Spike in Tinnitus... (Venting)

I've been wearing an ear plug in my bad ear EVERY DAY for the past 3 months whenever I leave my house. It's been the best thing I have done for myself, slowly and steadily my T has gotten quieter to the point where I don't notice it most of the time.

I was visiting friends yesterday, and tired of the gentle jokes I often get from my earplug I just wanted to be a normal person out and I thought "Well I'm in a home, it's not like I'm outside where loud sounds can happen randomly" So I took my earplug out. Stupid mistake #1

Then I was playing with my friends 3 year old, and she wanted me to pretend I was sleeping. I think you can see where this is going. Stupid mistake #2

Next thing I know she yelled directly into my bad ear while I had my eyes closed. I'm so mad at myself, after everything I've done to protect myself and I get the worst possible that can happen, in a place where I assumed I would be safe. I should have known better.

Now the next day the ringing is back loud enough that I notice it above most sounds. It's not the worst it's ever been, but it's the worst it's been in a long time. I'm also getting intermittent loud ringing that lasts 20 or 30 seconds at a time, and my ear has a dull ache in it. I'm guessing this will take a few weeks to heal back to the old levels.

I mostly need to vent, I'm not too worried in the long run but I'm angry with myself and a little depressed that I've set my progress back. After it happened I put my earplug back in and my friend says "It's not that bad is it?". It's so hard to explain to anyone who doesn't have it, and I don't want to sit there and cry about it and try to make people feel sorry for me. So what can I say? Yes it's bad, no it's not bad. It's not cancer I guess. *SIGH*

 

I'm sorry to hear your news @bur547 . Hopefully the change is just temporary. You sound like you've got a good grasp on the situation but understandably frustrated. Hope things improve quickly for you.

 

Then, I'll tell you what happened to me: I had a new acoustic trauma while I was sleeping. I dreamed that I was hearing a horrible noise and that it was making my tinnitus worse. After I woke up, I discovered that they were doing a makeover and breaking the wall with electric hammer, pickaxe and hammer. All of them, of metal in concrete.During the day, I could not stay at home because of the noise even using double hearing aids. Now the tinnitus is much louder and with new sounds added to what I already had.This is an alert for when people are asleep or anesthetized, the ear is affected the same way, but we do not have the same capacity of reaction to protect ourselves.

 

Man, after improving so much the way you had, this really hurts to read. It's incredible how fate sometimes seems to conspire against us in this way. You shouldn't blame yourself at all for this. The stars just happened to be aligned at that moment, to create these conditions. It does on the other hand warn us to remain ever vigilant, even if we have reached a better point in our healing process. If it is any kind of solace, try to remember the way you had improved or even recovered. Your body seems capable of making an appeal to your natural healing power and it will most likely do the same in the future. Take care!

 

I sympathize completely, but I also have to ask how long ago was this and have you noticed any improvement since? I'm still holding my breath over here, the loud ringing was becoming a distant memory for me until recently. It really puts into perspective how fragile our hearing is once it's been damaged and how easily it can be totally traumatized again. I'm desperately hoping I will get another chance at recovery, even just a quieting which was what I had before.

I'm seriously thinking I might ask a doctor to sow my ear shut if I recover again, because I would rather hear everything muffled forever than risk another spike in T.

 

It's about 15 days and I did not noticed any improvement. The first acoustic trauma was almost 5 years ago.

 

@bur547 ,
How are you?
Have you coped with the spike and returned to the previous level?
What did you do, how long did it take?

 

It's only been a few days, nothing has changed yet. If this process happens the same as last time I should start to hear a very low rumbling which will happen at the same time the high pitched whine starts to fade. The low rumbling is much preferred, almost sounds like earth moving machinery at a distance.