Learning from a Mistake

Hello, I am on here to learn what I can about my new found loss of hearing.

Simply who I am. I am a 29yr. Old male. I am a millwright for a living. I am outdoors, automotive enthusiasts. My new found loss of hearing has caused me to join this board for learning.

Background on my case, I shot one of my firearms without ear protection. I am normally a huge advocate for ear protection. However I had done it before and as humans are "whats one more time?". Only this time I didnt know I had purchased the wrong ammo from the store clerk. Instead of .45 auto 185gr. I bought 230gr. While needless to say I found out the hard way. I knew something was wrong I had never seen my firearm throw a 12" muzzle flash.

I waited a few days got into a dr. They gave me a round of prednisone. No change went in again an they gave me a dose of antibiotics cant remember name but was new better version of penicillin. No change took another week or two got into primary care ent. They did an audio test an since I am a millwright for work I have old ones on file. The new test shows a 10 db drop at 6khz (so 20db total) and 40db total for 8khz. The ent said basically nothing they can do heres the door.

First I want to say thank you to everyone on this board this has been a huge roller coaster so far. The thoughts of hope an saying to calm down an relax have helped me get threw this last week.

I have some questions in genral maybe someone can answer.

Since I am prove it to me kind of person an they cannot see past ear drum will an mri help? The fullness in my ear is driving me bonkers I dont care about the ringing pretty sure that came an went before this do to my activities an line of work. I dont like the fact they cant see anything wrong. I want to know what was damaged exactly.

Second I live at 1200' above sea level. I go to work everyday at 50' below sea level. This seems to make things worse. Am I wrong? I wake up an say ya its okay I can deal with this. By the end of the day my ear hurts im annoyed and pissed at the world. I feel like i need to pop my ears all the time. I Try not to but its so hard an then they just pop.

O side note it is only one ear this happen to.

Well none the less thanks for the reading an hopefullness.

 

Unlike T, ear fullness usually completely resolves for the vast majority of people. But it could take 3-6 months for this to happen.

Most likely some hair cells in your inner ear got damaged.

I also live on a hill. I noticed that when I drive up my hill fast, while wearing earplugs, I get ear fullness for a couple of hours.

You might consider trying to drive as slowly as possible when your altitude is changing.

Try to resist the temptation to use the Valsalva maneuver. Several people on this forum got their T as a result of performing this maneuver. I might be one of them. I had had ear fullness following my acoustic trauma. I kept performing that maneuver. On day 10, my T turned on.

If you have to pop your ears, try to be as gentle as you can.

I hope you will find some information on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822
to be helpful.

 

What dosage prednison did you take?
Its said to be effective within 3 months, my first ENT doctor game me 30mg for 7 days at about 1,5 months in. That helped some for me. I then looked for another ENT doctor (since meeting the old ENT doctor again would take many weeks). I found one that gave me 60mg for 10 days (2.3 months in). It did nothing but give me insomnia but thats beside the point. If you got prednison in a very low dose you could go try get prednison again perhaps. Also there are risks with prednison (some people got a worsening of T) but I would consider it.
Also, HBOT could work within 3 months. If you have the funds, thats an option.
Here is a video on it:

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy For Tinnitus - 2013

 

Don't do the MRI very noisy it will only make it worse at this stage and really not needed since you know the exact cause
Protect your ears for the next few months and it will get better

 

I drive pretty slow as it is roads are not the best an last 5 miles are all gravel.

As far as hair cells go what is the medical term for these?

I had a 5 day dose of 60mg of prednisone. Never noticed a diffrence with it. I am intrested in the hyperbaric chamber. I have appt. With primary on friday an waiting to see what he says before I go to that extent.

The mri would just be peace of mind for me. I am a visual person I want to see proof other than a hearing test. A hearing test only tells you something is wrong not whats wrong.

I am having a hard time understanding this part of it. They say that the speech spectrum is 150hz - 8khz. They make hearing aids for up to roughly 8khz (although not great at that higher frequency). However the human ear hears 150hz-20khz. So the response is
" O you dont need that high of frequency". Well wait a minute who says I dont need it? Why dont I need it? Because thats what they ( doctors and scientist) say? That really makes me mad no one has any right to say you dont need it. The quality of life would improve vastly for alot of people. Why can we fix so much with the body an yet not the ear? Simply because of its size? Do they really not know what is going on an what the functions of each piece are? Im simply questioning these things as the more I look even with modern times there is no real solutions to any hearing impairment and I dont understand why a man on the moon is more important so to speak. Sorry for my rant, I have been told alot in my life it cant be done. I have shown time an time again it can. Its all time an money.

 

I think that that's the term
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_cell

I agree!...