Two Weeks In. Noise-Induced Tinnitus. Help!?

Hello All,

I'm 29. About two weeks ago I went skeet shooting with a friend to get ready for dove season. We were shooting 12 guauge shotguns. We were wearing hearing protection. When I was shooting my right ear plug fell out as I fired one shot. I didnt think much of it at the time. I put my ear plug back in and proceeded to shoot. That evening I barbecued, drank beer and my hearing was normal.

The next day (Monday) I woke up for work and had ringing in my right ear. It didn't really faze me and I thought it would go away. That Wednesday I went to the dentist and had some fillings done. Did this make it worse? My ears were still ringing but it seemed like it was going away. Then the two following days the ringing became much louder, especially at night. On Friday I remember going to lunch with some co-workers and both ears feeling full. After I left the restraaunt the fullness went away. By that night I started to panic and search the web. I read the good, the bad and, the ugly. This only increases my anxiety and stress.

Fast forward to the following Monday. I visited my GP who refered me to an ENT. The ENT told me my ears looked fine and believed I suffered trauma to my inner ear. He prescribed me some anti-inflammatory steroids and told me to come back in two-three weeks if the ringing didn't go away. Also, I took a hearing test. My hearing was normal in both ears which was comforting. However I know the hearing range is higher than what they tested so I'm not sure what to make of it.

Over that weekend I worked myself into a panic stressing about how my life will never be the same and I was only to blame. I'm young. I'm supposes to be furthering my career and staring a family. Not dealing with this crap. I feel like I have become a burden to those around me. I called in sick the rest of the week in an attempt to get control of myself. All I could do was listen to this high pitch ring in my right ear and research tinnitus stories non-stop driving myself further into depression. I went to a cranialsacral therapy session to see if this could take the edge off. It helped me to relax, but the anxiety and stress cameback the next day. I don't know what I'm am going to do if this does not go away. It has now been exactly two weeks since the ringing started. To top it off I think I have hyperacusis since everyday sounds are louder than they used to be. However I think this is improving as sounds are not bothering me as much as they use to.

Today I finally found the strength to go to work even though I only had about 3-4 hours of sleep. Overall my day went well. I even thought my T was was improving. It went from a high pitched whistle noise in my right ear to lower pitched whistle noise in my left then finally centered in my head and sounded like static from a TV. The noise even lowered to where it was not noticeable. For a second I thought it was gone. Feeling somewhat relieved I decided to meet my parents for dinner. After I got home the T spiked up out of no where. This is driving me crazy. I want my life back.

I know these questions have been asked before but here are my questions.

1. Is there any hope my T will go away? I know I'm in the acute stage.

2. If it does not go away does it get better? Can I learn to relax and enjoy my life again?

3. Do you know of anyone who had noises induced hearing loss from a shotgun that recovered? It's not like a shotgun was shot directly over my shoulder and I was wearing ear protection.

4. I'm thinking about contacting an audiologist in regards to TRT. Has anyone found this helpful and a relief?

5. Were y'all able to maintain your full time jobs and support your family? If I lose my job I lose my healthcare. This is no bueno.

6. How do manage to fall asleep with T? I really don't want to take anti-depressants or sleeping pills. But I'm struggling with sleep.

7. What do y'all do to help yourself relax?

8. Where do you find the strength to be kind and affectionate to your loved ones? I love my family, but I don't want them to see my like this. Note. I have talked to them and they no what I'm going and through and provide support.

Sorry for the long introduction and for any typos. I'm a mess. Any words of advice and encouragement would be greatly appreciated. I hope we are all cured of this DISEASE in the near future!

 

Questions 1-3: First, check out posts 1 and 37 on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/
The studies in post one were about soldiers who got their T as a result of being exposed to gun shot noise. Most had recovered. Based on my personal experience, and on the experiences of people who posted on this forum, chances are your tinnitus will either fade (a lot) or will go away. The bad news is that it might take months (3? 6? 18?) before that happens.

The fact that your tinnitus changes and even seems to be improving after only 2 weeks is a great sign.

Question 6) You can try "sound enhancement" - playing nature sounds giving you something else to listen to besides your T. The sounds of crickets works well with high pitched T.
You can play those sounds using your computer https://mynoise.net/
or smartphone, or buy
https://www.amazon.com/Cherry-Koala-Concentration-Relaxation-Sufferers/dp/B01FRW2WBA
or even
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-S-5000-Deluxe-Therapy/dp/B018KUVEOM/

During my acute stage, I was able to use 10mg amitriptyline (it is an antidepressant) as a sleeping aid. It is non-addictive (!) and it didn't make me feel drowsy the next morning.

 

@Bill Bauer thanks for the response and info. I certainly hope and pray this is the case for me.

One of my good friends from college has T. The thing is I didn't know he had it until a few months back. I've known him for years. He is always going to movies, bars, the movie theater, bowling allies...etc. got married shortly after college. He never once brought up that he had T. One day we were talking and ringing ears came up. He told me about his T and how it happened. He too was shooting shotguns BUT without ear protection. One of his friends at the time decided it would be funny to say "oh look over there" than proceed to fire a shot over his shoulder. Since then he's had T going on 10 years now. I talked to him today. He said at the time of the incident he would have rated his T 7-8/10, but for the majority of the years it has been 1/10.

 

Most people's T fades or goes away.

If you read the posts on this forum, you will see that it makes sense to protect one's ears from moderate noise like that of a vacuum cleaner, a loud pub, a motor boat, or a blender. Now that our ears have been compromised, it takes less to injure our ears. Some people are able to go to noisy events and be fine afterwards (like your friend). But others get temporary or even permanent spikes. If noises make your ears feel full or lead to spikes, then listen to your body and protect your ears (wear earplugs or 3M Peltor X5A muffs when around things like vacuum cleaners, and try not to attend noisy events). I recommend protecting your ears for at least a year or two. You might consider not shooting guns for that time. There is not much you can do for your ears, at this point, so it is nice to be able to do Something for your ears.

 

I would advise you not to overprotect your ears since everyday noise rarely is dangerous or you might get hyperacusis to last

 

Do you have any scientific evidence that could back that statement?
Not that I believe the opposite, but I am in doubt.

 

Sadly, I am the evidence. My second onset was after loud music, but I was very protective and had ear plugs and also stayed far from the podium (actually with small kids around - not my kids I mean )...

 

And what says this wouldn't have happened if you were tinnitus free at that time?

Actually, I could say am the counter evidence. I was subject to very loud noises such as gun shots just next to me that would have damaged any person's ear, but not mine (according to the ENT), despite already being a T sufferer.
However, I believe that the events that happen to us personally do not allow us to draw general conclusions.

This is why I asked scientific objective evidence.

Anyway, good luck to you with you T, w drak. I sincerely hope you'll get better.

 

I am also evidence - I had a Massive spike after pressing an old landline phone (with its volume stuck at max) to my bad ear. That phone sounded loud, but a healthy person would probably wince and immediately forget about it.

If you spend any time reading this forum, you will see countless horror stories. There is at least one every day (there were two yesterday, one is
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spike-after-pub.23197
I don't have time to find a link to the other one). In those stories, T sufferers go to semi-loud events while wearing ear protection (e.g., a pub) or have something loud happen next to them (a lightning strike, a neighbour mowing grass), and get a spike. For more examples of these horror stories, see
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/wearing-foam-ear-plugs-on-a-roller-coaster.22559/#post-259198

It goes without saying that many of us Can handle loud events, and don't suffer a spike afterwards. The probability of suffering negative consequences after being exposed to noise is much higher for one of us, compared to the general population. Also, just because there were no negative consequences the next day, doesn't mean that no damage was done. It is possible that one's probability of T fading gets lower, or that after exposing oneself to noise, one is increasing the probability of a spike the Next time one experiences noise.

Finally, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...the-onset-of-tinnitus-and-regretted-it.23061/
The poll is Not trying to establish the actual probability of getting a spike after attending a loud event. It is trying to establish whether or not we are more vulnerable than the general population. According to the current results of the poll, a third of the people who attended loud events ended up with a PERMANENT spike. Of course the data might be biased, and the population of the respondents is not the same as the population of T sufferers worldwide. The point is that the risk of getting a permanent spike as a result of something that a healthy person would not even notice is THERE. I would say that it has got to be at least 10% (otherwise it would be unlikely to see such a huge fraction of the poll respondents reporting getting permanent spikes).

 

You can also find a lot of horror stories about people who had severe tinnitus and H immediately after a loud event. Do you conclude that the ears of "non T sufferers" are more fragile? No, that would be absurd.

And yes, we have temporary spikes, so what, why would that mean that the ear is more fragile?

Yeah, of course, but you can say this about anyone. Let me remind you that initially I asked about evidence regarding your statement "Now that our ears have been compromised, it takes less to injure our ears."
I don't think you should assert things that you are not certain of, especially to newcomers.

I personally think (and some experts think that too) that a T is like a scar, it cannot expand. However, a second scar can be made (the same way it can be made to any ear) and aggravate your problems. But I do not assert such things because I know it is a point of debate.