Tinnitus for 4 Days After Shooting a Handgun without Ear Protection

Hey guys. Earlier this week I shot my handgun without ear protection for the first few shots before I realized.

I've had normal short tinnitus before in my life from random loud noises but it always went away.

I had some hearing loss in my left ear that went away fairly quickly and the sound level of my tinnitus went down the first day, but I feel like I've made no progress since then and I'm starting to get scared. My left ear is worse than my right, but both are bad enough I can't sleep on my side anymore which has really affected my sleep.

Should I go the doctor? Is there even anything he can do?

I've just been drowning out the noise with a fan and listening to music and soothing sounds with earbuds at relatively low volume levels.

Should I not be listening to things at all? My ears also burn a bit. Am I just damaging them more and preventing them from healing? Should I just wear ear protection all the time til it heals more?

 

Stop drowning it. Hair cells are in between life and death for 2 weeks generally after trauma. You are making sure they die.

Wear some earplugs and take a course of steroids.

Take tons of antioxidants... studies show basically any help, but Magnesium, NAC, and Vitamin E are best. Some vitamin D to limit inflammation would help too as well as anything vascular like high quality Ginkgo Biloba and Betahistine. That might be able to limit the damage.

You will have worse tinnitus after steroids but it should be temporary and fade to lower than what you have now.

It's a bit late for a diuretic to prevent the hydrops trauma.

Blasting it with sound feels better but it will make it permanently worse later.

After treating it first aid wise... it may fade slowly over months. And no more earplugs after 2 to 3 weeks to limit hyperacusis which will appear but slowly get better. Watch out for occlusion when walking. Take them semi out in vehicles.

No more loud noise. At all. Double protection for anything loud.

 

OK wow, I'll definitely stop drowning it out. Should I like not even watch tv or anything for a few weeks? Or just not with headphones? I've already been making sure I keep the volume low. I can probably manage while I'm awake but I don't know how I'm going to fall asleep.

 

Zopiclone or Ativan just for the week.

I'd suggest very low noise, not none at all. Yeah, stop blaring it with the fan. That's how I got a pleasant tone doing what you did to survive.

You can listen to quiet noise like a fan on low.

You'll likely notice a huge reduction taking benzos this week. You probably should take NAC or antioxidants too.

This is all pretty important to have as many hair cells survive as you can.

After a month there's basically no point protecting anymore. Hair cell death after trauma stops there. Nerve degeneration continues for about a year.

Sleep, exercise, hydrate and no blaring loud things.

If you do steroids, be sure to keep eating some carbs for neuron survival. Use the zopiclone to sleep as steroids cause insomnia.

 

@Matchbox I’d like to learn more about this. Do you know of links to any relevant papers?

Does this paper sound relevant?

Effects of acoustic trauma on the auditory system of the rat: the role of microglia

Much thanks in advance.

 

That might be the one. It's from a ton of journals including HBO therapy ones where after a few days post exposure hearing thresholds stopped improving.

Collection of knowledge some on rats but from what I recall hair cells die for 2-4 weeks and nerves do over years from noise.

Imo the nerves are more important to live and resynapse to stop tinnitus development.

 

Here is my rule. Stop putting things in or on your ears that emit sound. Most people put it on the ear(s) then adjust the sound. One accidental blast could make it worse.

 

@Matchbox, thanks for this.

Is the conclusion from this that hearing loss (and therefore perhaps tinnitus) should actually worsen in the year following onset, rather than improving? I ask because anecdotally, it seems like members here see the opposite (i.e. improvement rather than degradation) on average in their first year. Just trying to square these two findings.

 

So today the pain is gone and the ringing in my right ear seems to be lower... maybe even fading out as it doesn't seem to be a constant ring anymore. Left ear might've went down slightly as well but it's hard to tell. I'm starting to have more hope that this is just temporary and that I'll just need to be more careful with sounds going forward. My left ear is what got it the worst so it makes sense that it's behind on getting better.

I've been wearing earplugs when doing louder things and didn't drown it out with loud fan/music. I think this is what enabled my ears to finally stop hurting. I am able to drown out the noise with very quiet things though. I realized I can use a small fan on low and it's fairly good. I've been listening to some music or watching tv still but making sure the volume is super low first. I don't think I can just stop using headphones all together, so I'll just have to get into the habit of checking volumes before I put it on.

I'm starting to realize I don't have it all that bad even if it doesn't get better though. I think many on here probably have it much worse than I do.

 

Yes in theory it gets worse as nerves die. Some resynapse. Some downregulate. Bit of a balance. What it does mean though is you are definitely vulnerable to more noise.

 

I hope it gets better for you!

 

You may want to see an ENT regarding Prednisone for acute sound trauma. He will give you a hearing test and see if there was a significant auditory shift. It needs to be taken rather quickly after an acoustic trauma in order to work. Please discuss with your doctor before taking anything.

I usually don't recommend people take Prednisone, but a hand gun going off is loud enough to cause actual damage.

 

(Day 8) Little update for those who care. I have a doctor's appointment Friday. As I knew it'd be too late before I got in I self-prescribed steroids I had left over and have been taking a bunch of vitamins/hydrating. My right ear has been near gone for a few days now. Instead of a constant ring its more like static that whooshes around or fades in and out... but I can only hear it in a completely quiet room + covering my ear. My left ear I thought was getting quieter but it was too hard too tell and I wasn't sure what part was just the pain going away. Now I am confident in saying that it is significantly reduced to the point most general quiet noises mask it. I don't know how accurate it is but I've been using a decibel app on my phone and my room hovers around 40-50 dB and the ringing is completely masked.

Weirdest thing is that my family hasn't really seemed all that supportive and acting like I've been making a big deal out of nothing. So that didn't help with the stress which I know isn't a good thing but I'm still ok. I also read up that NSAIDs can worsen tinnitus, so I've made sure to not take anymore of those. I have a Meloxicam prescription that I take as needed. It just so happened I needed it the night before my incident so that was in my system for a while which probably did'nt help things.

This might be turning into a success story.

 

If you are young, it will go away. Damage to hearing is cumulative.

 

So apparently I ruptured my left eardrum! Doctor didn't seem too concerned. I'm 10 days in though and she said to check back in 4 weeks but that it may take even longer than that. Once it's all healed I'll get my hearing checked out to see where I'm at.

The tinnitus is easily manageable and for how much it's faded in 10 days... I think I'll be more than fine as time goes on.

Going to be ending this thread now. I mght update later down the line in one of the other sections (Success Stories?).

Stay strong friends. And please, REMEMBER YOUR EAR PROTECTION.