (inexpensive on Amazon) to monitor your exposure. Thats for starters. In addition sound at reasonable levels in a room will not cause significant overpressure your tympanic system. Even open back headphones and especially in ear models absolutely will. They are creating an air seal. The open back means nothing. If the diaphragm is capable of moving air and creating sound it is in no way "venting" anything. The open back only changes the resonant tuning of the diaphragm. The design doesn't vent your ear canal. Think of the difference between a dead blow directly in versus a glancing blow where there is a place for the overpressure to go. It's a lot like driving at 60 MPH with a car window open. The air moving across the window opening excites the airmass in the cabin of the car at whatever the tuning frequency happens to be, generally infrasonic. I've done measurements and in an average sized SUV its around 18Hz. Its like a police whistle and you're the little ball of cork getting thrashed around inside. It happens at low enough frequency that you don't hear it but it makes your ears tired really quickly doesn't it? So, that is why not to wear headphones, ANY headphones if you have cochlear damage, hearing loss and Tinnitus.

 

Even if you have just the T? I've sworn by earplugs because they allow me to keep the volume reasonably low and still hear the music.

 

Its about pressure. Pressure that you arent aware of knocking over more cillia in your cochea. Anything that seals the ear canal or comes close to doing it is not going to be good. Don't go around wearing foam ear plugs all the time either for the same reason. "musician's earplugs" such as from Etymotic etc. have a porus membrane that allows air movement. i.e. pressure venting in the ear canal.