How a Really Sad Mistake Has Led to My Tinnitus

Hi All,

Of all the people having tinnitus here, I envy those whose tinnitus was a due to an external or unknown cause.

That is, because, for myself, it was caused by a self-inflicted injury, for which I take full responsibility, and even - shame.

What I did to myself have had absolutely no intention of causing harm. Healthy people may be able to cause it to themselves without knowing about the consequences.

Let me describe what had happened, so that you may be able to warn your loved, healthy ones, not to do this to themselves.

On the evening of July 25th, 2016, I found myself depressed due to a unrelated head sinusitis problem that has bothered me. Ridiculously I thought, that if I would try the Valsalva Maneuver (look it up on Google), it would clear things up. This technique, used to 'unplug ears in flights', is described as: covering your month, nostrils, perhaps also one ear, and blow out air. So I've tried it. However way-way too hard, with too much air, and too much pressure. While I did so, I have heard whistles in both of my ears. Possibly - air came out of them. That is really bad, but I did not know it then. It meant an eardrum puncture. Back then I thought "hey, that's perhaps not so bad", so I went to sleep. That night, I woke up at 2 AM with a severe headache, with both ears ringing. Took a pain relief medication and returned to bed. I innocently thought that everything is okay.

The next day there was no headache, but I've heard the Tinnitus. All day. On my right ear, it is high a pitched tone that I hear ever time I am in a quite environment. On my left ear, I hear the same tone, plus a lower pitched tone, plus more quiet random beeps in a lower tone. The only way to mask them are with sufficiently loud music, or white noise.

Yes, I'm like that guy from that Baby Driver movie now.

Days after the incident, my EMT doctor confirmed that there indeed was an eardrum puncture at the left ear which quickly healed itself. There may have been a puncture at the right ear too.

14 months after the accident, and the tinnitus did not lower in volume.

The damage to the inner ear nerve cells seems incurable.

My only hope is the following: Because the cause is known, then perhaps it is treatable somehow.

Thanks, and take care of yourselves.

 

Welcome to the forum. Let's hope that the cause of your T will heal in due time and that hopefully will lower or fade out your T. Did the ENT check your other ear? Even if T stays, people find ways to habituate to it, like in my case dealing with ultra high pitch T and severe hyperacusis. That was a few years back. I was a nightmare back then. But now I live a normal, productive and absolutely enjoyable life. There is no holding back for T. If you like to check out my success stories, the link is below. Take good care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

@Dan A

Thanks for the detailed info

So we can conclude that for the ear drum a powerful air jet , whether it comes from blowing air like you did or a bomb blast is the same in the end with similar consequences

Don't beat yourself up the majority with T due to noise trauma never realized the dangers until it was too late

 

If that's the case, we know that many of the people who survive a terrorist bomb blast, eventually have their tinnitus fade.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/
So there is still hope...

 

Thanks all,

It's encouraging to find others here like me.

@billie48, yes he checked both of them - the right one looked OK. The evidence for perforation in the left one was more apparent, so it is no coincidence that the T is stronger in the left one.

These days I think about my T only a small percentage of the time.

Luckily, I am functioning fully since the T. Offices are noisy enough for masking it out.

I only miss the silence I've had until the T. Being a quiet person, I really like silence.

Thankfully, I have emotional support for it at home.

During the first months I thought that it would fade. I'm only in my 30's, so there's more time to give it.

I hope to update with good news in the future.

 

Have you protected your ears from noise ? If not it's never going to fade

Loud music may work to mask but it's only going to create more damage to an already weakened inner ear

I had noise trauma and it took a few weeks to realize how my ears became weak to loud noise .

It's mostly fine now - however I still wear muffs when it gets loud and the noise is not required to be heard such as commute, loud city traffic or loud restaurants, as a habit just in case

My T has lowered to a faint level now and I will make sure it stays that way

 

This might fill you with some hope.

From what I've read above, your T is caused by eardrum issues causing loss of hearing leading to T. There is an operation you can have to repair your eardrum called a tympanoplasty and there is research that shows that in approximately 80 percent of cases people that have a damaged eardrum and T have their tinnitus either completely dissapear or markedly reduce following the procedure.

Hope this helps.

 

@sanj100 I will look into that, thanks. Two ENTs took a quick look at my eardrums and the results seemed fine to them. But, perhaps they did not see the whole picture? I'm guessing that perhaps middle ear bones have shifted badly during the accident.

BTW, apart from the T, I did not notice any degradation of quality or attenuation of hearing, compared to what I've had before. The T simply got added.

 

Mine is self-inflicted too but a much different method. -- Hang in there. I am researching LED light therapy and plan to build a home kit which I will try and post results..