Slammed Heavy Sliding Patio Door → Muffled Hearing & Big Tinnitus Spike — Prednisone?

I was already suffering a big tinnitus spike after illegal fireworks (semi-commercial) in my neigbourhood a few weeks ago (Wednesday night wedding)... I was inside but close enough to the windows that it brought on a big spike.

Yesterday, a family member left the back sliding door open, when someone in the neighbourhood showed off their car, now tuned to a "popcorn" exhaust. In a panic I raced to the door and slammed it shut as hard as I could, forgetting it's slightly out of alignment which makes a horribly loud bang if not closed in a certain fashion.

Within an hour my left ear became muffled somewhat, which it still is (almost 24 hours later) when I woke up, and with an even bigger tinnitus spike I had prior to the incident. Because of the muffled (high frequencies not as prominent) hearing in the left ear, I am wondering if I should do a short-course/low dosage of steroids. I have found them beneficial in the past, but never went up to the 60 mg people tend to use... more like 20 mg or 25 mg, tapering down slowly over 4 or 5 days.

It's the debacle... do I take steroids and make things potentially better (or worse), or go without and hope that time heals (or that it's now permanent and the muffled feeling/super-jacked tinnitus never goes away).

 

Did you ever have spikes from stress, panic attacks, or insomnia?

Did your former noise-induced spikes returned to baseline?

Prednisone in your case could be okay. It could provide you with some mental relief, like "I did everything I could."

It's important not to stress and stay calm. Normally spikes go away within days, weeks or months.

A sound from slamming a door wouldn't give a normal person tinnitus, but when you already have sensitive ears and fear, I know it's difficult and a bit of a gamble. There are no guarantees. The outcome is always unpredictable. And it depends who you ask.

In Germany they prescribe Prednisone easily, in the Netherlands they don't prescribe it. Because it's not proven to work for tinnitus/hearing loss. But I think it can help some people...

 

Thanks for the reply Johan82.

In the past I have used Prednisone, I had some quiet days, and some bad days. In the end, I think I almost went back to baseline but never fully. There has been an overall negative trend in my tinnitus over the past few years it seems.

Maybe I had panic attacks and insomnia spikes when I first got this in 2004, but not really now.

As it is almost midnight here, I think I will see how things are tomorrow... I don't really notice the muffled feeling/sound anymore, so I hope this is a good thing and doesn't "reset" overnight.

 

No.

 

@frischky, I think sleeping on it is a good idea. I would not be too worried about the door slamming, but the car exhaust. Since you did shut the door after all, that is also good.

I don't know if you can get an audiogram quickly where you live, but you could also do one if you think your hearing is affected.

In my case, only the tinnitus itself seems to worsen / get louder. I can't advocate pro or against Prednisone. I took it after some incidents in the past, ~60mg Prednisone for 4 days and I didn't have better results than natural healing. Meaning my tinnitus goes back to baseline or to a slightly louder baseline than before if the noise was really loud.

Whatever you decide, I hope your tinnitus will not worsen. It is possible that your ears can heal.

 

@Gabriel5050, yeah, I did not end up taking Prednisone, but ended up with a muffled left ear again this morning after accidentally letting an old vintage computer (Commodore 64) slide off a box from a height of about half a metre onto a wooden floor (in an empty room as I am moving) last night. It was loud as hell, but didn't think it would be that bad... I woke up with terrible tinnitus, more-so on the left side and slightly muffled hearing again.

Will give it a day and see what happens. Just can't seem to get ahead it seems!