Both My Hearing Loss and Tinnitus (Almost) Cured — Caused by .223 Sniper Rifle Fired Near My Ear

[Jrblovsky]

Twa,

Unfortunately I have not had any improvements. My tinnitus is a loud roar with a high pitched ring or sometimes cicadas. The noise is all over the place and changes constantly. Honestly the worst part is the ear pain and extreme pressure in the ear. I'm using Maxzide, was on Diamox but the pressure isn't going down.

Doc wants to look into sac decompression surgery since I am having severe pain from the pressure.

 

[GBB]

Twa,

Unfortunately I have not had any improvements. My tinnitus is a loud roar with a high pitched ring or sometimes cicadas. The noise is all over the place and changes constantly. Honestly the worst part is the ear pain and extreme pressure in the ear. I'm using Maxzide, was on Diamox but the pressure isn't going down.

Doc wants to look into sac decompression surgery since I am having severe pain from the pressure.

I'm sure you've done tons of research but since your profile mentions Meniere's have you tried Pycnogenol? I think people with Meniere's tend to respond better.

 

[Jrblovsky]

I will have to try that. Anything to get the pressure down would be amazing. The pain is getting to be unbearable.

 

[Bill Bauer]

It spikes after I come out of the shower though...

When I noticed that, I began taking baths. I had been taking baths for over a year. Then I began wearing earplugs during showers. Eventually I was able to stop wearing earplugs when showering.

 

[GBB]

I will have to try that. Anything to get the pressure down would be amazing. The pain is getting to be unbearable.

I'm just going off the guy Mario in the below linked page who said it helped his Meniere's symptoms.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/posts/543159/

 

[n_li808]

@Bill Bauer Oh wow. So you had spikes that stopped after a while? Do you still get them?

 

[Lane]

Anything to get the pressure down would be amazing.

@Jrblovsky -- You might want to consider DMSO, which is one of the most effective substances for reducing inflammation and reducing cranial pressure. Once it started being used in ERs to rapidly bring down head and brain pressure resulting from closed head injuries, deaths from those types of injuries plummeted. Starts working in less than 5 minutes. I use it regularly in combination with magnesium to reduce inflammation, stiffness, and pain in my neck and lower back. I also apply the residue to my eyelids, which has done wonders for my eye health. -- Best.

 

[GBB]

@Jrblovsky -- You might want to consider DMSO, which is one of the most effective substances for reducing inflammation and reducing cranial pressure. Once it started being used in ERs to rapidly bring down head and brain pressure resulting from closed head injuries, deaths from those types of injuries plummeted. Starts working in less than 5 minutes. I use it regularly in combination with magnesium to reduce inflammation, stiffness, and pain in my neck and lower back. I also apply the residue to my eyelids, which has done wonders for my eye health. -- Best.

Dumb question but do you apply it to your ears and has it done anything for your tinnitus?

 

[Lane]

Dumb question but do you apply it to your ears and has it done anything for your tinnitus?

@GBB -- Not a dumb question at all; in fact, I'd say it's a fairly astute one. -- I do regularly apply it to my ears, along with my neck and shoulder areas. I started a thread last year sometime on some of what I've learned about DMSO, and why it could be helpful for various issues that affect people's tinnitus. Here's the link:

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)

You also might find this tidbit about DMSO interesting.

 

[GBB]

@GBB -- Not a dumb question at all; in fact, I'd say it's a fairly astute one. -- I do regularly apply it to my ears, along with my neck and shoulder areas. I started a thread last year sometime on some of what I've learned about DMSO, and why it could be helpful for various issues that affect people's tinnitus. Here's the link:

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)

Thanks - I don't have TTS but I'll give it a try. I need to fully digest what you wrote. I remember another forum member who claimed that DMSO and Liposomal Turmeric helped reduce their tinnitus and reactivity, and was focusing on emulating a 1975 study (linked below) in which DMSO had a beneficial impact.

Thank you for affirming it has some merit.

Dimethyl sulfoxide therapy in subjective tinnitus of unknown origin

 

[Tara Lyons]

When I noticed that, I began taking baths. I had been taking baths for over a year. Then I began wearing earplugs during showers. Eventually I was able to stop wearing earplugs when showering.

I went back to using earplugs In the shower. Just not worth the aggravation.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I went back to using earplugs In the shower. Just not worth the aggravation.

If earplugs is enough to not get a spike, then that's what you want to do.

 

[twa]

Yes! I had exactly this, still to this day, but it's a minor inconvenience that I handle by rolling the end of a piece of tissue and inserting it into my ear canal gently and drying all the water. I do this several times to make sure I get it all. Goes away after a few minutes when I do this, otherwise stays for hours on end while my ear canal/ear drum is wet. It's a lot less these days so I can get away without it but I still do it out of habit.

Have hope. it's still early, my initial audiogram was 2 months out from the cause, so going by that it should have been permanent, but my current audiogram shows both my conductive and sensorineural hearing loss have gone back to above -10dB, 11 months after the gunshot. And I'm going to say the situation for me only changed around 9-10 months in.

I'm not going to go as far as to say it's what it used to be, I can still feel some slight pressure in my left ear on occasion, especially if I have an energy drink, coffee, i'm stressed or I listen to too much music, which didn't happen before, but my ear is probably 90-95% back now. I'm hoping for more improvement over the next year, but if not, I'm fine with this

So very happy for you! You are young and have so much life ahead of you! Be safe and take care, enjoy a beautiful life!

 

[Mavris]

@Screeeee, are you here? I think we have an answer to our question. Main point is to listen to music, or TV with the ear in which the tinnitus started. Of course first of all check your earwax. Then you train your ear with music and movies.

 

[sensualmosquito]

I have been dealing with this situation for over a year (454 days as of today, not that anyone's counting) and I'd say that my tinnitus stabilized for the most part after about the year mark, or perhaps a little earlier than that. It's hard to say. What annoys me the most is certainly the reactive tinnitus, which I don't know what to do about. I have an air filter that I sleep with (makes white noise) and that helps, but it gets hard to do many of the things that I want to do with my time (play the piano, and here eventually doing things like listening to lung sounds while in nursing school). I haven't gone really aggressive with treatments like pink/white noise therapy, so maybe that's the issue. I could also stand to improve my diet, since I eat many things I shouldn't (lots of sugar and salt). I am also finding myself drinking beer more frequently in leu of the therapist I probably need to talk to. I hope that this thing gets better since I have gotten pretty used to being a little deaf in my right ear. I would do just about anything to get this stupid sound out of my ear, but I also realize that it could be considerably worse than it is. On the scale of 10, I would put it at an average 5.5-6 although I'll occasionally have days where it's a 7.5/8 and others where it's 1 to 3. It fluctuates quite a bit.

I'm patiently waiting for the tinnitus turn-off implant, or the FX-322 nanoparticle package, or the OTO-???, or whatever comes out that actually works. Not a day goes by where I don't at least have a passing thought about the thousand different ways I could have prevented this, but thankfully I live in a time where there actually is hope for a treatment/solution. I think of it this way - even if a treatment could cut my symptoms in half, I'd be much more than twice as happy. Even if I'll never be free from this as long as my heart is still beating, I'd greatly appreciate something better than this. I'm willing to wait, but hopefully not too long. If my twenties have to be like this, then so be it. But my thirties? Hopefully either they find a way to fix this by then, or the war starts and I get vaporized by a thermonuclear weapon lol.

 

[Nathan1212]

Hey man. I'm 6 weeks in today after a Glock 30 .45 ACP went off by my head inside of my closet. I just really need hope that it can get better. Been struggling mentally.

This was the first audiogram taken the next day, approximately 18 hours after the incident and I received steroid injections up to 4 weeks thereafter:

This below audiogram was taken at 4 weeks (28 days) after the incident. I just want to have faith that it will continue to get better. Please any positive feedback!

 

[MatthewR]

I went through something similar. I want my hearing back.

 

[Jammer]

I went through something similar. I want my hearing back.

I can't hear above 4 kHz. You'll get used to saying 'what?".