Daughter Screamed in Ear — Now I Have Tinnitus :(

[shlomo]

Hi All,

I'm totally new to this, so just looking to see if anyone has gone through something similar or have specific advice. What happened was nine days ago, I was playing with my daughter pretending to be asleep, and she screamed "DAD!" directly in my right ear. I was immediately alarmed it might have caused some damage, but the tinnitus actually didn't start until I woke up in the morning the second day after it happened. It's a moderately loud and relatively consistent high pitch (sometimes changing slightly in frequency). It's especially annoying at night, although using a sound machine helps.

I visited an ENT doctor three days after it started and both my eardrum and hearing acuity were fine, but he said there's no way to tell if/when the tinnitus would go away, which is quite alarming. He prescribed me a 14-day course of Prednisone with the hope that bringing down the inflammation would help the presumably damaged hair cells heal, but it's been four days since starting and there's no significant change yet.

So, it's definitely a bit stressful knowing I may have to deal with this the rest of my life, and I'm wondering if there's anything else I can do in these early days to help get over this, or if anyone has gone through something similar. Thanks for any advice.

 

[star-affinity]

I'm no expert, but I think if your hearing acuity is fine then your hair cells aren't damaged and if they get enough rest they should be OK and maybe then the tinnitus will stop too.

I think you just need to give it time and don't jump to the conclusion that it will be the same for the rest of your life, just yet.

But it might take time (weeks, months, a year?) to recover. Hard to tell.

What I would do advise is to be careful about listening to music/noise all night long. As long as the music/noise is low enough it's fine, but sometimes it's difficult to know what "low enough" is in the long run.

Do you feel any "hollowness" or "fullness" in the ears? Then it's time to take a brake from music/noise. I think the recommendation is for at least 18 hours – then the fullness/fatigue should have time to go away. But "listen" (hehe) to your own ears when it comes to this.

I'd also suggest setting a timer for the music/noise being played at night so that it stops once you have fallen asleep. The ears need to rest too. But sure, if your noise machine is low enough in volume it should be fine.

I managed to damage my perfectly fine left ear two weeks ago by masking my tinnitus with music – something I had been doing in a similar way for months. But this week my ears started to feel "full" and "hollow" and was whooshing in a way they hadn't done before. I put some toilet paper in to dampen things a little and that worked one night, but the second night I woke up from my ear doing this high pitched "twisted chirp" and I now have a high pitched hiss and some high pitched hearing damage on that ear.

So be careful with masking. While I know it can be really helpful at night, I think the aim should be to try and sleep without masking if possible. If you get used to the masking it becomes like an addiction that might not really be needed but is something one is used to and expect being there.

Discussion about masking here:

To Mask or Not to Mask... That Is the Question!

 

[Julien87]

Hi and welcome here,

You did everything you could healthcare-wise: you saw an ENT and you were prescribed Prednisone.

I think the only thing that can really help now is to try to keep a positive mindset, and not convince yourself (and your brain) that this noise signal will be here for life. Keep in mind that there are chances it can go away. I think that plays a great role in recovery.

Also, as said by star-affinity, stay away from loud noises for a while...

Good luck

 

[CDNThailand]

Hi and welcome here,

You did everything you could healthcare-wise: you saw an ENT and you were prescribed Prednisone.

I think the only thing that can really help now is to try to keep a positive mindset, and not convince yourself (and your brain) that this noise signal will be here for life. Keep in mind that there are chances it can go away. I think that plays a great role in recovery.

Also, as said by star-affinity, stay away from loud noises for a while...

Good luck

Are you ok by now?