I Have a Question: Could This Emergency Treatment Have Done Something on Me?

Hi everyone, Genevieve here, I have a question I'd like to ask. As I said in my introduction story I had a car accident 3 months ago with airbag deployment. I didn't know before my car accident that airbag could be so dangerous for the hearing. It was a brand new car (4 months), and if I had known back then that airbag could damaged your inner ear, I think I wouldn't have dared to drive this car Before that, I had always driven old cars with no airbag and I didn't have any single problems/accident! It had to be a new car for I know the joys of the airbag The thing is (and this is my question in fact), my Tinnitus started 6 days after the accident with a very low ringing at the beginning which intensified in the following weeks. I had well " the emergency treatment" which is given in case of noise trauma, but this treatment was given to me very late (2 weeks after my accident). During my treatment (which lasted 2 weeks), my tinnitus was gone 3 times in 15 days, ( the third day, the 5th day, and the 7th day during the treatment), but each time it was a couple of hours, and each time when it happened, I was reassured either by my husband or by an ENT telling me not to worry too much that my hearing loss was low (5db right ear and 10db left) and that my T would not be permanent. So I am just wondering if it's the treatment that did something on me ( according to my man it's not the treatment) or it's the reassurance that I would be OK and would heal, any thoughts/suggestions about it?

 

I'd say it's impossible to know and there's no point in tormenting yourself wondering if this or that. Sorry, but there's just nothing helpful there.

 

Sorry but I don't get you, this forum is a support forum, we all need support and hope, sorry to say but I don't want to give up HOPE! Maybe you have succeeded to cope with your T very fast, but believe me it's not the case for everyone, and mine by the way is very recent, plus I had anxiety disorder before my T which makes the acceptation/habituation difficult for me

 

Mine came on several days after a short acoustic trauma that affected my hearing (temporarily). It's been constant 24/7 high pitched ringing ever since.

You don't mention what the treatment was but I would assume steroids. It's unlikely it made things worse. Could have helped, but probably did nothing. Sometimes the hair cells / nerves die off immediately following an acoustic event, other times they are damaged and they die off days/weeks later.

 

I guess you had cortisone as an emergency treatment? It's quite common that prednisone/cortisone suppresses tinnitus in the early stages while you take it. Often it comes back after stopping the treatment. I am pretty sure the emergency treatment didn't worsen your tinnitus but it probably also didn't help. You'll just have to wait and see if the tinnitus goes away for you. Although to be fair I need to tell you that now after almost 3 months it might be there to stay. with tinnitus you never know. good luck anyways! And if it does stay you will habituate to it. So many people before you did and they basically all felt horrible wh n it started. So you will too!

 

Airbags are the real evil here.

CAR CRASH CAUGHT ON GOPRO

 

Here's the rest of that video (scroll to 6:55):

ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT

 

Oh god, those airbags are evil. I hope his ringing stopped poor guy. it scares me that that may happen to me one day with our multiple airbags.

 

Thank you @Alue for your answer So what you are saying to me it's even if I had been treated within 24/48h it would have changed nothing regarding the hair cells? I always thought that with the emergency treatment we could recover some part of hearing loss and therefore avoid the onset oh tinnitus. I read that in a french documention from Rouen about french soldiers who recovered some of their hearing loss. Some of them had lost more than 70db and after 2 days of intensive had recovered 50 to 70% of their hearing loss. The most affected have kept their Tinnitus, the others had only temporary tinnitus, (my dream),

 

@LeQuack it's really horrible! and it reminds me my own accident I am still so angry about that, and also nobody told me ( the guys from the emergency) that I should run to see an ENT for my ears Next friday our airbags will be for good removed from our car, but frankly if I had known that about the airbags that it could damaged your inner ear and give you the evil T, I wouldn't have dared to drive our brand new car!

 

Thank you so much @seal for your kind words! And yes I had cortisone (Medrol) and also a vasodilatator (piracetam), but this treatment was given to me very late (2week after my accident) that's why I feel still so angry and despair about the onset of my Tinnitus because nobody told me the day of my accident to check my ears within 48h!

 

I don't know if this helps, but I get massages every now and then, the masseuse told me she had a car accident and had very bad tinnitus for about 6 months afterwards. I did not ask her about any hearing loss. I told her I had T for four years and then she told me about her short term T after the accident. Perhaps yous will eventually go away also.

 

Hi @noisebox, I don't know if it's possibe to remove the airbag in UK, first I thought it was not possible but in fact you can! I had always driven old car without airbags before our new car and I've never had an accident, it had to be a brand new car with the horrible airbags for I know the " joys " of the airbags! If I had known that airbags could damaged my ears, I think I wouldn't have dared to drive our car or I'm sure I would have asked to my husband to have them removed as soon as possible!

 

Waow, thank you so much @gary for your kind words and for sharing the story of your masseuse! My mood was very low today and your story really cheer me up! I know that whiplash can give you also Tinnitus, ( my neighbour had multiple whiplash), Did she tell you what kind of treatment she had back then?

 

Genevieve, glad I could help pick you up a little. She went to ENT, told him what happened he told her to just give it some time and it should go away. She did not get any treatment. Accident was pretty bad, she broke some bones and hurt her back, then the T started. It took about six months for her T to away.

 

That's for hearing loss, though. And it's difficult to tell if that hearing loss wouldn't have recovered on it's own anyways, it's hard having a control group for such things. I wonder the same thing. I saw a urgent care doctor for my ears within 48 hours but they did not prescribe prednisone, they told me I'll be okay and sent me on my way, it makes me wonder if I'd even be dealing with this had I been put on prednisone. I'll never know.

 

I got my T a few weeks after a very loud musical. I visited my dr who said wait 6 months then we will look into it.
I have slight hearing loss in the T ear and audiology said it does take time for the damage from noise to become apparent. So I believe if I had been given pred the day I reported it it would have helped me.