Newbie Here

Hello.
New tinnitus sufferer here. Injured my hearing recently with firearms exposure.
Symptoms including tinny high pitch sounds in both ears along with a mid rang buzz in the right one.
Fullness in both ears like coming down from altitude and ears not popping.
I've gained some relief from a ASTI white noise machine.
My question is what earbuds/headphones are you folks using for side sleeping?
The ones that came with our IPod hurt after awhile.
Thanks and looking forward to participation on this site.

 

I'm new to all this too, but I think ambient sound is better for masking than earbuds/headphones. You can get a Bluetooth speaker that plugs into the wall and play white noise tracks from your phone or ipod.

Get in to see an ENT if you haven't already. You may want to ask about prednisone since it's still recent.

 

Thanks. I get in next week for the ENT.
Dumb phone currently but will upgrade soon.
This ringing is truly maddening.

 

Don't use earbuds or headphones, especially shortly after onset of T. In fact, give your ears some rest for the next few weeks. That means staying away from loud and loud-ish places (pubs, restaurants, train stations etc). Your ears need some recovery time. Don't listen to radio or tv, unless at lower volumes for a while.
Go to an ENT asap to determine if there's any hearing damage. Ask for a short course of Prednisone, this might help bring back some lost hearing if taken shortly after onset.
A speaker pillow might be what you're looking for atm, just google it.

 

I would not be using ear buds or headphones at all.

 

I have been listening to headphones on the lowest setting off and on, but I wonder if this is too loud even. It's the only thing that masks it besides the shower.

The only thing with overprotecting is it seems to bring out H.

 

I guess everyone is different. For me though I find that using head phones and ear buds actually causes pain in my ear canals. And I'm sure using ear buds added to my hearing problems, including tinnitus.

 

I'm just stuck right now, 1 month in and it has not changed or gotten any better, I cannot mask it except with the shower or crickets playing on headphones (on low of course) it's not a 100% mask with the crickets, but about 75%.

This super high pitch is maddening because nothing masks it.

 

Do you know the cause of your tinnitus? Mine seems to have been caused by noise-induced hearing loss over the years. (It was not due to a singular event.) This is why I am very wary of ear buds and head phones now as they played a part in my hearing loss/tinnitus.

I do understand your pain though and I wish you felt better. I know it's cold comfort to be told this (which you've probably been told before) but you're only a month into this and it often takes months for things to change for the better. Again, I know that sucks to hear because no one wants to endure months and months of tinnitus. But the good news is that many, many people find things improve and/or they habituate to a comfortable level in time. So hang in there.

 

Acoustic trauma (short burst of sound). The prognosis for tinnitus from acoustic trauma seems to be poor.

 

I also suffer from T due to a few gunshots. It was very maddening during the beginning but it will get better. Most important thing I recommend is to try your hardest not to change the way you act (except to protect the ears). Keeping busy is very important. Eventually your subconscious will begin to tune the noise out once you stop freaking out over it and you will only hear it when you go looking for it (this is known as habituation). Another example of habituation is a ticking clock, if you have one, you probably dont notice the ticks and tocks anymore but you probably did when you first got it.

 

@1recab

How did you get the acoustic trauma exaclty ? Were you wearing any type of ear protection during shooting or was it an accident
I also got damage due to firearms

 

Hi there! For a while I think you should not use headphones or earphones till your ear recover properly. Give your ear some rest. This same happens with my friend while he was using cheap earbud headphones for listening loud music and it causes minor damage to his ear. After taking doctors, medication and rest, he got completely recover and enjoying loud music again. I think you should also take rest for some days and enjoy music after recovery.

 

In my opinion you should never use headphones again even at low volume, as you are taking a risk of making your tinnitus worse.
Michael

 

Post from january guys.

 

It doesn't sound like a great idea to listen to loud music, especially if your ear has already been damaged and is probably not as strong as you'd want it to be. Your friend's been given a second chance with his hearing ; not many of us have.