Introduction After Lurking for a Few Weeks

Hi everyone,

I finally developed a consistent ringing in my right ear after a life time of loud music and being a brass player in a loud orchestra. I'm 25 and I'm surprised I didn't develop it earlier considering how loud it can get at times.

I've always been aware of tinnitus and had some close calls with distortion/crackling in ears during loud events, but the tipping point was watching a loud movie at home (around 85 dB to 95 dB max) while also being extremely sick and the next day I noticed a consistent ringing in my right ear.

My doctor thinks it may be ETD from the cold since the ringing did not occur immediately from the loud noise. My hearing was muffled for a day but I was able to clear it in my left ear by doing the valsalva method, but I cannot pop my right ear and my nose has been consistently blocked since I got it.

But I think the most obvious reason it started is just from too much noise, I already have high frequency hearing loss at about 30-40 dB from 4 kHz to 8 kHz and the pitch I hear in my ear is in the 4 kHz range.

At first I was pretty pissed and was quite upset because I could have easily avoided it etc etc, but it's been about 7 weeks now since I noticed the ringing and it no longer bothers me as much, even just typing this message and focusing on it causes me to forget all about the ringing. I think I might have gotten lucky because my ringing is very faint and I really only hear it when I'm in my room or when I go to bed.

I've been lurking for a few weeks hoping it would go away, but it's still here so I thought I'd finally sign up.

 

I don't think anybody is ever lucky to get this affliction, but as you said at least you seem to have it low and as I understand it you now only have it in one ear.

Did the doctor give you anything to try and unblock your right ear? Have you been trying the valsalva method on this ear, too? My doctor gave me an otovent and it cleared my ear after three weeks: https://www.otovent.co.uk/buy-otovent/otovent/

 

Hi, sorry maybe being lucky was a bad word to use. I've always been aware of the risk of getting tinnitus as a musician, and I kind of consider myself lucky that so far it hasn't changed my life drastically. It's actually just made me more aware about how to help protect my ears in the future now.

I try and do the valsalva method daily, but I can only ever pop my left ear. My doctor thinks any sort of nasal spray this early is not worth it and can often make things worse, so the only real thing I can do is just wait for it to clear on its own which could take weeks to months. I'm planning to go back and get a referral to an ENT since there hasn't been any change in my nose/ear yet.

 

The onset of my tinnitus was very similar Nicolas, just a slightly loud TV, that's all it took. But there were many other factors that let it turn from what should have been a couple days of ringing into getting stuck.. Actually It was pretty much gone after 2 days. Then the internet got me worried, My life was stressful at the time, my posture bad etc, may have has an infection at the same time etc.. You have to roll a lot of dice to get tinnitus without a huge noise exposure but it happens. I feel like mine will clear up eventually if I address the whole body and unroll all those dice

 

For sure man, I've always thought Tinnitus was always noise related but reading this forum has really opened it up for me. It really is a strange problem that is so hard to talk about because it's so different for everyone.
I'm 99% mine is noise induced just due to my history and my tv was a little more than loud. 85db isn't enough to cause hearing loss apparently but it was still pretty loud.

If you're in the same boat as me and you have only gotten tinnitus recently then it's good to stay optimistic. Just keep protecting those ears and maybe it'll fade away eventually after a few months. It does happen apparently but it can just be so random at times.

 

Yeah I was playing a playstation game with my son at a level that I found uncomfortable after say 30 minutes and then I had to turn it down, I noticed a slight ringing that night and it had gone away a couple days later but then I did an only hearing test,, made it worse again and latched onto it. We just had the TV loud to be cool.. wasn't crazy loud by any stretch, not even as loud as a movie theater. But it was also a stressful time, lacking sleep, bit of a virus just all added up. I've had it the same length of time. I can't say it's getting worse, I had massive sensitivity to sound until this last week, that's now pretty much gone or at least on the way out. Spent a lot on supplements that seem to do not much.. Went crazy trying diets.. I've just decided today to stop being crazy, eat everything, build myself back up (I've lost 5 kilos I couldn't really afford to loose since getting this) let myself heal naturally best I can and then fight it again later when I'm properly ready and strong enough for it. I have time yet.. Some of my friends have told me they've had periods of tinnitus for up to 8 months before it's gone. For others they still have it but say it gets much less bothersome over time. I hope you have some good luck with it man, no one deserves this but I there are far worse things in life for all of us. Best to try stay happy regardless. Ps we have a small car and live in the country on chip seal roads. Driving on the roads here is a 85db experience I think and that amount of noise has been bothering me for years. But very little I can do about it other than buy an old rolls royce or something :0

 

Oh wow, that is quite similar to mine. I noticed my ringing the next day, but it was really on and off and it didn't become fully consistent until about a week later. I also got really crazy hyperacusis in my left ear for about a week as well. But I think that if the ringing didn't come through instantly from the tv then it shouldn't be noise induced and could be for any other kind of reasons which could be a good sign that it could heal if you were sick when you got it. This is what's keeping me optimistic about my ringing because I was extremely sick when I got mine.

 

I noticed I had a watery inner ear some days before the TV/tinnitus incident. Everyone around here had the flu at the time, I had already had it this year but seemed to get slightly sick from it again. And yeah mine took... 6? or 7 days after the TV to get INSANE, before then it was confined to an off and on ring.. not full on tinnitus. After that it's been beaming though my brain during the night every night. I also this week picked up a new morse code tone. I advise you to not plug your ears and listen to things... Because that will bring tones you were never going to hear up to the surface and become a memory.. Don't do that ever. Never ever. This is partly a health game but mostly mental . Just go to sleep, keep comfortable/warm/occupied and wait.. Sit up straight. Then lets see how we are in a few months time.

 

Sounds like a good plan man

 

You can clear your nose eating stuff that makes the nose run, like onions or garlic, or spicy food. Those nasal sprays are no good..

 

I’m in the same place as you. I’m 25 high frequency hearing loss and ringing in my right ear for about two months after a concert.

Feel free to message me and chat about this. Still dealing with the plugged ears and ringing, but the sounds still bother me. Hoping it gets better for all of us

 

Oh I've definitely tried, my nose is just in that permanent stuffy feeling you get when you have a cold. I just went and got a CT scan of my sinuses and hoping that all of this is connected somehow. I did find some success by blocking nose and blowing sort of hard, but swallowing at the same time and this got my right ear to react lightly, but that's all I can do.

 

You shouldnt do that. There can be a lot more pressure inside your ears than you think. Sometimes the vasalva manouver is not advisable.

 

Yes I kind of agree, I've always heard a lot of horror stories from people who blow too hard and rupture their ear drums. I hadn't thought about any possible pressure build up though, I might keep that in mind from now on. I do trust my doctor and he did suggest it as a way to relieve it, but it hasn't worked for my right ear. My left ear does start feeling odd every few days and the valsalva does relieve any issues I have with my left ear. But now that I've had a scan of my sinuses I'll probably hold off now until I find out what to do next

 

If the bone between your ear and brain is weak doing that can break the bone and give you pulsitile tinnitus

 

@Nicholas2255 Do you plan to continue being a musician? Do you plan to avoid noise?

 

I still don't know. I'm waiting to find out if my ringing is noise induced or if it was just due to a bad cold. I'm hopeful that it's because of ETD and a cold, two doctors and an audiologist told me tinnitus after a loud exposure should be instant, not something that develops the next day or even longer after the exposure.
So far loud noises don't seem to make the ringing any louder or worse and I've been in a few loud situations over the past 8 weeks.