Rehearsing without Earplugs Was a Bad Idea...

Hey guys, here's my story.

On Sunday evening I attended a band rehearsal that was in a much smaller room than I was used to. The rehearsal went on for 4 hours, and due to the confinements of the room the sound produced by the band was extremely loud and concentrated. I had no earplugs with me (I usually don't need them), and went home afterwards to find both my ears ringing very loudly, with my right ear particularly muffled.

I plugged my right ear that night with cotton wool and olive oil at the advice of my dad. When I woke up, my right ear was fine, but my left ear was still buzzing. Based on how successful the wool/oil treatment seemed to be on my right ear, I tried it for the whole day and night in the left, but it didn't do anything. It's now Tuesday night and the buzzing hasn't stopped, so I did some research and here I am.

I don't know if this is going to last long or not but I haven't been feeling too positive over the whole thing, so I hope I can find some support here.

 

I can advise you to go to your family doctor and ask for some steroids to help the ear recoope quick and stay away from noise for a while, its an early call to stay away from noise unless you want Tinnitus there for good, se a ear,nose and throat doctor, im sure he csn help proceed to aliviate the ear at a early stage, but thats his call about the roids, hope you can rid of the ringing bro, i had it for 4. Yrs, noise induced...i wish i was told this an early stage!...but im stuck with my 5 for good!....dont be afraid bud.

 

That's the thing. You think you didn't need them because you've never felt this happen to you all these times you didn't wear them, but what most likely happened is you took some ear damage every time you didn't use them, and this last time is the straw that broke the camel's back.
By not getting any early symptoms you thought everything was ok and you could keep doing what you were doing before. Sometimes we get mild ringing that goes away as a "don't do that again!" kind of warning, but not always.

Sorry to hear about your predicament. As a musician, I know specific music-related challenges around T (even though, ironically, mine is completely unrelated to sound exposure).

I suggest you take it easy and rest your ears for the next few weeks/months to see how your T evolves (in case it's not clear: avoid loud sounds). Hopefully it will settle into something manageable (if not go away completely).

Good luck!

 

The thing is I'm a musician, a have been for the last 10 years. I have gigs coming up over the next few weeks that are what's bringing money to the table so I can't afford to just step away I really feel a sense of guilt and hopelessness coming on and I don't know what to do. I've a rehearsal scheduled for tonight that I can't really afford to miss and a doctors appointment tomorrow. My options aren't very broad right now.

 

Whatever you do , do not go to rehearsal tonight .
If this just started you have good chance of it going away .
Not so much if you keep hammering your ears at this critical juncture.
I would most definitely take a break from any loud noise for a few days at the very least and optimally a few weeks or a month.

Potentially if you make this much worse or permanent you will not be bringing any money to the table as a musician in the future so take this chance to recover , you will most likely not get another chance.

Sorry to be harsh but this is the truth of the matter .

 

I appreciate the honesty, I think the one thing I need at the minute is a reality check. It's just that this is the last rehearsal I have scheduled before a massive headliner concert next week which is why I'm so adamant about it. I even went out and bought an expensive set of ear plugs yesterday to minimise any more damage to myself. But you guys are the ones who know what you're talking about I guess.

 

If you can skip it , do it.

Seriously , bad T will change your perspective and value system.
Bad T , and a headliner gig seems absolutely trivial and you will wonder why you killed your ears and career for one gig. It will in retrospect hold no value at all.

The early days is where it gets determined whether this will be an ongoing problem or not , you will get one shot at this. Dont cheat yourself out of this one chance.

I absolutely understand how this works early on , its soooo easy to make mistakes that you will 1000% regret later on.
Trust me , been there and I am also a musician.

This my advice.

 

Btw: You cannot reduce bass with earplugs to any effective degree.

 

@aarontypesstuff

I have a few questions:

1) What "expensive" earplugs did you buy?

2) Suppose you go to your rehearsal tonight and wake up tomorrow with "worse" T - maybe back in the other ear, maybe noticeably louder, etc. What will you do then? Will you play the show?

3) Knowing what you know now, will you make sure foam earplugs are available to everyone who walks in the door at the show you are headlining?

 

@RaZaH - I bit the bullet and withdrew from the rehearsal. Needless to say, I'm quite upset about it but you're right, the last thing I need is for this to get worse. With regards to the gig, I haven't much of an option in trying not doing the gig but I'll see what things are like by the time it comes around. As I said I'll be going to see a doctor tomorrow to see what can be done to help.

@Aaron123 I bought Crescendo earplugs which claim to have 20db protection, the guy in the store told me they're the best ear plugs for musicians so I hope I wasn't swindled. As I said above, I've knocked the rehearsal on the head, hopefully by the time the show comes around I'll be in a better position but I'm not very optimistic from what I've read. I've already mentioned to the showrunner that I want earplugs to be a thing at the gig.

I guess all I can do now is wait. The ringing in my ear has been going non-stop since Sunday evening, literally all-day for the last 3 days. I don't know what can be done but music is literally my life, it was my college major and being a musician is how I make a living.

 

I think this is a good idea.

foam earplugs do far better than 20 dB, but aren't made for musicians. True musicians earplugs can also be fit with 25dB filters and are custom fit to your ears. They aren't over the counter and cost perhaps $150-200.

This is excellent.

 

Small price to pay for your hearing I suppose

 

Good decision ,absolutely no doubt in my mind.

You should get custom molded earplugs , they can be made in various db ranges , from 5 to 25 if i remember correctly.

Keep in mind , you are well within the window of recovery !
Just dont be taking any chances at this critical juncture.
Again, you made the right decision.

 

Get your doc to prescribe prednisone, and read up on N-acetylcysteine (often called NAC). Taken early, both substances can prevent cell death. NAC is just an antioxidant and is often available OTC (for example as Fluimucil). Prednisone is a steroid so that will probably require a script.

These are only effective early (within hours or days of exposure) so if you want to try, there is no time to waste.

 

Tomorrow will be 4 days after the initial damage, think that will be too long?

 

According to several studies I read on Pubmed, hearing damage following acoustic trauma is caused by several factors, one of them being oxidative stress. It is not instantaneous but happens over a stretch of days after exposure. NAC mitigates this by scavenging the free radicals.

So I think there is a good chance that this process is still ongoing in your ears and can still be influenced by NAC or other antioxidants (magnesium, vitamin C etc).

 

Agreed, this should be done asap.

 

Just went out to my local health store and bought a bottle of NAC capsules. Hope I'm not too late.

 

4 days , you are in good shape to counter this .

 

Sorry to keep bumping this thread but I'm trying to keep on top of this as much as I can - should there be anything else to do? Should I cover up the affected ear?

 

first off - relax. for most people it gets a lot better over time. I'm living, breathing, hearing proof.

I still have tinnitus but I had it very severe and I have a mild to moderate case on most days now (10 months later). Some days it's gone completely - albeit not often enough!

Get yourself good, CUSTOM earplugs. it makes a difference b/c you know they're inserted right. foam ones aren't better regardless of what you'll read - they have the same NRR but don't guarantee a good fit. It's the best purchase I ever made, and I'd give anything to have had them my whole life as a musician. (I too, bought them too late).

Honestly dude.... unless you're playing with a resurrected Miles Davis and John McLaughlin... I'd pass on this gig. I'm back to playing almost every day but it took over 6 months.

As to the plugs. Don't go crazy, but wear em whenever you know you should. The train. bars. long car rides. And of course, whenever you practice. even if that practice is by yourself and at low volume - the earplugs will cut off harmonics in the upper register and you'll need to train your ear a little bit before you feel comfortable in an improv situation with them in.

@aarontypesstuff

 

Update - So I went to the doctor today who told me that I shouldn't be concerned thinking what I've got is tinnitus, and that we should investigate the more common issues first. She took a look inside my ears and told me that they were blocked up and she gave me a steroid to open them up to help clear them.

I'm sitting here a few hours later not knowing what relevance blocked ears would have with a ringing in them. I told her everything that happened in a similar fashion to my post at the top of this page. She told me to take the steroid for a month and if there's no improvement to go back to her and she'll refer me to an EMT. What do you guys think of this? I don't know whether I've been shafted or not.

 

I'm not sure she knows what Tinnitus is. She seems to be associating it with its causes, as if "fixable causes" (like wax near the ear drum, or an ear infection) couldn't be responsible for T.
T is pretty simple to diagnose. You just have to answer one question: do you hear noises/sounds that nobody else around you hears? If yes, you have Tinnitus.
That doesn't mean it's chronic, unfixable and there's nothing you can do about it. It just means you have Tinnitus.

Now I'm not sure what she meant by investigating the more common issues first, but given that you are a musician who just went through an auditory insult, you would think that at the top of the list of culprits would be the acoustic trauma you described to her.

That's quite encouraging, as blocked ears are known to cause T, and that removing the blockage tends to get T to subside. This could be due to the "home remedy" you described earlier.

That doesn't sound like an unreasonable plan, but I suspect you want/need to know if you can still play with your band or not. Did you ask her?

 

I asked her what she thinks about me rehearsing and she said as long as I'm careful and using earplugs that It shouldn't be an issue.

 

Was she willing to bet her life on it ? Because you are .
Sorry for being dramatic but its incredible that she would say thats ok in the early stages of T, mind blowing in fact.

 

Hey again RaZaH. The last few days have been incredibly difficult for me to process. I do agree with you, I find it mind boggling how casually she treated the whole situation. In my own opinion I don't think it's the best idea but that's what she said.

I'm currently sat here in my living room and I don't really know what way to go about things. I'm afraid to have my TV on past a certain volume for fear of further damage. The fact that I'm now getting what seems to be bad advice off a healthcare professional is getting me down even further. I really just want to rewind the clock back to Sunday stop this from happening.

 

Having your tv on should be no problem if its not blaring away , its miles away from a full band.
Hopefully this will pass and you can hold on to the illusion that there are healthcare "professionals".
For the rest of us , that illusion faded away pretty quickly and quite frankly , I miss it a bit.

Keep in mind , I am a few years in and am super jaded at this point so , take my attitude with a grain of salt.

I know what you are going through , regret and desperately needing a time machine , we all go through this .

However , this is a catch 22 situation .
During early onset , there is a lot of turmoil and distress.
During early onset there should not be any turmoil and distress.

Its imperative to relax and not be fixated on this , its hard I know but you need to muster all your strength and wit to not just sit around obsessing about this , its crucial. If you get permanent T you will have plenty of time to mull it over.
So , dont waste your energy on negative thoughts now.

Keep busy , do stuff , watch tv , engage with people etc .

best of luck !

 

Thank you for this, I feel like I need as much optimism as I can get at this point. Because there is hope that I might escape a permanent case I just feel that my attention is naturally drawn towards it so I can do as much as possible to come back to normal. I dunno...I'm doing as much as I can with the advice I've been given here. I hope it's enough.

 

A very close friend of mine , musician as well got rid of it after two weeks , he was however freaking out the whole time, so you could try that ?

Kidding , just saying , its not like you are locked in if you think about it , just take extra good care of yourself.
Take nac , maybe a bit of magnesium and some multivitamins for good measure.
Take long baths , hit the pool, go for a run , anything and everything that helps to relax you and make you feel good.

 

People who don't suffer the consequences from their advice often have a very high threshold for risk taking.