Probably the Worst Thing That Can Happen!

Hi all. You may recognise my name, I used to post it last year. An incident occurred back in September 2018, where during lunch time at school, a football was kicked and it ended up hitting me square on the left ear. People who saw it tell me it was travelling quite fast, and it came from not too far away (I will add it was a total accident).

My ear did hurt after, however, I didn't actually notice a change in my hearing afterwards - no fullness feeling either. I felt quite lucky. It just hurt for a bit. No bruising or anything, but the sound of it hitting me was just loud.

I really can't be sure of this, but I think, think, and I'm only starting to worry, that the football did damage. I have been preoccupied by other health worries since September, and I've began thinking about it again and I'm just worried. Testing with 8 kHz and above online (which I do reliably, on minimum, barely audible volume with headphones, I'm pretty sure my left ear is slightly weaker on those high frequencies. I don't think there's any wax in there either, as my mum looked.

I didn't notice any tinnitus in that ear after either. I have now developed a lot of tinnitus, having suffered huge amounts of stress and anxiety regarding OCD hypochondria, which I'm receiving CBT for. However, I do now get loud ringing in the left ear, I think since about 2 months after it happened, where after long enough in silence, it rings loudly with a lower pitched whine. 99% sure this is because my right ear is weak in terms of processing sound, and my left ear works harder, or stress, or something else, but I'm not sure we can connect this to the football, otherwise, from experience, generally tinnitus would occur shortly after.

So this is where I am. The left hear can hear high frequencies, but seemingly ever so slightly worse. And I think this is since the football, because I tested frequencies about a week after and I'm pretty sure there's a change? Again, I really just didn't get any symptoms after the incident though.

Opinions. The football. Could I have walked away unscathed, or damage? Please tell me your thoughts!

Josh

 

Anyone got an opinion? It was a hard hard hit.

 

Keep going to therapy. Stress is prob playing more of a roll in your tinnitus than anything else.

All the best

 

More of an opinion on the chance of damage from the impact. Football was travelling fast because the kick was hard, would say from approx 20 to 30 metres away.

 

It is possible that you got harmed by that football. Why don't you visit an audiologist to find out whether you have experienced hearing loss?

 

Excellent. Look, it happened in September, honestly didn't experience any fullness or muffled hearing at all, I am now worrying about it 5 months on. Just, someone, tell me what you think happened. Read carefully my statement above.

 

?

 

How are we supposed to know if the football damaged your hearing or not? Only you can tell from your own experience. Maybe you had a delayed onset? Hearing damage is accumulative. Like Bill said, you may want to get your hearing tested (up to 16kHz) by a professional.

 

You are still very anxious and obsessive and you need to stop messing with your ears. This is your OCD controlling you and it’s a common problem on this forum. There is no way you can relate any experiences you have now to an event that happened 5 months ago.

Listen to the advice of your therapist/s and limit your time online otherwise you’ll never break the cycle of obsession that you’re stuck in. And stop testing your ears at home! I know you won’t listen to any of this advice, but you must try.

 

It's been nearly 6 months so I really doubt that something that happened 6 months ago is showing up now. What do you actually mean?

 

to be honest a factor that indicates no damage is that I didn't notice any symptoms after the incident. Hearing loss by a sudden impact of a football would be immediately noticeable, by a feeling of muffledness or fullness. I felt dazed but no symptoms after. Just worrying 6 months on to be honest....

It may be my sudden onset of hay fever that's causing a feeling of change I'm not sure.

But no noticeable symptoms after impact.

 

I 110% agree with Bill! Get it removed manually!!!! I had micro suction and it totally sent my tinnitus off the scale and I also got hyperacusis. A decision I truly regret. Hope your ears settles!!! X

 

So, yes, the football incident, where a ball was kicked quite hard and hit me on the left ear, happened 6 months back now. But now I'm starting to believe that maybe it didn't kill the hair cells in the inner ear but made them vulnerable and now they've become damaged. I really don't know whether I should be worried. I mean, this is unhelpful as I have exams coming. Summary is...

Football, kicked at speed, hit me straight on the left ear, no symptoms noticeable afterwards, it did push wax into my ear though but it's out now, this is September 12th 2018.

Couple weeks back I'm randomly worrying about my hearing and I've discovered that 8kHz isn't as loud in the left when testing, and I had tested shortly after the incident itself and remember noticing that. Hearing does feel kinda off, worrying about an incident where my sister accidentally dropped her fork to the plate near my left ear and I'm getting all up tight about that now because I'm thinking that it killed off the hair cells that got damaged by the ball.

Someone that isn't Bill, I would love some input or advice here, including opinions.

 

Great. Mock exams next week and depressed over left ear.

8 kHz in the left is blatantly quieter than in the right, and I'm pretty confident that this is to do with the football hitting my left ear in September.

 

Any additional opinions on the football incident?