When Will My Ear Pain Go Away?

Hello Everyone,

I've had T since June, 2014. It was caused by listening to music too loud. Towards the end of August, my T was to the point where I almost forgot I had it due to keeping noise in my environment at all times.

Unfortunately, on August 30th, 2014 I was editing some background noise out of a video. In order to make sure that every last bit of background noise was edited out, I put my ear close to my computer speaker with the volume maxed out. My elbow hit the keyboard and my left ear was assaulted by an EXTREMELY LOUD keyboard tone.

Ever since, my left ear has been in pain. It's like someone stabbing it with a knife. I'm also sensitive to all sorts of sounds. The intensity of my T has increased drastically. I can't drive my car anymore without earplugs because the drone of the exhaust is now painful to listen to. I have to wear earplugs at my workplace. I can't listen to music anymore and have a very hard time playing video games and watching movies.

This has destroyed every aspect of my life. When will this pain go away? I've seen my primary care doctor as well as an ENT and they both charged me RIDICULOUS amounts of money only to say there is nothing that can be done.

 

My guess is that you may have done some damage to your auditory system and maybe the tiny hair cells have taken a hit. See the pic here:

A micrograph demonstrating the damaging effect of noise to cochlear sensory cells. The inner hair cells (IHC) are seen forming one row with well preserved sensory hairs, while the outer hair cells (OHC) are severely damaged with many cells missing and other cells showing irregularly arranged cilia.



It's also possible that you may have some sensitivity aka pain which can be quite common after an assault from loud noise. You mentioned you can't drive your car now without earplugs but I think that is wrong and may only add to your woes. It sounds to me like you are in panic mode and when you are like this you probably aren't thinking clearly. FWIW I went through a lot of pain and a lot of bs and I think I might have made things worse at times, unfortunately the mind sometimes doesn't work to well when we are stressed.

What I suggest is that:
1 - You stop catastrophizing because this only makes your situation worse.
2 - Forget about the "nothing can be done" bullshit from your doctors because if they really said that they are talking out of their arses.
3 - Do Not overuse earplugs because you need to let your ears reset themselves and that means they need to hear ordinary everyday sounds.
4 - You can listen to music and play video games and do whatever else you want to do but keep the volume down.
5 - Try listening to nature sounds or music or use other background noise at a low volume to take the edge of your tinnitus and help you focus on something else.
6 - Try to remember that there are 2 components to tinnitus: the sound itself and the psychological part of the equation and it's the second part that needs to be healed and as this happens the tinnitus/sound will take care of itself.
7 - Shit happens so don't dwell on it. You said in your first sentence that you almost forgot you had it prior to the incident so go back to doing those things that you did that helped you previously.
8- Plenty of people have been in your shoes and they are better now so try to be positive because the more you do this the faster you will heal.

 

Was wondering what the result of the otoacoustic emission
test was if you had one. Mine said that the "hairs" were there but did not respond correctly (ie: damaged). I am super sensitive to sound too. For a while I could not even open a piece of mail or touch paper because of the sound.

 

No one will be able to answer this. It's all up to your body.

I also get pain (scalp) from my tinnitus--when it's being particularly loud. And the pain has never gone away. I also get intermittent pain deep in my ear. I have ETD so I wonder if there's a connection. But I know there's nothing I can do about this. But I do take Tylenol when I hurt. Tylenol works well and it won't increase your tinnitus.

It also sounds like you have hyperacusis from your second noise exposure.

The good news is that almost EVERYONE gets better over time. For most people, their tinnitus and hyperacusis will become a non-issue in a year to a year-and-a-half. To help expedite the process, @Magpie has given you good advice.

If you're in the US, you should try to enroll in the AM-101 trial. If you're in the UK, you qualify for Autfony's clinical trial. I would try either of these trials because your tinnitus is still new and treatment tends to work best early on.

That said, even if you do nothing you should be fine in time.

Be sure to get enough sleep. I take melatonin; there's lots of info on the forum about this and other sleeping aids. And it helps greatly to always listen to background ambient noise, like water sounds, at a low level. Find sounds that blend in with your tinnitus.

Good luck and please look at all the great advice on the board!

To get started, you might look at the following posts:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...al-especially-in-preventing-hearing-loss.401/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/sleeping-pills.5531/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/taking-benadryl-to-sleep.6295/

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That is a informative picture, but just to point this out,... I assume that the pic is from a dead person as I dont think there is anyway they can get a image from a live person like that.

 

I have no idea bee but it would be interesting if they studied the hair cells of people who had severe tinnitus who had passed away. When I kick the bucket they can check mine out or use them for research.

 

Have you heard of acoustic shock disorder? if not look it up...sorry to hear of your predicament.