New to Tinnitus and My Story So Far

Hi

Well here we are...

Tinnitus since 29th May 2016 after exposure to a burglar alarm that I was working on while up a ladder, and the external sounder went off, LOUD alarms 109+ DB, instead of getting out of the way I stupidly tried to shut the sounder off which left me exposed to the alarm for several minutes. oddly the noise didn't hurt but I could feel the pressure in my ears.
It has been an odd journey so far. I am only 36 and have never had any health issues, I did tend to stress a lot about stupid stuff but now all that is in perspective, At first it didn't seem to affect me, I woke up the following day and my left ear especially felt full and was ringing but I didn't think much of it, it wasn't sore and I assumed it would hopefully get better in a week or so. The fullness did ease off in a week or so, the intermittent ringing seemed to stay but I tried to forget about it, 4 weeks later the ringing was still there but my ears felt ok, things didn't "sound" right though, like all the treble had been turned up, I even went on holiday ( long hol flight 14 hours) a month later, I noticed the plane seemed to be very loud, more so than I had ever noticed before. I realise I had hypercausis but this seems to have eased off and the sound of plate clinking together don't annoy me as much now. I was concerned about my ears during the holiday but I thought a couple of weeks rest and all will be well, The flight did seem to aggravate my ears though but they did settle down again.
Once home from holiday and still the ringing was there, made worse by the flight home, since then I have become pretty much an expert on Tinnitus, Hypercausis, Acoustic trauma, acoustic shock, DB's, hearing protection and how the ears work. (really wish I knew all of this before) I did look after my ear though and wouldn't have music too loud and when out in cars with friends I would always turn the stereo down, I did go to a guns n roses concert in 2010 and didn't wear plugs, it was loud and it was amazing, I love Guns n roses, my hearing felt dull for a week after but no ringing then and it did come back in a week, always planned to use plugs if going to a concert again.
I had a hearing test and was told that my hearing was very good but did show some noise damage, not much and all the results are within range, nothing drastic but it does dip slightly on the audio gram, I am not hard of hearing, I can hear peoples speech just fine, even in a crowded environment although the sound of people laughing in a restaurant etc really seems to grab my ears, Depression set in as I realised this problem wasn't going away, I have read all the advice and stories on this site and am amazed at how some of you are all dealing with this, it has been a help for me, My T is pretty mild but is reactive so I hear it when I am outside and with background noise, When I am in silence I can hear it but it can be very faint, Its the anxiety, Stress and depression that is killing me, I seemed to be doing fine with it at the start and now I am 4 months in and its really getting on top of me, I am eating, working, going to the gym (with plugs) trying to stay normal but I know its going to change a lot of things. As many of you have said it seems like my happy life has ended and all I can see is the stress, I cant even think of the future now. I cant sleep properly and wake up a lot. I did see the doctor (useless as usual) I havnt taken any drugs to deal with this so far, I find a couple of glasses of red wine help me to relax.
Music just sounds wrong, everything still sounds wrong, music sounds garbled, I loved my music and cant even listen to it anymore. It just seems to grab at my ears now.
Tinnitus is something I have always been aware of but boy I didn't realise what it was really like.
Thoughts and fear take up my day, Panic attacks and anxiety, I am still functioning, getting my job done but its not easy.
I fear what will happen in the future, I have read a lot about how the brain works with hearing and what happens when you damage your ears, the changes that take place in the brain and its effect on memory and cognitive decline etc, This is a massive concern, I find it really hard to concentrate but I hope a lot of that is mostly down to being preoccupied with over thinking this condition.

Doctors really do not have a clue even the hearing "specialist" didn't know what hypercausis is.

I keep hoping that this is just a bad dream and I will wake up. In comparison to some of the stories I have read on here I think my problems are quite mild and things could be a lot worse.

Looking up pictures of noise damaged hair cells and imagining what mine look like is very scary, I know they are damaged but I wonder to what extent, If I can hear speech etc and the audio gram dosent dip below 20db then Im thinking it cant be that bad, but all I need to do is put some music on and I know there is a problem. I also have vertigo which I can only assume if from the damage caused to the inner ear.

So this is where I am so far, Still hoping it will magically go away but I know that will not happen.

Anyone else find that things just don't sound right after acoustic shock??

I wish you all well.

Jason.

 

Hi,

The absolute *most* important thing you need to do is to stop fighting it and just focus going about your daily activities. You cannot control tinnitus, but you can control your reaction to it!! Re-read that last sentence several times.

Science and medicine are marching forward. Like you, I am young (44) and I fully expect a remedy for this within my lifetime.

 

Thanks, I am trying hard, I just cant believe its affecting me harder 4 months in than it did in the initial months.
I say I find it hard to concentrate but when I think about it I have completed a serious amount of studying in the last 2 months about this subject and I can honestly say I have been concentrating 110% on that. I probably know more about it than most ENT Docs do.

I always thought that hearing loss meant that someone couldn't hear, I can hear fine, just things still sound a little odd but hopefully that will change as time goes on, I would never have thought that someone with a hearing problem would require ear plugs as things are too loud, Live n learn.... Unfortunately.

 

Hi Jason how did they detect damage if ur audiogram is clear. Same boat no hearing loss but exposed to a loud noise...agree I thought it would be a static noise, boy nobody can prepare u.
However am 41 and science will move on, we all need to keep on making sure tinnitus is on the radar of debilitating conditions and science will hopefully do its part. Keep on going x

 

Hi Candy, It was just the standard audiogram test, up to 8k, slight dip at 4k but tbh I don't think that test is very good, I would suggest I had low frequency loss at the beginning as I couldn't seem to hear bass but that seems to be slowly improving as my ears heal, I hope so anyway. I am still awaiting an appointment with the ENT but at this point I probably know more about it than the ENT!

Do things sound different too you? things seems to be higher pitched for me and music just sounds crap, especially at the gym as it just seems so loud now but it never bothered me before T, Used to be louder the better for me. I just use plugs at the gym if its too loud and the guys think I have some funky new wireless "airpods" lol