High Pitched Ear Ringing Right Side After Being Slapped Really Hard

Hi everyone,

I'm quite scared and really not sure what to think or where to start.

5 days ago, my partner and I were playing around as we are on vacation, she accidentally flung her arm around and it slapped me in the side of the head really hard near my ear, when it happened I heard intense ringing and sudden loss of hearing, after a minute or two, the hearing came back, the ringing lessened slightly but it has remained in my right ear ever since.

I attended the emergency department and a Dr looked in my ear and said it doesn't look like there is any rupture of the ear drum at all, and just said to take it easy and follow up if there's any problems in 2 weeks when I fly home.

The ringing is always high pitched, same tone, I find if I'm outside or in a noisier environment it isn't quite as noticeable but when I wake up or try and get to sleep it's quite overwhelming and frightening to me.

I am not sure really whether this will be permanent damage or if it's something that will heal on its own, I'm also scared to fly in case that makes matters worse.

If anyone could give any advice or have any information that would be muchly appreciated.

Thank you for your help

Jason

 

Hi... welcome ...
I am sorry to view your story.
There are many discussions of face slapping in TT forums.
Please do the search by word - "slap" and
you will learn more about it.

 

Since it has been less than a week I think you need to try to remain calm. There is a good chance it will lessen over time as things heal up and swelling is reduced in where you were hit.

If you need something to help you sleep look into getting a white noise machine. Keep the volume low though, you don't want to cause more damage to your hearing.

 

Thank you for your reply, I have read through a lot of these forums and noticed there are a fair few slap causes.

 

Thank you for the reassurance, I am really hoping it goes away, I've had my fair few battles with various health issues over the years even though I'm only 31, it has lead me to having accute medical anxiety and I always end up thinking the worst.

I don't in anyway wish to disrespect those who have been suffering with tinnitus for long periods of time. It's just new to me and frightening .

Thank you and I will try and keep as positive as I can.

 

I completely understand how anxiety inducing tinnitus can be.

Try to relax because anxiety is known to make it worse though!

Give it time and I'm sure you will get better!

 

Slapping of the ears usually is a form of acoustic trauma and very often high pitched T is the result. Usually it will take some time for the unstable ears to settle down from acoustic trauma assuming you have not suffered bad hearing loss from it. If you hearing is normal and ENT clears you of bad hearing loss, then it is only a matter of time when the ears will be more stable and your T will fade to lower level or go away. Since your acoustic trauma is so new, you may want to ask for a course of prednisone from your doctor. This is often recommended by members here for new T by acoustic trauma.

As for flying, don't worry about it too much. I have flown many, many long flights after my T and didn't notice anything bad with them. Just make sure you bring some earplugs (earplane plugs) or noise-cancelling earmuffs initially, and to bring some nasal spray with you just so if your nose is plugged you can clear it for better balancing of the change of air pressure during flights. Here is a member telling us how his life is still highly enjoyable after T by flying and visiting the world. Boy, can he travel! Good luck. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...are-with-you-some-pictures-i-took-after.3268/

 

Thank you very much for all that helpful information, I think as soon as I get back home next week I will ask my Dr for a course of prednisone, I will also schedule in with an ENT specialist to test my hearing to see if there's been any loss at all also.

Thanks again it makes me feel better to know a little more about it.

 

Tinnitus could get worse after visting ENT or the hospital. Watch out.

 

ENTs generally will examine your ears for problems inside such as infection, wax build up, ear drum damage/puncture, fluid build up, ETD etc. They may do hearing test too. If they find wax build up, they may suggest wax removal by micro-suction. If so, use caution there. Some members do complain that micro-suction triggered their tinnitus. If not, ENT's damage is usually psychological when they say 'learn to live with it for the rest of your life'. When you are in great distress no knowing how to cope, such senseless statement can add much stress, anxiety, even depression to the patient. Other than fixing the problems in your ears, ENTs generally has no clue on tinnitus.

 

I've come across quite a lot of feedback like that in regards to ENTs, is an audiologist the better route to try and help me? I can't really function at the moment and I'm pretty worried as I am supposed to return to work in 7 days. I just wish it would fade at least slightly, I can't even watch a movie, relax with my partner, get to sleep properly. I feel a wreck and it's only been 7 days. Sorry to sound so negative I just have no clue what to do.

Thank you very much for your input!

 

You can see both of them. ENT can fix or rule out any damage to your ears. Audiologists can check if you have hearing loss. If your T is from hearing loss, they may recommend you to try hearing aid. If these options are too expensive, you may post about your hyperacusis in the Hyperacusis support forum and ask others what they can suggest. My personal preference is just to patiently wait out the hyperacusis while protecting yourself from loud venues but don't overprotect for normal sounds. The body will need time to heal from acoustic trauma. Don't get too worry and get anxious and stressful as this will aggravate T. Perhaps others can give you some more advice in the Hyperacusis forum.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4170455/

@Jason E Chances are that you will see improvement.

 

ENT fail at testing for hearing loss, 90% of tinnitus sufferers probably have some degree of it.
http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/#hiddenloss

 

Thanks Greg, I do truly hope so.

 

Oh ok, thank you again. I'll definitely see both, I have to fly home for 10 hours tomorrow, that's a worry but can't do much about it, hoping it doesn't cause too many problems.

 

Be careful about ents, most will not know what they are doing. Make sure you check their reputation carefully

 

@Jason E

Most likely you got damage at very high frequencies (>8KHz). @Contrast explained in this thread how many audiologists/ENsT are so bad at detecting this kind of problems. You should get an audiometry to 16KHz, and in your case it should be very simple to check for any asymmetry. DPOAS should be helpful as well. You are still at a very early stage, and it is possible that it will disappear over time. On the negative side, there is nothing can be done to help because nobody understands this condition. The more you read about it, the more you realize that this is a huge puzzle and we have only a couple of clues about it.