Here's a bit about me and my story, I am a 24 yr old full time musician. I play probably 100-150 concerts a year, at which i always wear foam ear plugs and try to not stay in the main room other than when I am performing. Ive been playing loud music since I was around 14 and didn't mess with earplugs until I was 18-19. Also during those years I was attending weekly concerts also without ear plugs.
I started to notice around 2008 that my ears would feel full a lot. I was always prone to ear infections as a child, so this was not the most alarming thing. As the years went on I definitely noticed it was worse and went to a few doctors and was told I was fine. i'm not sure when the ringing, or in my case a hissing with a slight tonal ring under it which changes in frequency and volume somewhat regularly after this last spike.
Last year I had ruptured my ear drum, to me it is unknown how this happened. I was diagnosed with that two days before leaving for a 2 month tour so I was forced to deal with it during the time. Near the end of the tour I had developed really bad pulsatile tinnitus in my left ear, and some less serious ringing in my right. The PT cleared up in a few weeks (I assume it was allergy related) but it seemed the ringing was a bit more prominent. Finally going to see an ENT I was diagnosed with choleteatoma, he told me it was about an 8/10 as far as severity.
I had the cholesteatoma removed. As a result of that my hearing started to slope from a 20db loss at 1k to 30db at 2k to 75db at 4k going up slightly to 70 at 8k. The ringing was definitely worse after the surgery but I think I was able to habituate to it easier thinking that it would lessen as it healed. I'm not sure if it did but habituation seemed to take over.
Last month i completed my first tour since the surgery in December. I noticed about halfway through that the T seemed to be affecting me more. I came down with a cold around the same time and it was also allergy season, so I again chalked it up to that. Upon getting home though it doesn't seem to be better. Its made me really depressed and anxious, to the point where I can't tell which is causing the other. Im unsure if it was fear of the ringing getting worse that made me pay more attention and monitor it, or if it actually got worse. Sometimes ill listen to it and think its not bad but other times it'll bother me greatly even though I'm unsure if i can consciously perceive a change in volume.
Looking into treatment options has been scary, it seems often times what works best is not good for people with high frequency hearing loss. I haven't really found anybody who can relate, and I'm unsure what to do
I started to notice around 2008 that my ears would feel full a lot. I was always prone to ear infections as a child, so this was not the most alarming thing. As the years went on I definitely noticed it was worse and went to a few doctors and was told I was fine. i'm not sure when the ringing, or in my case a hissing with a slight tonal ring under it which changes in frequency and volume somewhat regularly after this last spike.
Last year I had ruptured my ear drum, to me it is unknown how this happened. I was diagnosed with that two days before leaving for a 2 month tour so I was forced to deal with it during the time. Near the end of the tour I had developed really bad pulsatile tinnitus in my left ear, and some less serious ringing in my right. The PT cleared up in a few weeks (I assume it was allergy related) but it seemed the ringing was a bit more prominent. Finally going to see an ENT I was diagnosed with choleteatoma, he told me it was about an 8/10 as far as severity.
I had the cholesteatoma removed. As a result of that my hearing started to slope from a 20db loss at 1k to 30db at 2k to 75db at 4k going up slightly to 70 at 8k. The ringing was definitely worse after the surgery but I think I was able to habituate to it easier thinking that it would lessen as it healed. I'm not sure if it did but habituation seemed to take over.
Last month i completed my first tour since the surgery in December. I noticed about halfway through that the T seemed to be affecting me more. I came down with a cold around the same time and it was also allergy season, so I again chalked it up to that. Upon getting home though it doesn't seem to be better. Its made me really depressed and anxious, to the point where I can't tell which is causing the other. Im unsure if it was fear of the ringing getting worse that made me pay more attention and monitor it, or if it actually got worse. Sometimes ill listen to it and think its not bad but other times it'll bother me greatly even though I'm unsure if i can consciously perceive a change in volume.
Looking into treatment options has been scary, it seems often times what works best is not good for people with high frequency hearing loss. I haven't really found anybody who can relate, and I'm unsure what to do
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