Hyperacusis Almost Gone — Neck Pain and Nerve Issues Remain

Hello everyone.

Almost 4 months in after my acoustic shock from my girlfriend jammed her fork into a plate and my left ear got BAD pain hyperacusis, headaches, extremely stiff and painful neck and also some weird nerve issues in hands and feet making them sensitive to certain textures but that happens not everyday. (I have read about misophonia developing with acoustic shock and I have read about texture issues with people suffering from misophonia.)

I still have very slight hyperacusis to loud sudden sounds with a high pitch but I protect when I feel I need to. Stopping using hearing protection 24/7 increased my tolerances bigtime.

I also wear a custom splint at night because I developed teeth clenching at night after the acoustic shock.

The symptoms left is neck pain and I am very stiff in my neck and shoulders (mostly left side). When I wake up I am 100% fine and relaxed but as my day progress the neck pain increases and headaches occur almost daily.

Also my hands are still sensitive and reacts to certain textures like cardboard and fabrics. They tingle and I have a light burning sensation in the fingertips so I suspect a pinched nerve in my neck or trigeminal nerve irritation from maybe TTTS that leads to hypersensitivity by central gain.

I've spoken with Neil Bauman who suspected I may have misaligned C1 and C2 in my neck so I will be seeing a neck specialist on Tuesday.

I also spoke with Myriam Westcott and she says i need to get my anxiety under control and let time do its thing.

I take some supplements like Ginkgo biloba, NAC, Magnesium, NAD+ and Curcumin.

What is my next step to combat this?

Will these symptoms away in time and can I do something proactive to better my chances for recovery?

Thanks in advance.

 

You are asking the million dollar question. No one really knows what is happening when acoustic shock creates these additional symptoms. There is an acoustic shock paper that explains many of issues you have, in theory. It is the most comprehensive model to date but still doesn’t fully answer all the questions.

Consider yourself fortunate to be overcoming the hyperacusis and continue to protect your ears when warranted. If it were me I would consider B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12 for nerve regen and health. ALA might help as well but I found it may have made my hyperacusis worse.

 

Yes I have read the report.

The hypersensitivity and light allodynia fits me pretty good.

I also read about the B vitamins earlier today and i will buy those tomorrow.

I'm pretty certain that I developed TTTS after reading about it and worrying so much. TMJ comes from the stress of all the horror stories I've read.

I hope someone can come with some positive insight.

 

Consider yourself lucky that you got a mild case and it's improving.

Protect yourself if you expose yourself to loud noises, but try to safe on your tolerance range.

You did not have a big acoustic trauma so very big chances it will heal with time.

If you have tingling in your hands, it has nothing to do with the trigeminal nerve, but with cervical spine.

 

The time feels like it passing very slowly then...

Regarding tingly hands and "burning" sensation on fingertips I'm hoping it's not this:

"Moreover, the continuous barrage of nociceptive signals coming from the TTM and the middle ear, enhanced by peripheral sensitization, may eventually cause central sensitization in the TCC. The central sensitization can further increase neural responsiveness or what is sometimes called the “central gain.” In this case, the low threshold nonnociceptive fibers can become activated by stimulation that would be normally subthreshold. This phenomenon can account for allodynia (nonnociceptive stimulation producing pain). Moreover, above and subthreshold nociceptive inputs are equally amplified leading to hyperalgesia (amplification of nociceptive information) and a spreading of the nociceptive hypersensitization to regions beyond the injury!"

From this study:
An Integrative Model Accounting for the Symptom Cluster Triggered After an Acoustic Shock

 

For the ears recovery, time is measured in months and years.

Just don't do my mistake to expose yourself, my first 3 months were mild than I used the subway (95 dB). Then got way worse and I did not recovered.

Your ears are sensitive a few months and another hit will be KO for them.

 

My chiropractor told me my right C1/C2 are misaligned. problems with my shoulder and hips misaligned. My hyperacusis is mostly on the right which is where the misalignment is. I also have muscles imbalance issues. Some muscles become shorter and some muscles are too long. I’m trying to fix these issues with stretches, adjustment and ice.

Sound exposure is the main part of the problem but neck/TMJ and bad posture played a part too.

 

Pretty hard to not expose myself because i have a newborn that screams sometimes.
He has screamed many times close to my ear (measured 100+ dB) but i try to protect from it when possible.

I don't have any pain to sound, it's more like the eardrum feels tense. Maybe it is TTTS that tenses my eardrum which causes my mild hyperacusis?

And the initial acoustic shock got my TMJ problems started (clenched bad because of the stress) that makes my neck stiff and causes the burning sensations in my fingers.

 

Have you had an x-ray confirming the misaligned C1 & C2?

 

Yep many of us have also TMJ and neck issues, including myself. I had those long time before hyperacusis.

 

I had an MRI which has been looked at by a neurologist and others who didn’t find anything. My new chiropractor is looking at the MRI this week and will give his opinion. I can feel pain at C1 & C2, so I know something is wrong, maybe compressed or misaligned.

I am sceptical of chiropractors and I previously went to a very bad one but I am a little bit more hopeful with this one.

 

I am also sceptical about them.

But I also have pain there.

Do you have burning sensation in fingers and do you get headaches?

 

I had none of these issues before my acoustic shock...

 

Headaches on my right side, where the misalignment is, and kind of tension headaches.

I think if bad posture is not corrected/addressed, more misalignment occurs and muscle imbalance. For example my right eye lid look lazy/droops a little because of the muscle imbalance, the muscle becomes too short and pulls.

Everybody now has bad posture, constantly looking down at their phone... So many people are going to have problems in later life because of this.

No burning in the fingers to report thankfully.

Yeah mine kind of occurred at the same time.

 

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I sit 14-15 hours a day at a computer. That's not good.

I don't know if the burning in fingertips is psychological or from acoustic shock.

 

That is going to destroy your body. Get up every 30 minutes for a good few stretches.

 

It already has, disc degeneration in lower back.

Oh and 2 symptoms I forgot to mention! Sometimes when I breathe through my nose it feels like cold air traveling up my Eustachian tubes into my ear. And when swallowing I hear a loud crackling sound like a paper bag in my left ear.

 

Yeap I have similar, you should work in posture and muscle balance... Seating for long periods of time is very unhealthy.

 

Exactly what happened to me. I had a milder noise injury and then played a rock show without earplugs. I haven’t been the same since. My only hope is that this condition is cured in the coming decades.

 

What are your symptoms and for how long have you had it?

 

I started Baclofen 10 mg/day and NAD+ for about 3-4 days ago.

Woke up today 100% recovered.

But as the day went on I got bad stiffness in my neck and slight pain in my left ear again.

The weird sensitivity in my hands due to some form of central sensitization is still there though.

I don't know how I can wake up completley fine and then I progress with neck pain and a "tension" in my ear to certain sounds but it gives me hope that this will go away in time.

Also it's not pain hyperacusis anymore because when my kid screams 100 dB+ close to my head, I only feel the "tense" feeling and not the burning pain anymore. (Of course I try to protect when I can but sometimes the little bastard is sneaky.)

 

I still got this stiffness and pain in neck on the same side as the problematic ear.
Also a feeling that i need to "pop" my jaw in place all the time on the same side.
I wake up feeling completely fine, then get neckpain/stiffness as the day progresses.

@Greg Sacramento, maybe you have some input on these acoustic shock symptoms?

 

Perhaps try some physical therapy. I was having some balance issues and started therapy. I let my therapist know my neck was extremely tight on the right side so they gave me a few exercises for it. Over a couple weeks I feel these exercises improved my hyperacusis sensitivity in both ears (in addition to the pain in my neck and the pulsatile tinnitus in my right ear).

As you say, you only get that tightening feeling in your ear to sound currently, not the pain. That's basically where I was (had a setback recently). I think since it was related to tensor tympani or stapedius tension and overreactivity the exercises helped. Maybe try some TMJ exercises also like the Rocabado program. I've had bruxism for quite a few years, but wearing a guard normally took care of any pain until I got tinnitus/hyperacusis (likely acoustic trauma related). After that I had lots of issues with jaw pain, possibly radiating from inflammation in the ear and causing new inflammation in the jaw area. It's worth a shot.

 

Exactly like me, now I feel that the mouth guard causes more pain. I think it's common for hyperacusis sufferers to have TMJ or/and neck issues. That ear area has a lot of big nerves and it irradiates lot.

 

Yes I have started that now.

Fun fact, my physical therapist have had acoustic shock when he did his military service years ago. He found out when I explained my symptoms.
He was like: "wtf, I had that for months!"

Anyway, can it be possible that my neck issues comes from TMJ that started after my acoustic shock?

My ear have felt just fine last couple of days but my neck is very painful, and it gets worse later during the day.

Also I have a feeling of tension in both my jaw muscles under my ears, weirdly my good ear (right) feels funny when my neck starting to hurt. The feeling is like the ear is about to pop but it doesn't.

 

I’d say it could be possible.

In my case my neck issues started long before that, but they were not really a problem for me. There were two instances I recall injuring the neck on that side.

One, I slept in a cot one night and when I woke up I had a crick in the neck on that side. It forced me to hold my head heavily to the right for an entire day before it started to resolve over the next couple days. Second, a friend and I were boxing and he gave me a right hook that made my neck bend pretty hard to that side.

In both instances though things resolved quickly and like to say it wasn’t a noticeable problem for me. Those were both in my teens/early twenties and I didn’t get all these ear problems and start having neck issues till I was 37. After I started getting the neck issues coupled with my ear problems I started to wonder if they were related though. Mainly because I realized I hold my head slightly to that side in general.

So maybe consider any old problems you had that may have led to your present ones.

 

Can the sound from a knife/fork dragging across a plate (90-100 dB maybe) be enough to damage synapses? My girlfriend just flinched yet had no issues whatsoever, but I suffered an acoustic shock...

 

Update:

Now I am being treated by De. De Ridder's clinic Brai3n in Belgium.

They have done all of the tests and found nothing wrong other than my left Eustachian tube was very narrow, same side that was exposed to the acoustic shock.

Starting neuromodulation on Monday for the anxiety and depression.

They think it's TTTS (psychological) causing the dull ache I get around sound, and that is causing the stiff neck and jaw as well because I tense all my muscles as a protection.

 

People that overcame this condition, did you have a really stiff neck as well?

Did any of you have any burning/tingling in hands/skin?

Tagging @Tom Cnyc, @Vassili, @serendipity1996, @Bill Bauer.

 

Please keep us posted.