Tinnitus from Being Physically Assaulted (6 Weeks in) — Help?!

Hi,

I was physically assaulted by two guys on the street back in December. I was jumped.

I ended up with a very swollen face, bruising, a few broken ribs, sore neck etc. I was never actually knocked out as in, waking up and not knowing where I was but the whole thing is a big blur and it was a nice cabby who had pulled over and scared the men off by saying he had called the police.

So I don’t know what happened exactly, just that two guys in hoody’s approached me and asked if I had an extra $5 and I remember saying ‘no, I don’t carry any cash on me’ but I was then clearly assaulted and the left side of my face was very swollen and the top of my jaw was very sore on the left side. I also had black eyes etc. The cabby took me to the hospital where I was told I had 3 broken ribs. They did a CT scan of my head with no facial fractures.

No tests were done on my brain but the Doctor at the ER said I likely had a concussion and to make sure I get woken up every 4 hours for the next 24 hours. Which I had my girlfriend do.



TINNITUS SYMPTOMS

I went and saw my Doctor and told them what happened. They were sympathetic. I saw them again about a month after the incident and told them about my ear problem. They said it looked like I had some middle ear fluid but no infection. They prescribed me nasal steroid spray, an extra strength oral decongestant (Ephedrine) and a nasal saline rinse (Netti Pot).

I did the above for the 2 weeks. Not much change. Doctor said fluid appeared to be gone but I still have the issues with left ear only:

- popping

- crackling when swallowing

- sensitive ear to sound/noise

- muffled sound (like someone moving something in the next room will sound like vibrating bass in my left ear but just a normal sound in my right/good ear).

- constant buzzing, very noticable at night when sleeping (have had to plug in a cool mist to drown out the buzzing in my ear).

- feeling of fullness in my ear

- off and on dizziness



TESTS

I had my hearing tested and my hearing is fine in both ears but the audiologist is referring me to an ENT as they are concerned about the tinnitus in one ear along with the dizziness.



ANY HOPE OF RECOVERY?

Do I have any hope of recovery? It has been 6 weeks now. No changes. Some days seem better than others or worse than others depending on how you look at it. Stress does seem to definitely make things worse. Is there anything I should be doing?

I started a low dose antidepressant to try and get my mind of things and stop obsessing about it. It is not one that is known to have ever caused tinnitus so I think I am safe in that regard. It is not Prozac, Wellbutrin, Effexor or Zoloft which are some that have given people problems from what I understand.

Has anyone else out there been physically assaulted or had head trauma and had their Tinnitus go away? I am looking for some or any hope. I am so down and depressed. I was already dealing with a health issue prior to this. These two guys btw, ran off before the police came so all I could do was give a fuzzy description. I am sure nothing will ever come of it.

Thanks for all feedback and comments.

 

I know your tinnitus was caused by head trauma and not noise induced hearing loss, that is not to say the connection from the ear to brain or audiotory brain was not damaged causing a hearing deficit, especially if you experience the following problems along with tinnitus.

You need to know about hidden hearing loss, because hearing test only test for hearing loss in human speech ranges.




I believe you may have more of an audiotory brain problem then damage to the inner ear due to your TBI, but it's important you know about hearing test being inaccurate.

 

T tends to begin fading weeks or month after you heal from your original trauma. It sounds like it took several weeks for your body to heal from the attack. So I wouldn't worry about it being permanent and never fading, just yet. If don't experience any fading over the next 3-6 months, then it would not be a good sign. What matters is the monthly trend and the global lows. You can ignore any daily fluctuations.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822
perhaps some of this information will help you prevent your T getting worse.

 

Thanks to both for the responses. Very interesting and helpful information.

Do either of you know if the rate of recovery is different between head trauma induced tinnitus and noise induced tinnitus? Are the recovery rates any different or is it just extremely variable with no real stats or patterns?

It is really weird though, it is no where near a ringing but more of a low buzzing, like standing next to an electric power box, power lines or that feedback you can get from speakers in a stereo. Nothing high pitched but the buzzing is constant and as problematic nonetheless.

Yes, my face and ribs have basically just stopped hurting over the last week so I am sure there is internal damage still healing.

 

@Vin Sorry for your assault.

Tinnitus can occur because of the way an intense blow to your head jostles your ears and the tiny bones within them. These bones need to be set in a certain formation to function properly, and when they are offset and other things are also being pushed out of alignment in the head area, tinnitus can happen.

It is assumed that compression and vibration forces generated by head trauma are transmitted through the skull to the inner ear and produce a shock pulse in the inner ear. This pulsation of the inner ear fluids may displace membrane as with labyrinth.

If hearing is a factor - 50% will have hearing improvement in low and all frequencies - but less per high frequencies.

It's hard to know actually what other sensory physicals have involvement for you, but your tinnitus likely will at least greatly improve.

I would consider the NFL concussion protocol among other concussion sites. Focus on therapy for concussion.


https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/9/18/12940926/nfl-concussion-protocol-explained

 

Thanks a lot for the info!

Today I was frustrated about the tinnitus and slammed a plastic garbage container on the counter and it made a loud bang and it hurt my tinnitus ear. I hope I did not cause further damage but I doubt it, if it is trauma induced and also probably not loud enough to do damage but I will not be doing anything like that again, that is for sure.

I will look at the concussion protocol.

Thanks again to all who responded and I welcome any further responses or experiences if possible.

Cheers,

 

Over the past 23 months, I remember reading about only a handful of cases of T due to head injuries. The sample is not large enough to see patterns...

After an acoustic trauma people often get a high-pitch tone. After 3-12 months, it often becomes a hiss or a buzz that is much easier to ignore and deal with than a high pitch tone. So perhaps you ears haven't gotten harmed as much as the ears of many people here. You might be at a stage that many of us take many months to get to. Hopefully that means that you can improve from this nice starting point.

I know that when people discontinue taking ototoxic drugs after those drugs cause T, T doesn't turn off instantaneously - it takes months for it to improve. So the cause of T has to go away for good and stay that way for a long time before (hopefully!) T begins to fade, and the fading can also take a long time (e.g., over a year). Ears take forever to heal...

 

Thanks again. This has given me some optimism. 6 weeks I suppose is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

This is the closest sound I could find, except it is more of a deeper hum. Best way to describe it is when you are sitting in your house or driving and a car drives by from a distance with the bass cranked. In fact, I actually thought for the first few days that my neighbour had their stereo cranked and I was hearing faint bass. It tends to pulsate during the day but once I lay down at night, it is a constant hum. I use a cool mist humidifier to wash the noise out at night. I suppose it is better than high pitch but it is still always there, distracting, hard to concentrate and hard to sleep at night.

Here is the sound. WARNING TO TINNITUS SUFFERERS, PLAY AT LOWEST VOLUME AND SLOWLY INCREASE (IT IS NOT HIGH PITCH BUT I WANTED TO PUT A WARNING FIRST ANYWAYS).

The Hum for 5 minutes

 

Sounds not unlike the effects of a barotrauma.