A Single Gunshot from AK47 Gave Me Tinnitus

Three weeks ago, out of curiosity, I wanted to see just how loud an AK47 was without hearing protection. I took one shot (in the middle of the desert) and had a strong ringing in my ears for 3 days.

When the ringing faded, I went shooting again, but wore my hearing protection. Despite that, I went home and noticed the ringing was amping back up again.

It once again calmed down, but ever since then I've had a 3-4/10 ringing in the left ear, and a 2/10 in the right.

Around the 1 and a half week mark, I was prescribed 20 mg Prednisone twice daily for 5 days. I'm currently on week 3 and I feel like the ringing has gone down about half a point for each ear. I also have some hyperacusis, that is triggered by typing on my keyboard, washing dishes, nearby laughter, etc.

I am able to sleep well in a dead-quiet room. The ringing is most noticeable at bedtime, but it is mild enough to where I can sleep. And I recognize that this is huge, as many others do not have tinnitus that mild.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, the tinnitus drops to like 0.5/10, and I'm able to enjoy silence for a few minutes until I get out of bed and start going about my day. Then the ringing goes back to the usual.

That being said, I have broke down crying during the initial days at the realization of my mistake. Healing is case by case, but I want to document my experience here over the coming months. I do not want to give up hope.

As for what I'm doing now to treat it, I'm doing some tinnitus massages I saw from YouTube, the kind where you repeatedly plug your ear with your thumb. It helps a little, temporarily. I am also starting acupuncture. I have not noticed a difference after 1 session.

I have an ENT appt in a few days, but am scared about whether the tests they'll run will make my tinnitus worse.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. I want to believe my tinnitus will get better in time, and I want to make sure I'm doing as much as I can in the early stages to promote healing. Thank you.

 

Stop shooting.

Double up with hearing protection if you do.

Try a white noise generator if sleep becomes a problem.

It sounds like yours is already improving. Go easy on your ears and good luck.

 

Don't try an MRI of your head to see how loud it is either. Take my word for it.

 

Cancel the ENT appointment. Nothing to be gained from it, only risk of worsening.

I recommend against white noise generators. Let your ears rest at night.

Protect well and you stand a fair chance of further reduction.

 

AK-47 is extremely loud. I was around 700 rounds of one of those guns without hearing protection. I kid you not, I went through so much acoustic trauma.

It’s been 3 months, my left ear is completely dead to high frequencies. I have loud tinnitus.

I’m 24 and honestly I just threw my life away. It was going so great.

I have never ever been more depressed in my life. Needless to say I caught my girlfriend cheating on me on Valentine’s Day. Yeah man, I’m just in so much pain. I don’t want the hearing loss to be permanent.

Anyways, I pray we can both heal

 

Nothing to be gained? It's not even worth to get a hearing test?

 

@Jupiterman is right. ENTs are 100% useless except prescribing steroids but these are off-label and chances of helping in acoustic trauma, especially after 24-48 hours, are low. Many people have worsened from steroids.

ENTs can be dangerous. If you go, do not let them do any loud hearing tests like tympanometry or acoustic reflex test. Under no circumstances let them do suction or syringing to clean any earwax in your ear. This can completely fuck you up. They will tell you it safe. IT IS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT. The only safe way to clean earwax is manually with a curette (requires a careful practitioner), ideally with a scope.

Avoid loud sounds, but do not completely isolate yourself. Do not do white noise. You can try to listen to music QUIETLY. Try to relax and rest.

 

You can improve with time. Protect your hearing from now on. I'd avoid shooting for awhile. If you do resume shooting, double up on hearing protection.

 

Keep protecting and give it time, chances are it will improve and go away if it was from a specific event.

 

If you have no hearing loss, a hearing test should do you no harm.

If you have hearing loss, they just keep increasing the loudness of the tones played into your ear until you do hear them; 70 dB, 80 dB, 90 dB, etc.

Do you want a 90 dB tone played directly into your ear with a fresh ear injury?

 

If you are mostly only hearing it at bedtime, then don't mess with it. You'll absolutely get used to it in time.
There's not much an ENT can do for tinnitus besides:

• Steroids
• Hearing aids (for hearing loss within the 250 Hz - 10,000 Hz range)
• Maskers
• CBT
• Antidepressants (which can exacerbate tinnitus, but depends on the individual)

Like already mentioned, it seems like the audiogram has potential to cause damage if you have profound hearing loss, but I don't know for sure. There are, however, other tests that do expose you to pretty extreme volumes in even healthy ears, namely Acoustic Reflex and Otoacoustic Emissions tests. My tinnitus was worsened by these tests.

 

Thank you everyone for the replies and encouragement. I have canceled the ENT appt and ordered some musician's earplugs to wear when going out in public. I think I can get by without using a white noise machine, but I'll keep it in mind if the ringing ever gets that bad at night. I'm also going to stop wearing earbuds too. Gonna try and live quiet but not too quiet, and hope this whole thing heals in a year.

@MatthewR, I'm sorry to hear about your tinnitus. I can't imagine how debilitating that must be. I'm praying for you man.

 

Thank you brother. I will pray for you also. I think you will be fine. I went through so much acute acoustic trauma that night... over an hour of non-stop gunfire with high-caliber rifles. By the end of it my hearing was horrible, and tinnitus was insanely loud. Now I still have high frequency hearing loss, tinnitus, and hyperacusis but it’s gotten better since day 1. My hearing issues are still here, and make me depressed, but with time I hope to improve regardless of what the doctors say.

Anyways, here’s my audiograms of 2 different visits with ENTs. It’s weird because I get different results at different audiologists but nonetheless the hearing loss is there. This is a 7-week difference in hearing.

I’m sure you will be fine man. By the way, I did not take any drugs.

 

1) Do NOTHING. Do NOT go to an ENT; they can't help and will likely make it worse.

2) Give it time. Your pattern of louder at night, quieter in the morning is a good sign; I think you will make a full recovery (6 months?) if you protect your ears from now on (the rest of your life).

 

Agreed. The quieter in the morning pattern is better. I wish I had it, I have the exact opposite and it fucks me up. I say it is better because it points at the sleep having a healing effect. Time + healing -> lasting improvement.

 

We'll have to agree to disagree. I run my white noise generator all night and it helps me sleep because my brain is distracted from my tinnitus.

 

Sorry to hear that man.

 

Exactly.

I've used a white noise (rain sounds) for almost 20 years now. As long as it's just background noise, it is no problem. Lots of people use noise machines or fans to help them sleep and distract them from noise (tinnitus, traffic, neighbors...)