Just Got Into a Minor Car Accident — Should I Be Worried?

And when I say minor, I mean I ran into someone's tow hitch at 5 MPH, got jolted a bit, but didn't hit my head, no airbag deployment, and it didn't even bend the front fender.

But no matter what, I still feel like my anxiety's gone through the roof. After the initial adrenaline wore off I immediately noticed that I was having strange pains in my lower back, neck area, and a burning sensation in my right ear. I spoke to some friends who are MDs and both are totally unconcerned about injury and are suggesting that the sudden pains are mostly due to anxiety, and to their credit, I feel mostly normal now (2 hours later).

The problem is that my ears don't. Immediately after the crash I felt like my tinnitus had intensified somewhat, and I've begun experiencing a fairly loud hissing noise on both sides, as well as a louder ringing (compared to base line). Aside from the possibility of a permanent spike what worries me is that my ears are trying to tell me something my body can't and that I've suffered an injury that will only show up later. It's way too late in the evening to find a non-emergency doctor, is there a recommended course of action?

Thanks all.

 

If the accident were to be accompanied by a loud noise (e.g., airbags deploying), you might consider taking Prednisone. It doesn't sound like you need that in this case.

Stress and lack of sleep have an impact on the brain, and that has an impact on tinnitus. You've had an unusual amount of stress today, so it is not surprising that your tinnitus is now louder.

I would wait a month. If this spike doesn't fade in that time, then there would be a reason to worry about permanent damage. Most likely this is a temporary spikes. Normally it is not easy to get a permanent spike.

The bottom line is that there is not much you can do, but its ok, as your spike is very likely to be temporary.

 

Thank you Bill. It's not like this new hissing noise is *extremely* loud, but I can easily hear it outside and with background noise. It feels... reactive, almost? Like I could swear it sounds like some sort of loud A/C system but I've moved into silent areas and can still definitely hear it. I'll try some sleep and 1 mg Lorazepam.
I appreciate it.

 

I am glad that your tinnitus is still a hiss and not a high pitch tone (that is usually a lot harder to ignore). A hiss likely means that your original trauma wasn't as bad as the trauma of those with a high pitch tone (that can become a hiss after months of healing).

 

Yes, perhaps this is something I can be thankful for. I already had a measure of hissing and one or two ringing tones (high AND low pitch) in both ears prior to this. I guess the fact that it isn't more pure tonal tinnitus is good news.

 

I say try to just go about your day and live life - until there is a cure, we are all stuck with it - we know or at least I have been aware of this noise - from the two medical specialist I have been involved with this is a noise from inside the brain that the inner ear picks up as an audio sound - it's like sonar - some of us have better sonar alert - my sonar alert is in both sides - I may be fortunate I can still sleep at night with it. That's when it goes into the quiet mode for me. A low hiss barely above a whisper.

If this is all I have been bestowed as a medical issue, I have been very fortunate from what others are enduring in their lives.