D
DaddyCat
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Greetings,
It seems I've given myself 'the gift that keeps on giving.' It started not quite two weeks ago during a marathon of yard work. The day's projects started normally enough -- lawn mowing and string trimming -- but this time I followed up with an overdue task. I had several sections of old privacy fence that needed disassembling, and I set out to do it with a hammer and crowbar to separate the nailed slats from the beams.
I seriously underestimated the consequences of the accumulated stress to my unprotected ears. I finished one big section of fence, but when I came inside I was shocked to find my ears in worse condition than after any concert I'd ever attended. Ringing, pressure, that "plugged" feeling, and new to me was a static-like distortion to certain sounds.
Fortunately, the worst of those symptoms subsided within twenty-four hours, but since then I've had the persistent sounds associated with tinnitus. Sometimes it's a soft buzzing like far-off cicadas in both ears, but on bad days hissing drowns out the "insects", sounding like gas under pressure escaping a narrow pipe. Certain muscle contractions -- a hiccup, yawn, or suppressing a yawn -- produces a much louder chirping, like agitated birds or crickets, for the duration of those movements.
I'm lucky so far that my new companion noises haven't been disrupting my sleep or daily activities. I haven't seen a doctor or specialist yet, but from everything I've learned in the past two weeks I'm not looking forward to rounds of expensive tests and uninsured, ineffective "treatments." I've started a diet log and experimented with ambient sounds, and of course now I'm wearing ear plugs during any activities that could challenge what's left of my cilia.
I'm glad to find a forum where people understand the peculiar nature of this problem. No doubt I'll be doing more learning than contributing for a while, but I hope some day I can be of more help to others. Thanks for listening.
It seems I've given myself 'the gift that keeps on giving.' It started not quite two weeks ago during a marathon of yard work. The day's projects started normally enough -- lawn mowing and string trimming -- but this time I followed up with an overdue task. I had several sections of old privacy fence that needed disassembling, and I set out to do it with a hammer and crowbar to separate the nailed slats from the beams.
I seriously underestimated the consequences of the accumulated stress to my unprotected ears. I finished one big section of fence, but when I came inside I was shocked to find my ears in worse condition than after any concert I'd ever attended. Ringing, pressure, that "plugged" feeling, and new to me was a static-like distortion to certain sounds.
Fortunately, the worst of those symptoms subsided within twenty-four hours, but since then I've had the persistent sounds associated with tinnitus. Sometimes it's a soft buzzing like far-off cicadas in both ears, but on bad days hissing drowns out the "insects", sounding like gas under pressure escaping a narrow pipe. Certain muscle contractions -- a hiccup, yawn, or suppressing a yawn -- produces a much louder chirping, like agitated birds or crickets, for the duration of those movements.
I'm lucky so far that my new companion noises haven't been disrupting my sleep or daily activities. I haven't seen a doctor or specialist yet, but from everything I've learned in the past two weeks I'm not looking forward to rounds of expensive tests and uninsured, ineffective "treatments." I've started a diet log and experimented with ambient sounds, and of course now I'm wearing ear plugs during any activities that could challenge what's left of my cilia.
I'm glad to find a forum where people understand the peculiar nature of this problem. No doubt I'll be doing more learning than contributing for a while, but I hope some day I can be of more help to others. Thanks for listening.
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