Tinnitus After Using Shop-Vac for 6 Hours without Hearing Protection

[Harley Leiber]

Two weeks ago I decided to do a deep clean of my basement. I was on hands and knees for 6-8 hours using a Shop-Vac to clean every last morsel of crud off the floor. No ear protection. The entire episode was driven by an anxiety attack over the possibility the basement might flood during a huge storm. So, I was busy driven by the memory of my basement flooding to a depth of 5 feet in 2000.

That night, 4-5 hours later I first noticed the high pitched tone in both ears. I was scared to death, searched all over the house for the source, and, finding none... I came to the conclusion I was making the sound. Or my permanently or temporarily injured inner ears. I didn't sleep all night. I sat up in a recliner. Paralyzed. Hoping it was going away. It didn't.

All it did do over the next 3 days was "stabilize" in my left ear. My right ear is now silent. My hearing is perfect.

Of course I have done multiple, anxiety driven deep dives into the condition. I saw my doctor. He referred me to an audiologist and and ENT. I go Monday at 8:30. The last two weeks have been simply miserable. Little sleep. Upset stomach. Scared.

But, I have started masking the sound and have gotten some SleepPhones to run a violet noise app with at night. Violet noise seems to be the soothing sound I come back too. I'll do anything to mask the sound and if hearing aids are indicated with sound masking, count me in. My laptops are fine as is my smartphone but the SleepPhones feel very comfortable and the sound is well balanced. With the other devices I would get masked in the bad ear and but the good ear (right) was confused. Now, it's even. I am exhausted and hope to improve sleep soon.

 

[Leila]

Hi @Harley Leiber, I'm sorry to hear about your sudden onset of tinnitus and hope you will be feeling a little better soon. I'm not sure how noisy a Shop-Vac is but the first thing that came to mind when I read that you spent 6-8 hours on your hands and knees cleaning was that maybe you held your head at an unnatural angle and that something has gotten pinched and is now causing your tinnitus.

My first tinnitus noise is because of a chiropractic move that went wrong. The original chiropractic refused to treat me after that so I had to I find another one to see if something could be fixed by another treatment. This new chiropractic told me that temporary tinnitus is a common occurrence when doing head manipulation. Maybe you have just overstretched your head and something has become misaligned because of it. If that's the case, it should resolve when whatever has been pinched will come loose again.

Have you noticed anything else that may support this theory? A headache? A stiff neck? Limited movement of the head? If so, you may rather want to talk to an orthopaedist instead of an ENT.

However, if the hoover has caused your tinnitus I can only repeat what I've heard from people who have noise induced tinnitus: protect your ears and try not to pay too much attention to your tinnitus noise because the more you focus on it the more prominent if gets. If you have trouble sleeping ask your doctor for some sleeping pills because being tired will feed your anxiety which will feed your tinnitus.

I'm not taking any special supplements but many people here use Magnesium and Ginkgo biloba extract to help with their tinnitus. Do a keyword search and ask for help / recommendations if you find a thread about supplements or anything else you may want to try, the people here are very friendly and helpful.

All the best,
Leila