Sound Injury Induced Tinnitus

I am 44 years old and Friday, May 29 I took my family to a classic rock concert at a local civic arts auditorium. This is the first concert I have ever been to in my life. As soon as the show got underway it was quite obvious this was way too loud and beyond the advertised maximum 85 db in the theater specifications information. About a ¼ into the show my wife passed out tissue to my two kids (18 and 12) to place in their ears. She gave me some to. I stuck them in both ears, but I was unable to get a good seal on my left ear. It was loud even with the tissues.

Saturday morning I woke up with ringing in both ears. The rest of the family was fine. My son had some muted hearing, but no ringing. I was clearly having some hearing issues and went to urgent care. The doctor looked in my ears, saw nothing apparent and gave me some printed pages on tinnitus. He told me if it is still there on Monday to see a specialist. I asked for some prednisone, but he said that doesn’t help in this situation.

Sunday night the ringing in my right ear ceased, but the left ear intensified. Monday I made an appointment with the ENT and they saw me during lunch.

They had an audiologist on staff so they gave me a full hearing test. The battery of tests showed I lost some hearing in the left ear, the one that was ringing. The doctor said it was the upper frequencies and that without the ringing I probably would not notice it. He said it is just below the normal spectrum, but not too bad. The doctor explained the first line of defense is prednisone with valium for sleeping. He gave me prednisone, 60mg per day tapering down to 10 mg over two weeks in hopes that it would help the ear heal its damage. He said it may or may not work. He also gave me some valium to help sleep at night. I have an appointment a week later where he will give me another hearing test to see if anything improved. He seemed optimistic, but I don’t think anyone really knows.

Since my appointment I have noticed the Tinnitus appears to have gotten louder in my left ear. It is a very high pitched squeal. My right ear doesn’t ring at all anymore, but the left is screaming away. I tried the 2mg valium the first night, but it did not help all that much. I woke up often and felt like I had a hangover in the morning. I think Tylenol PM would have done better for me.

There is a lot of talk on the Internet from people who have damaged induced tinnitus, but I haven’t been able to wrap my head around what is going on in my ears. I understand the ringing is from damage to the micro-hairs that sense sound. I assume that when they are damaged they emit the screaming noise I am hearing. When they finally die do they stop screaming? If they are healing themselves do they scream louder or does this mean other hairs are joining the deathbed and getting worse?

I am coming to grips that my ringing might end up being permanent. If there was no damage I would feel pretty good that it would go away, but that unfortunately is not the case.

 

I don't believe that is necessarily true (there are certain clinical findings which - if met - will indicate a greater likelihood of steroids being effective e.g. a temporary threshold shift of the audiogram). Actually the first 48 hours after acoustic trauma is the so-called "window-of-opportunity" (after that, it is wait-and-see). See this post, for instance:

www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/it-was-gone.9563/#post-116204

I don't think anyone can answer that precisely. There is definitely known to be a cochlear component to tinnitus, but there is also known to be a potential centralization of tinnitus (chronic patients).

The following study explains this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18301716

Depending on your geographical location, there may clinical trials available to you (either currently, or in the near future) - examples: AM-101, AUT-63, and OTO-311.

Protect your ears whenever necessary; avoid noise; use earplugs as appropriate.

Melatonin may helpful as a sleep aid: 6mg, ½-hour before bedtime. Can be used long-term.

 

Thank you for the supportive comments. Last thing doctors hate is when you say "I read on the Internet...." I did that with the first doctor when I asked about the prednisone and he said no.

 

I hope everything will be fine. I know you are regretting for going to that concert, as I regret a lot of things I've done who compromise my ears and gave me T.
For my experience the damage only stops stops some days after the micro hair, as you call it, being exposed.
I hope you recover your silence, but if you don't don't panic.
I live with it for almost 20 years. A cure or at least a relief must be close. We must have hope.

 

And about doctors, they know this is not curable for now, so most of it just wait until the patient get tired and give up.

 

Hi @bellringer: Take heart. This just happened. This very well may resolve and you will no longer notice the tinnitus. Glad you got the prednisone ASAP.

Tinnitus is more of a brain disorder than an ear disorder. The ringing sound is being made by your own brain, as I understand, compensating for the neurological signals now missing from your damaged hair cells. But that damage may heal. Or, if it doesn't, your brain may form new pathways that will compensate for the missing signals. Remember that the vast majority of people who develop tinnitus aren't bothered by it. Those of us who come to Tinnitus Talk, seeking help, are in the minority.

Goes without saying, though... tell everyone to always protect their ears when they go to potentially loud events. Tissues are better than nothing. But you really need ear plugs.

 

> Depending on your geographical location, there may clinical trials available to you (either currently, or in the near
> future) - examples: AM-101, AUT-63, and OTO-311.

As luck would have it I am only 40 minutes from the Santa Monica trial site. I filled out the interest form. They may not be interested in me since I haven't had it long. I thank you for the recommendation of the Melatonin. I am headed to the store now.

 

The earlier the better for the am 101 actually! ! You can read up about it in the research section..

 

Yeah, they need people who've had tinnitus under 3 months.

 

Last night was interesting. I went out to Target and bought some Melatonin. I took 20mg and sure enough about an 1.5 hours later I fell asleep at about 10pm. My Tinnitus actually lowered a little and I fell asleep before I turned on the air filter next to my bed. I have to say this was the best sleep I have had since the day before the exposure.

I was awoken by a distant train horn (about two miles away) about 2:30am, but something was different. I had no ringing in my ear. It was the first time since the incident I experienced this. I went to the bathroom, came back and climbed into bed. Then the Tinnitus started back up. Really loud, both ears, and it was a lower frequency than the typical high pitched sound I have experienced. I turned the filter on and fell asleep. Total time noticing no ringing was about 5 minutes.

I then woke up again at 4:30am and no ringing again, however, after about two minutes it ramped up a bit in the left ear and stabilized. I fell asleep pretty quickly.

I woke up for good at 6:30am, and the ringing had returned. Today, the ringing is actually louder than it has ever been. While before it had always been a steady ring, it seems to have some quick, random fluctuations in intensity. It will be steady, then a quick millisecond drop, before returning to steady.

I contacted the study administrator for am-101 and they said I am good candidate. However, I need to be off prednisone for two weeks before hand. I see my ENT on Monday and I am going to talk to him about it. I want to exhaust conventional treatment before I move into experimental where I don't even know if I will get the real drug. Anyone know the placibo to live drug ratio?

 

There aren't really any conventional treatments for subjective tinnitus. Only during the very acute phase may a course of steroids be of value. After that, it is wait-and-see. When it comes to subjective tinnitus, ENTs have no other purpose than to rule out that there isn't anything sinister (e.g. underlying disease) behind your onset of tinnitus - which - in your case is clearly not the case...

The safety profile of AM-101 is good. The biggest "risk" is not getting the actual drug during the trial. I believe the drug-to-placebo ratio is 60:40. There is plenty of literature about the trial on this forum.

Attached is the clinical trial evaluation for phase-II - it should answer some of your questions.

Probably a bit much.

 

@bellringer in addition to the above phase-II clinical trial evaluation, here are two more recent papers on AM-101 (released this year).

 

Thank you for the all info about the studies. I have another week on my prednisone and then I have to wait two weeks before I could be eligible. I am going to talk to my doctor about it, because next week my prednisone dose begins substantially tapering down. I don't know if it is considered helpful for my tinnitus during that time, or if it is wean my body off of it. The prednisone is starting to make me feel kind of creaky in my bones. I don't like being on it.

Yesterday was an interesting day in that I woke up with the lower tones absent and throughout the day it was a high pitched squeal. The volume slowly ramped up as the day proceeded. It sounded more like a tweeter from a speaker than feedback from a hearing aid.

Last night I went to a school graduation that had a loud party afterwards. This time I was prepared and wore some quality industrial earplugs. These things were really obvious and I had to explain to all the family what was going on. I kept them on the entire time through the ceremony and during a loud outside DJ hosted party. The plugs did a great job muting the sound. Even with the loud music it sounded no louder than slightly above conversation level. After about 20 minutes at the party I left and hung out by myself in the parking lot. At the party I felt like I was standing on the moon with a space suit that could leak at anytime... that is my ear plugs were all that were between me and a hostile environment.

Today's tone sounds louder than yesterday, but still has that high pitched tweeter frequency. It is really strange, before the sound was lower frequency, and has been moving higher in frequency and getting louder.

 

I would not fret too much about changing tones. Unfortunately I can't say why this happens, but I also got my tinnitus from a loud concert and in the early months my T changed tones, loudness etc. It's hard for me to tell at this point if it got lower or quieter etc., but whatever it is, it has evened out to constant level and wavers little these days. I'm well habituated to what I have at present and am largely a happy camper.

It sounds like you're really doing everything right. From others I've spoken with who have acoustic trauma, it seems will probably go up and down before resolving into silence or a more steady (and probably relatively more agreeable) sound.

Take care and keep protecting yourself and getting rest. I'm glad the trial is near if you if that's something you want to give a go.

 

When I was on Prednisone initially, I had moments when my T totally disappeared. After the dosage started tapering off, I was back to square one.

My acupuncturist later said, I should have been on it continually, for at least a year. Who knows?

Sailboardman

 

What the **** is this acupuncturist saying. This is downright nonsense and dangerous.

 

Nucleo,

His opinion. He's a doctor, I'm not.

Sailboardman

 

I went to my ENT on Monday and had a hearing test. The hearing test revealed a slight improvement to my hearing in the left ear, the one with the Tinnitus. He was encouraging about the AM101 trial and basically told me he did not have anything else. I have tapered down the prednisone since last Thursday, and I took my final pill Wednesday night. After ending the prednisone the ringing has intensified and is quite loud now. I am hoping the volume tones down a bit because it is much louder than when this first got underway.

My ENT said there is nothing else he can do for me now except prescribe some drugs to help me sleep if it comes to that. He also said the prednisone was to treat the hearing loss and any benefit for the ringing was an extra bonus. He told me that in most cases the ringing will settle down or go away over the coming months, but also expressed he would not bet his life on it. Everyone is different.

I have been in touch with the clinical trial location in my area and I will be making an appointment next week for the first visit. At that point I am playing the odds if I get the drug or a placibo. I am going into it assuming the worst that I am going to get the placibo and focusing on getting the real stuff come the end of the study.

 

Sir, how are you doing these days?

 

No change. As I joke, could someone please answer the damn phone already.

 

I am now 19 days since the onset and it continues to morph. The volume ramped up and peaked Tuesday night. The last two days has been the same intensity. What makes it so annoying now is it has settled at an extremely high frequency. If the volume would just come down. I am not taking any of the valium prescribed for me as I want to participate in the AM-101 trial and I can't have any of it. Unfortunately, I tend to wake up every night about 2am and getting back to sleep is tough. Every night is a horrible nightmare.

 

There is a new sound therapy for sound induced tinnitus here at tinnitusmix.com you play it on headphones at night, we are having sucsess rates of 50% Its free just download it and repeat it all night for 3 weeks.I have been tinnitus free for 18 years because of it.

 

Recent research indicates that hearing test used at most audiology clinics and ENTs are extremely inaccurate, they only test for hearing loss within the human voice range, inner ear health is centric to how one hears in complex noise environments not just speech range, learn more here about hidden hearing loss and how it can contribute to tinnitus, noise induced pain and other complications.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/









https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507

 

i don't mind chase dude staying in his own lolcow thread but can he not shitpost and mislead people in this kind of asking for real help/advice threads

 

he revived a dead thread from 2015.