MemberI will try to keep this as short as I can and hope anybody will chime in; as I hope to contribute as much as I can. June 2014, just over a year ago, I was outdoors sighting in an AR-15 rifle (I am an avid shooter). I have always been very cautious about wearing hearing protection, never fired a shot without it. On that day, I took a break and took off my hearing protection. Shortly afterwards, I began to shoot again and fired 1 shot and realized I forgot to put on my hearing protection.....So here I am today.
The single shot caused me to have extreme ringing in both of my ears immediately. This slowly dissipated through the night and over the next several days my ringing actually seemed to stop. I continued shooting on a regular basis over the next several months, obviously wearing hearing protection, and didn't seem to have any more issues. If I did still have ringing, it was not loud enough to really notice.
Fast forward to December 2014, about 6 months later, I was out with my wife at a local bar with a live band. I have been to this place many times with a live band and this night did not seem to be any louder than usual. That night when I got home I had very noticeable ringing only in my left ear. To this day the ringing has never stopped.
I have now seen 4 ear nose and throat doctors, my primary physician, and two audiologist. 3 of the ear nose and throat Dr.'s think the single shot damaged my ears and the ringing just didn't start continuously until 6 months later. The other ear nose and throat Dr. (one who is considered the best in my area) is stumped that the ringing would start later on, if in fact, it was attributed to the gun shot.
The two audiologist I saw both observed I had hearing loss in my left ear at around 8000 MHz, which they felt was consistent with acoustic trauma. They said because I am a right handed shooter, the way my head would be tilted would somewhat shield my right ear and they would expect my left ear to take the brunt of the loud noise.
At this point my ringing has continued to get louder and stay that way. I can no longer drown it out by running fans, etc. and I'm scared how loud it will keep getting as I'm at my threshold at what I can handle. Just recently I am hypersensitive to noise and now take earplugs everywhere. I also just went to the dentist and did not think to wear earplugs and the dentist's drill made my tinnitus louder and that spike has not came back down, I did not anticipate that one.
So if anyone has anything to relate or thoughts and opinions on my situation I would love to hear. Thanks in advance for your time.
The single shot caused me to have extreme ringing in both of my ears immediately. This slowly dissipated through the night and over the next several days my ringing actually seemed to stop. I continued shooting on a regular basis over the next several months, obviously wearing hearing protection, and didn't seem to have any more issues. If I did still have ringing, it was not loud enough to really notice.
Fast forward to December 2014, about 6 months later, I was out with my wife at a local bar with a live band. I have been to this place many times with a live band and this night did not seem to be any louder than usual. That night when I got home I had very noticeable ringing only in my left ear. To this day the ringing has never stopped.
I have now seen 4 ear nose and throat doctors, my primary physician, and two audiologist. 3 of the ear nose and throat Dr.'s think the single shot damaged my ears and the ringing just didn't start continuously until 6 months later. The other ear nose and throat Dr. (one who is considered the best in my area) is stumped that the ringing would start later on, if in fact, it was attributed to the gun shot.
The two audiologist I saw both observed I had hearing loss in my left ear at around 8000 MHz, which they felt was consistent with acoustic trauma. They said because I am a right handed shooter, the way my head would be tilted would somewhat shield my right ear and they would expect my left ear to take the brunt of the loud noise.
At this point my ringing has continued to get louder and stay that way. I can no longer drown it out by running fans, etc. and I'm scared how loud it will keep getting as I'm at my threshold at what I can handle. Just recently I am hypersensitive to noise and now take earplugs everywhere. I also just went to the dentist and did not think to wear earplugs and the dentist's drill made my tinnitus louder and that spike has not came back down, I did not anticipate that one.
So if anyone has anything to relate or thoughts and opinions on my situation I would love to hear. Thanks in advance for your time.
