Lawn Mower Spike — Prednisolone?

Hi guys,

Need some quick advice on Prednisolone.

It’s been a bumpy ride these past few months but I’m almost there.

Got tinnitus in February: 60mg Prednisolone and HBOT brought it down.

Then got a relapse in April after wearing what I now know is insufficient, cheap ear protection.

After second series of Prednisolone 32mg and HBOT tinnitus was again reduced to very low levels by May.

Reduced the risk of mowing the lawn with best quality earmuffs and plugs.

It was again insufficient... a faint morse beep has returned.

Not sure if tinnitus returning was psychological (anxiety) or due to damage through my muffs.

So I have doubts over resorting to Prednisolone for a third time in 4 months.

It helped last times and the beep is nowhere near as loud as last times. The hiss has not returned. So Prednisolone might just be enough to drawn this out completely.

But does it help if tinnitus is anxiety driven? In that case good sleep, relaxation are better. That’s everything you can’t get with Prednisolone.

Of course if I wait too long with Prednisolone I lose my window of opportunity...

What would you guys recommend?

 

In my opinion, with that amount of protection, it’s all psychological. You are giving your T a lot of power over you, and I can sense that from your post. We can cause spikes purely from our reaction to perceived threats, and it’s a very slippery slope. It can become a hard habit to break once it takes hold of our thoughts. If you resort to taking prednisone every time you hear something loud you’re going down a very dangerous path. It’s not necessary.

 

Single 60 mg ?! or a few days of 60 mg helped you?

Now I'm also thinking about prednisolone. I have a package of tablets at home.

But the problem is that I experience side effects immediately with hormones in the form of inflammation and exacerbation of prostatitis.

You do not have such sharp side effects ?!

 

Why do you want to take prednisone? It’s mainly given when one experiences a serious acoustic trauma, such as from the blast wave of an explosive, for example. Symptoms are usually muffled hearing and immediate tinnitus. There are far too many people taking prednisone on here for all the wrong reasons. You can’t condition yourself to think you need a prescription drug every time you’re exposed to a noise. During the rest of your lifetime you are going to encounter many noises; this doesn’t mean you have to take prednisone immediately following them.

Also, prednisone is ototoxic, so if you abuse it there’s every chance the drug itself could make your tinnitus worse. Again, it’s only advised to be used after a significant acoustic trauma.

 

Perhaps you are right, but fear prevails.

Spike, you understand ?! After a loud event, the noise increased and lasted for several days.
I'm afraid. So it was several times and I always eventually resorted to prednisolone.

I do not know what else to do. I take NAC and magnesium, but I do not see the effect.

Where do you get information about the ototoxicity of prednisolone ?! I hear about this for the first time, although I read a lot.

 

There are various sources. Just did a quick scan and found this which gives a comprehensive list:

http://hlaa-sbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Ototoxic_Brochure.pdf

I think the fear itself is quite possibly the cause of the spikes.

 

Yes, I found some information, but it is extremely small for some kind of conclusion.
Prednisolone just for some reason appears on the list of ototoxic drugs, and at the very end of the lists.

It's really amazing. How can this be ?!

 

Taking prednisone is not compatible, to say, taking paracetamol. It’s a pretty strong drug to take on a whim and should always be taken under medical supervision. Some people don’t know what the optimum course is and probably don’t even taper properly either.

It’s on the list because it’s known to be ototoxic. Many substances can be potentially ototoxic and a lot has to do with the delivery method and dosage. When people start experimenting it becomes more of a risk.

 

Yes. it's risk and harm. But we have no choice.
We need to choose the lesser of two evils.

How do you fight with spikes ?!
Do you get spikes from high-profile events or stresses ?!

 

I used to really badly. There was a point when I was scared to do anything in case I damaged my ears, but over time I have learned not to.

 

Hi IvanRus,

I did not take one tablet, please don’t do that. My schedules from an ENT and GP were:

3 days 64
3 days 32
3 days 16

The other:

3 days 32
3 days 16
6 days 8

I weigh 65 kilos.

I don’t like taking it.

My side effects: insomnia is terrible and after some days it triggers anxiety, panic attacks... it also makes my face feel like I have a fever and my heart like I drank 10 cups of coffee.

But it helped me get rid of that annoying feeling in my ear (although other times that same feeling went away without meds as well) and the loudness of the beep although I do have to say that HBOT did more for me in that department.

 

Thank you for taking the time for this reply.

I will follow your advice and not make myself go through the whole insomniac / anxiety period again... which also affects my ability to perform at work.

Instead I will focus on sleep and trying to focus on other things... hoping it will go away again.

Not easy but I’ll try!

Did you recover from anxiety-induced spikes without meds?

 

Ed,

This is why, when I feel relaxed and more confident, that I try not to overprotect my ears against everything.

Usually this goes well during the chore or action ... but sometimes I get scared by the end.

And yes, afterwards I get that annoying feeling in my ear, TTPS or what it’s called... and now the beep.

I know that the TTPS can be triggered by fear also, so I think your view of me is quite close to the truth at the moment.

 

I recovered from frequent anxiety spikes without any meds. I completely changed my mental outlook which is incredibly hard to do, but easier if done over time. I kept myself busy basically.

 

What is HBOT, sorry?

Did you recover from serious spikes and without medication?
On what day do you usually start taking corticosteroids if the spike does not pass?

My spike is 5 days old. Audiometry is the same. I do not understand, this limbic system has failed or that ...
Since I still quarreled before this and was nervous, and then plus to this dropped the smartphone on the iron tank with a ringing.

 

@Pero1234

It sounds like you're making great progress. Congrats. I hope you're still doing well.

 

Hi New Guy!

Thx for your kind message. Two more months and my first Tinnitus anniversary is coming up.

It has been one hell of a year... but I’m doing fine now. I sleep well (better than I have in years actually), I’m doing ok in my job and I learned a lot about this condition and my personal limits (in terms of dB and protection). I don’t panic anymore whenever I get a spike.

I owe a lot to the people on this forum... not only for their kind and patient support but for their advice and the wealth of information that can be found here. It allowed me to better understand what I was dealing with: not only tinnitus but also mild hyperacusis / phonofobia and ttts. Things for which my ENT and audiologist did not have the time or knowledge to talk me through.

I learned about hbot, side effects of prednisone and how to manage spikes.

So yes... I’m doing fine. No longer feeling depressed. I’m sticking around the forum because of the exciting work that’s being reported on in the research section. Especially FX therapeutics, Audion and Decibel therapeutics fascinate me and give me hope that one day... I might be able to enjoy my music through headphones again - on low volume of course ;-)

that would be the day!

How are you doing @New Guy ... you’re not so new anymore here either

 

@Pero1234

You'e making me jealous of your progress. I'm happy you're doing so well. It sounds like t is a non factor to you except for being leary of loud places.

You're one of the stories I remember when I was more the 'New Guy'. It really stuck out how concerned you were for your dogs. That says a lot about you.

Things have been very slowly going down in intensity, though volume is staying relatively the same. It looks like I'm at the rear of the pack regarding t.

I used a cordless drill, with double hearing protection, last week and it wreaked havoc with my ears. I didn't see that coming. I'm hoping things calm down soon.

I got t the last week of Feb, 2017 so I rounded to March. We're in this around the same amount of time.

Keep up the great posts!

 

@New Guy thanks for your kind words.

Concerning my dogs, I still have difficulty forgiving myself for exposing them to these sound levels. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking that day... I was extremely stressed, tired, passive and wanted to let off some steam I guess.

I will never know for sure if the doggo’s got any permanent damage or tinnitus... but if they do, they deal with it a lot better than we do. They still play, relax and run just like before... so that makes it possible for me to let go of that guilt (most of the time).

Now, I read your still struggling. I would like to help if I can...

Everyone has their own path, but I can share what helped me. It was quite a journey.

I will give a few details on my survival tools... see what might work for you. I may turn this post into a success story one day... we’ll see.

My tinnitus was hard enough to deal with... but it pushed me into a depression for about 4-5 months. Insomnia, shattered confidence, a gloomy outlook on life, stopping all outdoor activities (sports, social gatherings, cinema, concerts...)

Here are the things that helped me:

1) Reading about tinnitus. This personal story provided me with insight in the condition and gave me hope.

https://www.amazon.com/Rewiring-Tinnitus-Finally-Relief-Ringing/dp/1540483185/

2) Reading about depression: this amazingly written and at times funny book helped me realize that depression is a lie. It’s your brain lying to you. Amazing read and very recognizable details!

https://www.amazon.com/Reasons-Stay-Alive-Matt-Haig/dp/1782115080/

3) Protecting my ears and knowing (and accepting) my limits: laying off listening to music through headphones, getting custom molded plugs when I go out to the cinema, gym or take (loud) public transport to work and using my amazing peltors for chores around the house. (Every household should own a pair of these babies).

http://elacin.com/

https://www.amazon.com/PELTOR-Ear-Muff-Headband-X5A/dp/B00BBCTQK6

Now I’m going to order another pair of molded plugs (-30 dB instead of -15dB) so I can attend a small concert without feeling anxious.

My limit without plugs is peaks of 90-95 dB. With my plugs of 15 dB I can withstand some peaks up to 110 dB but not more. If I go beyond, I end up with a spike. So a concert is off limits with these.

3,5) taking up sports again. I’m still a lot more sensitive to noise but these plugs allowed me to take up sports again. Gyms can be loud too. Working out slowly allowed me to rebuild a bit of confidence and wellbeing.

4) Meditation. It was the amazing headspace app that made it possible to stop my anxiety attacks and deep regret... through breathing and mindfullness. The life lessons you get when using this app really help put things in perspective. I worked my way through the following packs: anxiety, regret, sadness

https://www.headspace.com/

5) Acceptance and Commitment therapy. I was lucky enough that my employer offered me an ACT course. This is a new form of cognitive behavior therapy which uses more mindfullness techniques. It was in a group and talking about my struggles really helped. I could not keep talking about it to my partner, so this was an outlet. Other people struggled with other issues but still ACT techniques are general and worked for all of them. The mindfullness approach also was a nice tie-in to the headspace experience. The happiness trap was our guidebook.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...ntroduction-acceptance-and-commitment-therapy

6) After ACT I wanted to keep doing something mindful so I signed up for Kundalini yoga at my local gym. An amazing teacher! Kundalini is weird... not only because it starts with some chanting (awkward!) but because it’s main focus is on intense breathing exercises. pumping such amounts of oxygen into my brain somehow makes me feel calmer, focused, sharp and lowers my T for one or even two days.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini_yoga?wprov=sfti1

7) and last but not least... visiting this thread at tinnitustalk regularly gave me hope. Hope that one day, we may hear silence again and get a second chance. It’s amazing work that’s being done here. In January we will get an update on the results. These guys may very well succeed in reversing hearing loss!

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...cs-—-hearing-loss-regeneration.18889/page-104

I think my post shows that the most important thing was to try and give tinnitus a place and come to terms with it (you don’t have to like it). Reading and talking about it certainly helped. Finding ways to calm my nerves and let go of resistance was a challenge for me. The mindfullness route helped me succeed.

But what was essential was keeping busy.

Keeping your mind occupied with positive things and not dwelling on what you lost. As you can see I’ve been very busy... I had to... it was a survival strategy.

Scoring small victories helped me reclaim my life to the extent that is possible. And accept what is no longer possible.

I hope you find something useful in here!

I wish you the best!