Loud Concert 3 Months Ago — I'm Still Having Symptoms, Burning / Itching Ear

At least he didn't tell you that it is permanent, and that it's ok to not protect your ears.

 

This is solid advice and really just the way it is.

 

Just an update for anybody that follows this thread... It is now 3.5 mos. since my acoustic trauma... I feel like my pain hyperacousis has taken a significant turn for the better. It was like over a period of a week where things seem to have turned a corner. I'm am having less burning in my ear but it still feels like an ache and slight itch. However, I am not feeling the need to put an earplug in and my quality of life has significantly improved. What have I done differently?.... I put all sound therapy on hold about 2-3 weeks ago. I've been sleeping in silence. I still plug when in environments above 80db but otherwise I do not plug. I changed my diet to eliminate all sugar about 2 weeks ago. I got 2 30 minute sessions of trigger point massage around my TMJ/ear. I continue to take fistfuls of supplements and continue to use LLLT daily.

 

Having preexisting TMD/TMJ seems to worsen pain hyperacusis.

What exactly is happening isn't known but it has something to do with the trigeminal nerve, a common theme is for new comers to believe they their TMD randomy worsened after an acoustic trauma due to not being properly diagnosed with pain hyperacusis and knowing it's dirty tricks. It's hilarously sad.

 

It sounds like you are on the right track! Be careful with loud sound, not to be caught off guard. The longer time you spend without a noise trauma or exposure to very loud sounds, the best your ears with cope with medium levels of noise. Good luck!

 

@Nathan45 You don't use your earplugs for sounds that reach below 80 dB because you don't have that much pain? Or you still have pain but at least it is bearable?

 

I generally don't have pain with any sound at this point. I've always felt my best in the mornings. So in the mornings regardless of whether it was low dB sound or high dB sound, it didn't bother me. but as the day went on I got ear fatigue. Regardless of dB i would get a burning sensation in my ear at about lunchtime that would continue until I went to bed. Low volume mechanical sounds like fans were the worst. Now I feel very little pain by the end of the day....like it's not perfect but its also not distracting like it was. The improvement in pain seemed to occur over a 2 week period of time... like it was unchanged for 3 months then over 2 weeks it improved significantly. I also had a distinct feeling of openess in my bad ear. That seems to be improving as well. I am waking up some mornings feeling 90% back to normal, by days end I still feel distinct symptoms but they are not disabling me like they were the first 3 months. It's really weird to me how it didn't seem to improve at all from 3 months then showed such sudden improvement. I really never considered myself to have TMJ problems prior or after my acoustic trauma but the massage therapist really found some sore points as she worked on me. They seem to be less tender now. As far as supplments... I'm taking a lot... Neuroplex, Neurotrophin, boswellia complex, ginko biloba from standard process, magnesium, high dosage of fish oils, a product called Affirm (for erectile dysfunction but really improves blood flow), A product called mito detox, and a product call "mind health" from Arbonne (Full disclosure, my wife is an Arbonne representative... I actually think this has been quite helpful). I also think sleeping in complete silence and trying to "rest" my ear as much as possible without complete earplugging was very helpful for my particular situation. I'm also cold lasering 2X/day at 15 minutes with an Erchonia XLR8 laser (costs $11,000 but I'm a doctor and decided it was worth the investment for me...I'm not sure what role this is playing in my recovery....but I'M RECOVERING! Praise God.)

 

This is really good to hear! I just stumbled upon you when looking up 'pain Hyperacusis', as that's what started with me happening over the past weeks. You seem to describe exactly what I'm having.

A few weeks ago it 'broke' completely, after occasional sensations of a warm ear and burning pain that went away. Then over two weeks, it slowly subsided over exposing myself more and more to normal day to day sounds. But then, a few days ago, it hit me again completely, and I need to get used to sounds again. While over the past few weeks I thought I could get over this again, that backlash led me to fear it's something I can't get over with, and things are slowly just dying in my ears. But hearing about your recovery gives hope, as it's not just something that's only deteriorating, but can improve!

Trying to figure out when to plug, and when not. The past weeks, I was plugging as little as possible, so to just tolerate all normal day to day sounds, but it now seems that was too much, given my throwback. I might have gotten too comfortable when I went to work in Amsterdam, or talking to a friend all evening. Funnily, I'm now tolerating normal sounds when walking outside, but my own voice is noticeably too much. Hoping that will improve...

 

Consider listening to your body and staying away from all of the noises that result in this burning sensation.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

I've had a similar story. Extreme loudness H for 4 weeks, which then improved. However, after a 2hour restaurant visit I had a major setback. Its been 4 months now and no signifcant improvement. If anything, a lot more pain.

I would take it easy and listen to Bill's recommendation. If it hurts, you are overdoing it.

 

Would you say that you were stressed during that restaurant visit (because you were worried about the noise level there), and that this stress is what had caused your setback?

 

What type of doctor are you?

 

That's what my ENT also asked. I had actually had a very good time. I did reflect on the noise level a bit during the 2nd hour. After 1hr I took a break in the bathroom and listened after T changes, but did not feel anything off.

However, after exiting the restaurang on a quiet street after 2hrs I could hear a new tone and realized I had made a mistake.

It was not a particularly noisy restaurant, but there was some noise and some music.

 

Personally, I had gotten serious spikes after moderate noises
(e.g., a loud phone for one second [I moved my hand with the phone away from my ear right away, but didn't think it could possibly cause any serious problems; the next day I found out that I was wrong])
that I am convinced had nothing to do with stress.

Which one do you believe it was - the stress or the sounds itself? Your case seems similar to what I had experienced (but please correct me if I am wrong about this), and I would like to find out whether others are also convinced that the main cause of these spikes that follow moderate noises is not the stress.

 

@Nathan45 I'm glad you have improvements, after some time I believe you can be fully healed. Your story is giving me some hope although I'm very severe at this point. What are "Neuroplex, Neurotrophin, boswellia complex"? Are they some sort of SSRI or some multivitamins?

And when you say "Regardless of dB I would get a burning sensation in my ear at about lunchtime that would continue until I went to bed" - this used to happen after you was exposed to any sort of sound, including the lowest volume or maybe even without hearing sounds at all?

Did you have burning pain when you weren't exposed to sounds at all?

 

I stress at work, but no spike. But after a dinner I enjoyed with friends... why would I get the worst setback ever? I had not exposed myself to that much noise for that long period since I came down with severe hyperacusis. Pretty sure its noise.

But who knows? Maybe I'm stressed and don't realize it.

 

Same here. Often I catch myself being unusually stressed out and yet my T is often quieter than the baseline during the ordeal when I am stressed out, and for many days afterwards.

 

Chiropractic... spine doctor.

 

They are supplements by a company "standard Process". Regarding the burning... it seemed no matter what by mid day until bed time my ear would burn... no matter what sound I was exposed to... I guess if I sat in a quiet room I wouldn't have the burning. I attributed my burning pain to middle ear muscle spasms... I feel i have that mostly under control with a supplement called Formula 303.

I am still left with a feeling of "openess" in my bad ear. Like a protective filter has been removed. Do you have this feeling?

 

Hi @Nathan45 -- I went to an acupuncturist shortly after tinnitus onset, and didn't notice any improvements after several sessions--so I stopped. I then started experiencing a burning/feverish and ear fullness sensations several months after onset, which also would worsen as the day progressed.

Just last Friday, I went back to the acupuncturist for a knot in my back, and he put a couple of needles by each ear (which I hadn't known he was going to do). Almost unbelievably, the feverish/burning and ear fullness sensations stopped, and I haven't noticed them since. Keeping my fingers crossed this will continue. -- All the Best!

 

That's how people get hearing damage. Your hearing adapts to the level of noise the best it can. If you are in silence and hear a very loud noise, the danger is clear. However, if you go to a restaurant and volume starts going up gradually, the middle ear muscles may tense up to let less sound in, I mean, your body reacts to accomodate and you lose the references of how much noise there is. Then, it is easier to overexpose to noise.

 

That's one of the ways people explain hyperacusis. It is like there is no filter for noise.

Try to pay attention and see if that "filter" you talk about feels removed after noise goes over a certain decibel level, or if that filter seems absent only in the presence of certain frequencies of sound. An example: if you can hear the very high voice of a woman very well, and a lower voice does not sound so loud, ironically you may have some kind of problem with high frequencies.

When we hear a sound amplified usually there is something wrong with hearing at that frequency and maybe this can explain the feeling of not having a filter for sound.

 

@Nathan45 I think I had that filter at the beginning. It seems weird but at that time after some sound I had pain which I could describe as stabbing knife. However I didn't have any burning pain inside my ears. Now I don't have that filter anymore, it's like I don't have any protection at all. The pain at the moment is really weird to describe and soon after that the burning pain can increase.

My pain problem is that even if I stay in silence my ears will hurt. I think that my ears are being triggered from touching them to anything, changing environment from cold to hot or vice versa, exercise and similar things... It has to be trigeminal nerve. I want to scan my head but it's impossible to go inside MRI as they are extremely loud...

 

@Lane I had been to acupuncture right after my tinnitus onset. However I didn't have hyperaucis at that time, maybe very mild hyperacusis but nothing serious. I didn't have any improvement on my tinnitus. But maybe it can help hyperacusis. For how long have you been pain free?

 

I still have mild pains in my inner ears on both sides, but the burning/feverish feeling I've had in my outer ears and the back side of, and auditory cortex areas of the head have stayed at bay since my last acupuncture appt. about 10 days ago. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't notice much with acupuncture shortly after tinnitus onset, but now a year later, I had this remarkable development from just one session.

 

@Lane So no improvements for tinnitus but it works for hyperacusis? Where did he put those things (I don't know the word)? On your ears or some other part of your head?

 

Those "things" are basically needles. He put them at the bottom and each side of my earlobes, about a 1/2 inch apart. Felt like they both hit the Eustachian Tube in some manner.

 

Accupuncture did not work for me. It feels good for a while, a couple of hours, but then hyperacusis is the same..

 

I just wanted to update for anybody reading this thread. I am now like 80% better. 8.5 mos. after being at the loud concert. I feel my otalgia is secondary to a protective tightening of my middle ear muscles. This seems to be easing. I can reduce it greatly when it gets bad by taking a product called Formula 303. Its a natural muscle relaxant. I am hopeful that I will continue to improve.

 

Absolutely ,little bars I walk in bands blasting,I did this lifestyle til I was 48,started realising boom,watched a band drunk that was ridiculously loud forgot plugs,in one hit tinnitus,bilateral,ear burning fullness,whistling,bells ringing pure hell,see the same people doing this each week not affected,plus I'm a guitarist,and IV had to go acoustic.