Tinnitus from Pouring Hydrogen Peroxide and Slap

Hi

On Nov 26 2017 me and my husband had a heated argument and he slapped me (He never ever does and he better won't again).

Usually I jump or run to other room when we have arguments to let it cool off. But this time I was a lazy bum and he got mad and he slapped me, I wish he didn't and he cried so much and is guilty for his action. I never experienced such a hard slap in my entire life. I hear the buzzing noise immediately and started crying. After an hour the buzzing noise was gone except that I felt like there was a blockage in hearing. I waited 3 days couldn't get ENT appointment immediately so went urgent care on 29th Nov.

I mentioned them I couldn't hear as clearly as my right ear and probably due to Q tip. They saw that there is some ear wax in left ear and probably its blocking my hearing and they poured hydrogen peroxide. The moment they poured that it felt like they poured acid in my ear and i was crying horribly with pain and there started the continuous ringing..........

They told there is something wrong (probably a rupture). they do this procedure to many people and nobody was ever hurt so badly. The ringing started from Wednesday night after they poured hydrogen peroxide until then I just felt there was just blockage in hearing. Later the blockage feeling went off and the ringing was there from that night. So, I joined immediately in ER on that Wednesday night.

Next day I was seen by ENT specialist he did my hearing test and said that there is moderate hearing loss in left ear and there is a 2-3mm perforation. He told hydrogen peroxide was the wrong thing to put when there is a rupture and the combination did the damage.

It's been 2weeks I am on prednisone and last week hearing went up by a bit. ENT says the ringing is due to hearing loss and the ringing is going to go away completely as I get my hearing back and perforation closes.

1st week I read so many things about tinnitus and I couldn't bear the tinnitus I cried so badly in my restroom with exhaust on.

2nd week I am just playing music in youtube and trying to fall asleep. I understood the value of silence and how much it means. i just had a 1hr meeting in conference room and all continuous buzzing made it so hard and talk on talking points. I am saying in my mind I am stronger than my problems and focusing on the daily life. But I am trying hard not to cry and say myself this is gonna go away just like doctor told that if the underlying cause treated tinnitus is cured.

But will this ever go away?? Can I ever have the silence back? Can I have normal life back I was planning to have kids and buy a home this was never what I imagined to be I am so scared with this buzzing noise always. I am having my 3rd hearing test tomorrow.

For anyone with only perforation no infection and no prior condition (sinuses/migrane etc ) after the perforation is closed hearing is gained did the tinnitus diminish?

 

No-one can answer you with any kind of certainty unfortunately.

When your ear is perforated, whatever you put in it gets to the middle ear through the ear drum perforation. That can lead to feeling a very strong sting (because the middle ear is sensitive), but could also potentially reach the cochlea depending on the orientation of the head. There is a chance that the orientation was appropriate to reach the cochlea, since it just takes a bit of an angle from the "full vertical canal" position, and I suspect that's the position they used to put the drops in your ear.

When you did the hearing test, what kind of losses did you see? Conductive? Sensorineural? Mixed?
The ear drum perforation would show as conductive losses. It would be best if it was this type of losses.
Damage to the cochlea would show up as sensorineural: let's hope this isn't the case.

If you feel comfortable, post your audiogram.

Good luck!

 

I had my appointment today. Doctor told my hearing went up and he would like me to stop steriods and let my perofration heal naturally. I did ask what kind of hearing loss it was. He told we don't know so when we don't know we blame it on sensorineural. He told he is happy to see hearing go up since past 2weeks and that I would'nt be needing steriods from now on. My tinnitus intensity did reduce from 1st week to now. The intensity of the noise is reducing but not the continuity. When I stressed and asked doctor if the tinnitus will go away he told 90% of the cases he sees tinnitus goes after the hearing loss is gained and also steroids make u more active and make u pay attention to it. He told stopping steroids should also reduce the tinnitus as they make ur body more active. I again stressed how anxious the noise is making me. He told he wasn't god (i know doctors are not gods but they are in my eyes) and 90% cases tinnitus goes off as perforation closes /hearing loss is gained completely. 5-10% cases tinnitus is there. He asked me to come back after 3 weeks for followup and see how i feel. I am hopeful as the intensity of the tinnitus reduced from past week that this will slowly diminish with the hearing loss gain and perforation closure. I did ask if hydrogen peroxide would damage any nerve or inner ear he said no. I will see if i can post my audio-gram in the evening. Thank you for your insight. I did have coffee yesterday probably that spiked up my T when I was in meeting I heard it continuously and made me panic a bit of how am I going to deal with this if this stays (I hope it doesn't) . It's been 2 weeks with tinnitus I hope it fades slowly. I am trying not to pay attention to it when I am in conference rooms or silent places. Other times I can't hear it as much as I hear in silent places due to the whitenoise / fans/ tv /background noise.

 

Yesterday night was terrible. Around 10 p.m it felt like i was hearing as if there is air coming out of balloon noise. I thought well this is ok manageable this is also gonna go down. Then turned lights off with exhaust fan on in the restroom closed my eyes. I am so sleepy i close my eyes but I hear the sound more. I close I hear it. It feels like its getting louder if I close eyes even though there was background exhaust fan on. I tried sleeping for an hour couldn't sleep then started the panicking and crying. It felt like sound is haunting me especially in nights I am really getting scared of the noise. I am trying not to think of the sound as an external threat but it is so hard to not to think like that. I am praying god am calling people who support me I am sobbing and sleeping. Why is this so terrible and I am trying to trick my brain not to listen it. Last week (2nd week was easy) but not yesterday. I know life is hard and we gotta get a lot of strength to handle this. I have dealt with lot of hurdles in my life and reached my goals and ambitions. I always thought I had control of my life. But this feels like a defeat but I know people face worse things and this is a challenge which I have to face. I am having hard time accepting it and habituating to it. How did anyone face it initially?

 

Over time you will manage things better. It takes time. My tinnitus is very loud with multiple tones. I hear it during the day above most other sounds. It is always difficult in the early days until you get used to it and begin to become less anxious. It is scary, I know. It is still not easy after 7 years with it but time does help. I still struggle sleeping but I am less afraid of it and manage to work full time and support my family.

 

I can't imagine having for so long. I am sorry you still have trouble sleeping. I am glad you are able to handle it well with being less anxious. I hope it fades away for you and for me and for everyone here.

 

@anusha

This is very common and natural for new T sufferers. The brain still needs to be convinced that T is not a mortal threat. It will try to sense from your reaction if this is a deadly threat or just an annoyance. Right now when T is new, the brain generally senses our traumatic reaction ans so it leans more to treating T as threat and so you think about T or zoom on it often. It is a mental game and hope you will play a smart game with it by understanding how it works in the brain. I will explain more below.

Being so scared or anxious of T initially is a very normal reaction of the body trying to protect us from harm and danger. We are often very scared when T is new because T is both an alien sensation and a new ailment to your body. Our brain doesn't understand T and doesn't know what to expect. Failing to shake T, the brain just reacts in trauma and shock. Your limbic nervous system kicks in overriding the normal parasympathetic nervous system and you function in fight or flight mode, the defensive mechanism for a human in face of a danger. The fight or flight center or the Amygdala is in control now making every sensation quite acute and intense and you easily succumb to fear and worry as that is how the body tries to protect you. It tends to tell you to be aware of the threatening object which in this case is the new T. That is why we tend to monitor T non-stop initially and can't seem to help it.

Try remaining calm and positive as humanly possible as you can. By being calm and positive, and be more accepting of the new normal, by educating ourselves more about T (like what you are learning by joining this forum), and by doing some relaxing or interesting activities or by going back to living life again, our brain will have a better chance to restore the normal parasympathetic nervous system, and the pre-frontal cortex will take over processing the T ringing stimulus from the scare-crow center, the Amygdala. One of the functions of pre-frontal cortex is to suppress the fear reaction. It will also let you handle other negative reactions/emotions more normally.

This process is similar to a child being afraid of the dark because of not understanding what it is all about. Fear sets in and stress builds up and the child cries to get help and to relieve the stress. Later on and growing up the child learns more about the dark and the fear fades and no stress/fear will be forth coming to trigger the limbic system. Likewise with our tinnitus experience, our brain needs to take time to understand T more and be more hardened to it so the fear reaction will subside and the pre-frontal cortex will help us do that. But this process takes time and may take learning some good strategies. I mention some helpful strategies in my success story dealing with both severe T & H. Perhaps you can benefit by checking it out below. Don't panic nor despair. Good life can be back. Believe it. Take good care. God bless your recovery.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

Thank you for your positive words. I am bringing in all the strength for few days but some other times I feel am all alone in this and get scared and start crying. I need to stop crying in front of people and make sure am not alone hearing to T. When I am alone hearing to T I can't stop crying. I know that would hurt my ear drum perforation closure process. T intensity did reduce for 2 weeks so I have to stay positive and hopeful that this is going to go. Yes it does feel like darkness but we have to get used to it and not panic for it to heal.

 

@billie48
That was well written. Thank you. I needed to hear that. I am learning to adjust to Tinnitus. It’s difficult and seems like constant work. All my many moments of peace and serenity seem taken from me. I sit near on the couch and hear the ringing.
I look forward to either the t going away, diminishing, or learning to cope.
I wish you the best and @anusha. I know this is hard, hang in there. There are too many amazing stories here

 

Bless you. This is also quite normal reaction as our nerves are in overload condition and crying is a natural release of the mounting stress. I used to be teary easily too in those darkest days. I also know of a key moderator in another forum who has admitted that he cried for 2 years initially due to extreme stress and anxiety. But he is ok now and is helping people in his forum. So cry all you want and don't worry about it. It is a healing process for the body.