New to Tinnitus and Hyperacusis — Should I Keep Driving Commercially?

Hello all! I just want to say I’m thankful for this community, makes a huge difference knowing that there is people with similar experiences as me. Anyways, I started getting tinnitus and ear sensitivity after years of raves, concerts, shows, clubs, commercial driver's license (CDL) driving, and listening to loud music in my car and earphones. Pretty much I completely abused my ears for I would say around 9 years.

Obviously I am now paying the ultimate price for my past decisions, not only do I have tinnitus, but also hyperacusis. It all started last year in November of 2020, so around 9 months ago. I remember I had gone to a club, and my ears were just cracking and popping all night long this was accompanied with extreme ear sensitivity. I completely ignored all of it and wasn’t even wearing any earplugs, I figured I would be ok since I’v always abused my ears and things would be back to normal, but this time things didn’t go back to normal.

Fast forward to now, and I’m still having tinnitus and hyperacusis, except there was times were my ears seemed to be getting better but I forgot to wear my earplugs to a kids birthday party, and the screams spiked up my tinnitus. Anyways long story short I am now protecting my ears wherever I go and I am completely avoiding all loud places, and don’t listen to loud music.

So my questions are: does driving everyday for long period of times bad for my condition? Considering I do CDL driving, which I haven’t because of COVID-19. I am considering quitting CDL all together because the loud engines and everything about cdl driving is loud. Can I fly places without having spikes? Will bone conduction have any affects while driving/flying? Any advice would be truly appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forum. You are still having quite unstable ears from the cumulative damage of exposing to loud noises. If you can afford to take a break from driving, like a disability leave, do it. Flying with protection like EarPlanes earplugs and noise cancellation headphones should be ok. Many members including myself reported flying without issue. Take care. God bless.

 

How can I get short term disability from work? I work around forklifts.