Table Saw Did Me In

I'm usually pretty vigilant about hearing protection. I use it every time I mow the lawn. I use double (ear plugs plus earmuffs) at the shooting range. I've tried my best over the years to protect my hearing. I am currently 38.

About a month ago I was in my neighbor's garage. I was helping him cut plywood with a table saw. Neither of us wore hearing protection. I remember thinking to myself that it was loud but not uncomfortably loud. And wondering if I should suggest we stop and get some hearing protection. But then good old denial kicked in and I thought, "It's only a dozen cuts and it's not like I do this all the time. And it's not like a gun going off."

A few days later I started waking up with the high pitched ringing in my head. The following week I went to the ENT. They did a standard hearing test, which came out normal. But that's just listening to tones in a sound booth. They suggested a prednisone taper to treat any possible inflammation. But I had a reaction to it and couldn't continue.

The worst part is the sleep. I keep waking up every hour and it takes a long time to go back to sleep.

 

Welcome to the team. Hopefully your tinnitus fades away.

 

If you're unable to take prednisone, consider taking NAC and chelated Magnesium. And do not test your hand with power tools again for a long bit, even with protection.

 

Remember that the rating on your ear muffs doesn't mean that is how much you subtract from your noise. 30dB NRR rated ear muffs or ear plugs does not mean you subtract 30dB from the sound. You take 30dB -7 and / 2. They will reduce the dB by 11.5dB, not 30. If you put a 2nd set of 32dB foam plugs in as well, you can only reduce it by another 5dB, so 30dB muffs with 32dB foam earplugs will reduce the dB of your 110dB table saw by 16.5dB. I have also read the maximum reduction is 14.5dB, but whatever, it is not what you would expect for protection.

 

Sounds like you got a delayed spike from the noise exposure. Most folks are not good at estimating how loud something is.

http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/etip43.html

In the analysis above, their tablesaw hit 104 db which is quite loud.

Getting woken up by the T is the worst, and it gets called intrusive tinnitus. Try some omega3 (approx 500 mg) daily that also can reduce the inflammation. Be vigilant about protecting from further noise exposure, and lay off the shooting range and power tools for a while until this calms down.

The things that helped me sleep were melatonin, and sleeping with earplugs, which is a little counterintuitive as it makes the T louder initially, but then quiets it down in a few minutes. You may need to try a few brands to find a comfortable pair. I figured out that I was waking up each time a car passed, and the earplugs helped a lot. Also, a good night's sleep will make the T better, and insomnia that goes on a few nights from the T gets it further out of control in a bad cycle that needs to be broken.

Feel better soon!

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I had understood the dB rating as the amount of attenuation it provides to the noise. In my experience with ham radio and signal strength, dB just represents 10x the log of the ratio. Since it's logarithmic, an attenuation of say 20dB on a signal of say 73dBm would bring it down to 53dBm. I'm not sure where the subtract 7 and divide by 2 thing is coming from. Maybe it's just that the hearing protection isn't perfect and manufacturers tend to overstate their effects.

I see a couple different suggestions on supplements to take (omega3, NAC, Magnesium). It's probably a bad idea to take all of them at once, or is it not a big deal?

 

Minus 7 divide by 2 and +5 for 2nd pair. That is the protection you get.

 

Mine started the same way Paul, just playing a game on a TV with my son and we turned it up to get the full arcade experience.. It wasn't overly loud but I hadn't slept well that night (maybe not at all) and it was eventually uncomfortable for me. My ear was ringing slightly afterwards, then recovered in the following days.. Then I did an online hearing test and probably blasted my ears a second time then in the out of range hearing zones. After that I was screwed. Waking up with a screaming brain night after night for a couple of weeks, hardly got any sleep at all, begging doctors for help etc. But I have some good news for you.. Mine is improving _slowly_ It's been 40 days so far andmy hyper sensitivty to sound is comming down. The Tinnitus is becoming less (it's still there 24/7) but it's reducing for sure. The screaming in the center of my brain is slowly moving back towards the left in the mornings (which is the actual problem). Usually by late at night it's changed to something like a fluro bulb tone but high pitched in my left ear.. In the morning it's much worse and can't be masked by anything so I gave up trying but it IS getting lower. I'm hoping it resolve in a few months. It may not.. But either way it's been a turning point in my life. I've barely had a good nights sleep in my life and really haven't looked after myself in that regard.. Never again man. And never again to headphones that aren't barely audible or loud noises. I did a week of steroids 40 mg about a week after it started (didn't help) and I've been taking magnesium. I have a few other supplements on the way like NAC and
L-theanine (because I need to be able to sleep and relax while this recovers as best it can). I'm not eating any sugar either. I am becoming more tolerant of the sound in my brain but 3 weeks ago I did describe it as sounding exactly the same as the helicopter camera in the tour or France (the choppers turbine being my tinnitus) and it's certainly not that bad anymore even with increased tolerance. Id say now that even in the mornings when it's worst it's half that.. PS I was taking melatonin which helped me sleep a lot but trying to go without it now, it means I wake up 20 times.. but whatever, I can't stay on that forever.

 

Hi foam-

It’s good to hear someone with a similar experience is slowly improving. One of my concerns is that it could get worse (or at least not improve) if I don’t do a steroid taper. I feel like I’m missing out on the benefits of it and often wonder if I should try toughing out the bad side effects. The ENT said it wasn’t worth continuing. But then again they aren’t experiencing the high pitch ringing and headaches. Every I’ve read about steroids and tinnitus is in the context of treating sudden deafness or trauma from gunshots.