Dog Barks

[Ilova]

Hi everyone,
I hope this is posted in the right place of the forum, I'm new here so if not, I apologize.

Little information before:
End of January I got hearing damage with tinnitus due to an acoustic trauma.

The first month the tinnitus was really bad but I'm not going to go into detail about it right now.

I was lucky to have a doctor that allowed me to follow hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The therapy worked and since two weeks, there is no physical damage measurable in my ears anymore. So my ears are considered physically healthy & healed.

I still have T and hyperacusis. It's not as bad as it used to be, so I'm very grateful for that.

The doctor told me it could take some months to get my ears to adapt to the fact that they are 'healed' so that this is normal and that there is a chance the T gets less/goes away.

What happened:
My T gets worse when I'm stressed or tired or when my dog barks when I'm nearby. I try to avoid this as much as possible but he's young, playful, and I have to take care of him. His barks are really loud, I measured and they were around 107(!) db.
About an hour ago, for a moment I didn't pay attention, I was not wearing earplugs and he barked really loud at 10 cm from my ear. (One loud short bark.) Didn't see it coming so now I feel very stupid.. My T is much worse at the moment.
And of course I'm really worried right now as well.

My question:
Should I see a doctor and is it possible I have damaged my ears again or am I completely overreacting and is it just acting up because of all anxiety I'm experiencing right now?

It just happened an hour ago so I have a hard time thinking rational about it. So I figured I would ask people with more experience with T at the forum.
What should you guys do?

Greetings!

 

[Michael B]

If you spend any time on this site, you'll read about spikes. Basically it's a temporary increase in the volume of your tinnitus lasting anywhere from hours, days or even weeks. Sounds like that's what you experienced. It may have been caused by the bark, but exacerbated by the stress. It's hard not to worry about an increase in one's tinnitus, but there's a good chance it will return to its baseline volume in time.

 

[Ilova]

Thank you for your reaction.
Been doing some reading here at the forum and pretty good chance that's what's going on indeed.
I just hope 107 db 10 cm to my ear didn't do any new damage, but time will tell. I'll see how the next couple of weeks go

 

[NimQ]

I actually had a very similar scare last weekend. I was taking care of this dog for a couple of days and it got these crazy barking fits, out of nowhere. It's ridiculously loud, as you measured. Same thing happened to me with the dog barking directly to my ear, it literally hurt. Next day I had this new sound in my ear and I just panicked, deeming it permanent. Turns out it wasn't and my T is now back to its normal sounds. So for me - similar incident - turned out okay and I am hopeful yours will too and very likely will.

And what you said about stress/tiredness affecting your T, I think it's very possible these type of spikes are often caused - or at least boosted - by the stress and anxiety reaction. I also really empathize with the scare! It's horrible, especially when one really knows the decibels are high and starts to doubt if irreversible damage happened. For me it really helped to just use masking noises to drown out the T completely and get distracted by anything. The worst thing is getting fixated on tinnitus sounds, as that will just tell brain that "this is important" which furthermore activates the nervous system generating the sounds. So it could help to make it your priority to do things that can calm you down and try to trick your brain into concentrating on something else.

 

[threefirefour]

I never liked dogs much anyways but this absolutely sealed the deal. I'm never gonna have one.

 

[Ilova]

NimQ: Thank you very much for your helpful reaction & tip about tricking your brain. I'm listening to music at soft volume as I type

threefirefour: Wouldn't recommend a loud dog to someone with T indeed
On the other hand I concider my dog as one of my very best friends, so he's a great support to me.. if he's quiet

 

[Michael B]

My dog is 11 and is losing her voice. She tries to bark but it's just not the same.

 

[BadratDay]

My doggo is crazy, always barking at the slightest noise, I love her but its pretty stressing to sit with her, she can go boom at every moment :/

 

[Ilova]

It's a while ago I started this post, but it might be helpful to some people: it was a spike and my t went back to normal level. (I can't exactly say how much time it took before it went down because I got the flu a week after it happened and that spiked my t big time as well.)
But it WENT down and I saw my ENT meanwhile and tests showed no extra damage was done.

 

[glynis]

@Ilova,
Great to hear your tinnitus has calmed down again.
Love glynis