Two Weeks In... Tinnitus, Hyperacusis and Ear Pain. 4 Kids. My Story.

I am new to this. Two weeks ago today I went shooting with a friend. I always wear ear protection, well this time I could not find it in my bag. My friend who was with me said he never wears hearing protection. Though that was crazy but decided I'd shoot without it. I shot a few and had some ringing. After a few seconds it went away, so I continued to shoot about 20 rounds of .223. After I noticed a more sever ringing and very heightened sensitivity to sound. Everything was muffled.

After about 12 hours some of the extreme sensitivity went away ringing went down a bit. All of this is in my right ear.

Well three days of ringing I called for an appointment with ENT. He put me on prednisone and lipo-flavonoid. I have slight hearing loss in upper ranges, but nothing too significant. After now a week of the steroid I asked to wean off it because of the depression it was giving me. I have also started using oils that friends of mine suggested.

I can handle the T and have accepted it. The over sensitivity however is killing me. I lead worship at my church. Wearing an ear plug barely helps and causes me pain because my own voice especially in the higher range sets me off. I also have four kids under the age of 8. So loudness is constant.

I have a couple questions....

Some have said don't limit noises all together with ear plugs. Why?

When I am experiencing H does that mean I am hurting my ear more? Some of the sounds are not avoidable.

I also have what seems to feel like a lump in my throat after H on the right side and my ear constantly feels funny, plugged, painful feeling.

I see that there are success stories out there with full recovery, so I am trying to have hope. I need to hear more success stories though. :-/

Thank you for any input as I begin my journey with this.

 

@dscootc.
Welcome to the forum. As you know you have some hyperacusis (sensitivity to sound) please click on the link below and it will take you to articles I've written about tinnitus which you may find helpful
best of luck
Michael
You could start off with: An Introduction to tinnitus

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/an-introduction-to-tinnitus.12100/

 

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk.
Sorry to hear your story with the start of tinnitus and hyperacusis/ sensitivity to sound.
Noise reduction plugs are best and then see ENT and audiology if it does not settle down.
White noise generators with counselling can help.
Your ears have had a big shock and inflammation inside can take time to settle and the steroids will help but can cause low mood but a slow taper will help along with sleeping well .
Try to keep sound on around you day and night to help and at night keep it lower than your tinnitus.
Hope your ears settle for you soon as time is a great healer.
Lots of love glynis

 

Thanks that was a good read. I will probably re-read it more again later. I am trying to stay positive about this. my rining is loud, but I'm more concerned with the sensitivity. Hurts to hear my kids talk and that is a problem! nice to see after time and some training the sensitivity may get better... According to the article.
I'll be praying for recovery from the trauma in my ear.
Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forum. I perfectly understand your struggle with H besides T. Yes, I am one of those unlucky enough to have both T & H and together it was hell of a time for me at the initial stage. Besides my ultra high pitch T, the H turned all normal sounds glassy in quality and every sound seemed so loud and piercingly hurtful. I was in a mess for a while. But today I live a perfectly happy and normal life. Time plus some strategies have helped. If you are interested in my success story and the strategies I used, for brevity, I provide the link to my story. You take good care. God bless your recovery. Don't panic. Better days will come and your H most likely will fade like many others do.

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