Went Out After Years of Protecting and Got an Acoustic Trauma/Shock

I have T&H for a 5 years, last 3 wearing plugs all the time and month ago I finally found peace and strength to lessen my protection gradually and engage life again cause my anxiety almost ruined everything for me.

So last night I went to a bar/club. I set behind speaker, maybe half a meter, cause there was no other space not fronting one. Levels were around 85-90 dB and since I was wearing earplugs, it was ok. I thought I'd stay like a hour or so, it was a charity event so I wanted to come.

But then suddenly, there was a very loud steady high pitch tone form a speakers that left everyone looking terrified. I was shocked, figured there is no time to pull my earmuffs from a bag so I headed on the balcony. Once I was out it stopped (ofc). Soon more people came out saying what the f?.. was that loud sound? To me it sounded like someone was blowing sheer whistle at the mic or put a dentist drill on mic. (sorry for the idea)

So the problem is, it wasn't oscillating sound but steady for like 10 sec. I was near the speaker although behind it. I didn't have my plugs heavy in cause I was working on my socialization, and it was loud. Everyone said it was loud, so it must have been 110 dB and with unpleasant - so high pitch was steady attacking cells. When you have alarms you at least have ups and downs, this was constant.

What now?
I am working today and trying not to think about it but. My ears hurt. Like they haven't in years. My T spiked, ofc. My anxiety is causing me to jump at all sounds and even my jaw hurts. What to do? I took NAC. I'm trying to stay okay. I am scared so much, regretting this event. I have only like 2 times been exposed to such loud and high pitched sounds, so this was really something! To welcome me into bar life! I guess some ignorant DJ pulled out the plug on input causing us to hear nothing or some other input that was not meant to be broadcasted on speakers.

I am devastated.. and don't know what to think, what to do..

 

This must be a nightmare to you, but I mean, this stuff happens apparantly unfortunately in live music events... I was at a live music events and someone triggered what I estimate must have been well over 130db...insane felt it all across my face... either caused or contributed to blowing the speaker, never had T until now. now i have 3 tones in one ear 1 in the other. Developed Hyperacuses ( how the hell is that spelled) 3 days later. 8 months later I'm no better off, despite taking like 10 supplements every on which is rumoured to cure any one of these.

Im sorry man, dunno what else to say.

It might be a spike, people say those may calm down.

 

@iAzra
Hi iAzra,
I am believer that a person with tinnitus should go out and have a good time at a club etc if they want to. However, one has also got to be careful of being exposed to loud sounds. Even when wearing earplugs a person isn't 100% safe. If external sound is loud enough, it can still cause hearing damage. Behind each ear there is a hard piece of bone called the Mastoid bone. It honeycombed with air pockets. If sound is loud enough it can pass through the mastoid bone and into the inner ear and irritate the cochlea, which could make the tinnitus louder and more intrusive. If hyperacusis is present the risk is greater.

You should try and get your hyperacusis treated because it is curable. I had very severe hyperacusis and it was cured with TRT. TRT isn't always necessary. Hyperacusis can be cured naturally without any treatment. In more severe cases using sound enrichment at night can be quite beneficial. Please click on the link below and read my article: Tinnitus, A Personal View. It covers tinnitus, hyperacusis and different treatments and coping methods. You might find it helpful.
All the best
Michael
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

 

@Michael Leigh I have read this as you post it on oher topics too. Right now I am not happy with reading that this event caused me damage but I guess that is a risk of looking for opinions on forums. You say you believe that person with hearing damage can have normal life and then you say you can get damage no matter of protection so I have to inform you that everyday sounds ARE lound and possible damaging, specially socializing events, so I don't see how do you think one can have a normal life and believe in your mastoid bone sound conduction damage.. maybe you suggest wearing earmufffs everywhere? Well, that is not a normal life since it limits person a lot.

Also you say that with hyperacusis risk is greater and then you write how H can be naturally cured. My ears hurt at the moment but I still can read and what I read from you is full of contradictions :/

@SilverSpiral I'm sorry for your onset. It is still early to see improvement if the injury was bad, do you have hearing loss? I only started to have normal life after a five years at home and didn't really enjoy it for a long time, only few weeks in and this have happened.

 

It is 8 months since my onset, and I do not have any "hearing loss" detected on a normal audiologist report, which is 8 pure tones over a range reaching 8k, but even the audiologists have admitted this can not show all hearing damage, there can be damage beyond 8k the limit they test, and between the individual tones they test, and even, the tones they test, sometimes if you have T, it can make it so that you hear the sound at that level, but you are hearing reactive T, not the proper tone. I have T and H, and music sound distorted, I hear resonant tones instead of the sound around 2k, 4k, and 6k, if I listen to music at a low volume, I also even hear this sometimes on top of talking, but talking is sticcato enough, that it isnt bothersome. this is a complex issue. I pray it will get better for me and all of us, but frankly I see, as even your experience has shown, further damage, or remission can occur. Have you talked to anybody else at the event you were at? Are the experiencing any horrible long lasting symptoms from the loud sound heard?

 

No, @SilverSpiral , I didn't talk to anyone since last night only got a txt froma freind asking how I was, since it was bad for them all he can imagine how it was for me. It was loud and high pitch unpleasent signal. People went to balcony too. It was not a subjective experience of loudness which ppl with H can sometimes have and overreact. I hope there is no damage. My ears hurt so it's not helping. Set back for sure it is. Hah, I sound like Yoda.

 

To be honest, if "normal" hearing people find a sound too loud... it's probably damaging, especially in a club environment. I mean "normal" people hearing dont shrug when an ambulance parks near them blaring it's siren. And let me tell you, a clubs normal volume can be as louder than an ambulance siren. If "normal hearing" people are running for cover, thats a pretty strong indicator the sound is dangerous.

 

On the contrary @iAzra Since you feel my comments are full contradictions there is no point in me trying to explain further.
I therefore wish you well
Michael

 

Are you sure it was so high pitched ? Compared to a police siren, how was the pitch ?

High pitched sounds are definitely more harmful, but sometimes it's not as high pitched as it seems.

 

Yeah guys, you really don't help. Normal people were surprised by the sound and the pitch but not covering their ears and laying on the floor. Sigh. Well, I guess thanks for commenting.

@Michael Leigh I do. Also not a fan of copy paste answers causing panic about damage.

 

That's just it. I can not compare it to anything since it doesn't sound like anything just random signal beeeeeep. It was really uncofortable in a way not pure ad police sirene but more like drills. Or wierd whistle.

One guy said it was unpleasent, to me it sounded like something you want to put in a horror movie to make crepy scary atmoshere.. Only this was loud. I guess stedy tone with no oscilation didn't help either.. Strange thing for sure.

I have not incounter anything like it till now. Others was asking what was it to.. maybe someone connected or pul out cinnector on the mix pult som we got some signal.. The problem is that I can not compare it to any sound so I don't really know how to deal with it.

It was not louder then an ambulance going buy, but that is way to loud too.. And the sirens have ups and downs, this was stedy lound for a ~10 sec.. I really can't tell how much I needed to realise what's happening and to get trough some ppl outside..

 

Guuuuuuys. Don't fight. @Michael Leigh 's posts are just very realistic. He can't promise you anything. You experienced some problems with your hearing and you want to hear "nothing happened, it will go away soon" but as you know (you had T&H for a few years already) we cannot give you any guarantee...

People started talking about how loud it could have. I think it would be best to distract yourself somehow for a few days. Get an appointment with GP/ENT. You can't do anything really, so do your best to not worry.

 

I can imagine the situation and the surprise.

It's just that the surprise is sometimes the worst thing to handle in these situations. It was not a loud explosive blast at 140dB or more, and it lasted for "only" 10 seconds, so it's not cool at all, but not the worst noise either.

You took Nac, that's good. But if you feel like you had an acoustic trauma, maybe a short course of steroids is the way to go too (at 1mg/kg : if you weight like 60kg, you take 60mg per day, for 4 or 5 days). You'd have to ask your doc of course.

There's nothing else you can do, apart from relaxing and moving on quickly.

And don't blame yourself. This was not expected and it could happen everywhere, in a shopping mall for instance.

 

@iAzra ,
I'm sure the sound came as a shock and your anxiety and tinnitus skyrocketed and emotions all over the place .
Try to remain calm and keep sound on around you to help distract you from your sound.
Pain and pressure pain from a spike is not nice but always get your ears checked out.
We can only do so much to protect our ears and there will be times we don't get our plugs in fast enough to protect our ears but we carnt go wearing plugs 24/7 as we would make our ears over sensitive day to day around sounds that would not normally cause problems.
I hope over time your ears settle down and can once again build up confidence around sounds and no damage from your audeal with the speakers.
Keep posting for support from us all around the clock.
....lots of love glynis

 

@maltese
Some people with tinnitus believe they can go about life recklessly. Listening to music through headphones, going to clubs and concerts frequently without using ear protection. Even when they do, thinking they are perfectly safe and throw caution to the wind. At gigs, they are right up near the stage or standing against large floor standing speakers as the music is booming out and are then surprised, when the tinnitus spikes or has increased in intensity. I believe a person should go out and enjoy themselves at the venues that I’ve mentioned, if they want. However, they should also exercise prudence and good judgement and take care of their hearing.

Michael

 

So what hapenned? Did it ever go back down?

 

Sorry to hear this man...hopefully things will calm down soon. I have no advice to help but yesterday i was at a xmas party for about 15 minutes...i had my custom musician ear plugs with the 15 db filter. Based on my phone app it was 101 db in the room and even though i was fine with my plugs on i did notice that after i left my T definitly seemed a bit louder but settled down quickly. Thought i felt a lil dizzy for a second. Not really sure. Could have been my ears adjusting from loudness to silence i guess but with that being said i really think that if you are going to be in loud situations with a steady level in the 100s it might be a good idea to take breaks.

 

@iAzra
There are 2 treatments that can help hear cells when done in the few days after trauma

1 prednisone
2 light therapy (LLLT, LED)

I have a stock of prednisone at home in the fridge ready to be used in case of sudden noise trauma , and also a few LLLT devices that can be used right away , those are very cheap now

I suggest prednisone ASAP and also keep a rolling stock at home as backup -the last thing I want is loose precious time running to ENT on week-ends to get steroids

As for hearing protection , besides solid silicone plugs that do about 30 NRR I always keep a pair of large earmuffs at hand just in case
In bars people tend to speak louder anyway even with plugs deep in I can somehow hear most of it - but I avoid loud places anyway

 

What happened is that three days after this I had doc appoitment for something else. While in a waiting room an alarm went of, really loud, pure tone high pitch. Mayybe a fire drill? Don't know. Lasted 30 sec-1min. I couldnot go anywhere since the alarm was abowe the door, went in panic, somehow pulled my earmufs on but I had a thick cap so they didn't quite fit. Run out on the stair case. Sit there and then it stopped.

Two weeks after my T is higher like it was never been in this 5 years and I got cik cik sound in my left ear like it started 5 years ago after my first alarm trauma. So my head is roaring from morning and even worse in evening.. left ear got that cik cik sound too, right ear louder eeeeeep. My mind is resteless and I am not well.

Trying to cope. But really, I'm a mess and don't know what I'll do.

I did start predisone like a weak ago, but on my third day got side effects - pain in shoulder and stains darker skin on my nose so I stopped that.

I'm not well atm.

 

Sounds like feedback to me. Someone probably lay a mic near one of the speakers, or plugged something in whilst the gain was set too high. It's unprofessional and shouldn't happen but life is just full of surprises.

I have a similar story in that I was at a charity ball (James bond theme), when suddenly, a stunt show started and they were using real blanks indoors. There was no warning. Luckily I was around 15 meters or so away, but to say it scared the shit out of me is an understatement. I immediately grabbed my ear plugs but by then I'd been exposed to about 6 shots. My ears were ringing later on (not immediately following), but I couldn't be sure if the spike was my heightened anxiety sending my CNS into overdrive, or if the shots had done something. A couple of days later I was back to my baseline, but people who were sitting nearer the gunman informed me that the shots immediately made their ears ring. I couldn't believe how stupid the organisers were to put this in without warning people. I can only imagine what could have happened had I been sitting right next to those first shots.

I suppose the moral of my story is that shit happens. We can only be so prepared but sometimes things are out of our control.

Eat well and relax as much as you can. Give your ears every chance to recover without putting any extra pressure on yourself. Feelings of regret or guilt are not going to help.

 

Why didn't you plug your ears, instead of searching for earplugs? Doesn't plugging your ears give the same protection?