Acoustic Trauma from a Gunshot — I’m Scared of the Future

[Merlin L]

How are you doing these days?

This is a crazy story (also a very well written one). One shot! And such a delayed onset.

Thank you @gameover.

One very loud shot! 157 dB! That's loud enough to rupture your eardrum! Followed by a loud hockey game and a loud rodeo show, probably peaking around 100 dB.

After 3 months of worsening and not improving, my hyperacusis seems to be getting slightly better. Some sounds are starting to feel less loud. Before small things like flipping a light switch were insanely and intolerably loud, but now is fairly tolerable (not back to normal yet though).

My tinnitus is fluctuating a lot throughout the day. Sometimes I can hear my tinnitus over a conversation and sometimes it gets so quiet I can barely hear it in a silent room. A couple of times I even had to put in earplugs to check if it's still there. It was like a fucking siren in the beginning. So there's that. I think I'm also getting more used to it and it's not causing me such insane mental distress, as it did in the beginning.

Been going on walks in nature every day without earplugs to build sound tolerance.

How are you doing these days?

 

[gameover]

Good you are improving. Looks like your hyperacusis was pretty bad.

My hyperacusis was never that bad, now it is mostly about low frequency sounds like diesel trucks or motorbikes. Most other things seem tolerable. My tinnitus is bad although it may have slightly improved. Just very tired of all this.

Best of luck.

 

[fishbone]

All our activities can possibly take a toll on our ears. It's not always that "one" thing that can possibly cause something. It's a good idea, to continue with good tinnitus hygiene. Possibly keep a journal and see what can possibly help your situation out.

Key points: Try to keep stress lower. Reduction in sugar, salt, can be helpful. Overall, protect the ears and keep moving forward.

 

[SaraK18]

I just wanted to chime in. I would protect your ears and be cautious about loud sounds for at least a year if not more.

My audiologist didn't tell me that after my acoustic trauma, and 10 months later I had a setback that I have never fully recovered from. That was two years ago. I'm doing much better, but it kicked off a prolonged hyperacusis and reactive tinnitus state that I am still dealing with to this day.

I am not suggesting you wear earplugs constantly, but what I did was thoughtlessly toss a heavy glass bottle into a recycling bin, not realizing there was a wine bottle in there and however two bottles smacked together created a loud enough sound to cause a lot of problems for me. Be careful with stuff like that!