Got Tinnitus 6 Weeks Ago — 43 Year Old Male from OZ

[MartyinOZ]

Greetings fellow worriers,

So here it is:
2 months ago I was admitted to hospital suffering severe migraine / cluster headaches. While there I was administered much medication, aspirin, europhen, etc. I was a guinea pig to make the pain go away.

Anyway... 2 months after I was volunteering at a Youth Group while the band played some music (max 20 min exposure), it did not sound loud, but when I walked out I heard a constant 'ringing sound' in my ears. 6 weeks later still here. It seemed to be better a week ago, but unfortunately I needed to take my child to a 3 year old's birthday party (indoor kids play center). There I think this additional 2 hours of kids yelling has made the tinnitus feel elevated.

Have been to 'Eye & Ear Hospital' and the hearing test showed that my hearing was considered 'fine' for my age - no hearing loss. Yet this loud constant tinnitus continues. My ears also ache lightly if exposed to sound for a while, sensitivity sounds are elevated. I was given Valium to relax and told to go home and time will make things better.

It's tough........ my mood is shot, my anxiety high, while worry overwhelms me at times. I have a 3.5 year old daughter and I find it hard to give her the deserved attention as my joy is shot.

Words of encouragement... any advice would be helpful

Marty

 

[DanielJ]

Advice:
Tinnitus caused by Acoustic trauma should reduce down over time so don't worry too much about it.
Hearing tests administered by ENT are often useless unless you have noticeable hearing loss, they will tell you generic positive things just to keep you happy and get you out of there. The reality is if you are still hearing a ringing after 6 weeks its not going to just go away, it will most likely reduce down to a baseline level that you can only hear in a silent room. You will habituate in 3-6 months and it won't be an issue.

Try not to get stressed over it because that will definitely make it appear to be worse. If you are constantly checking for it then you are always aware of it, try not to do this, once you get past this stage its habituation.

Don't worry about future noise exposure, random environmental noise is fine and wont make it worse, maybe stay away from live music for 6 months but even going to noisy bars shouldn't worry you in the near future. It will reduce down to a baseline and stay that way imo.

 

[Autumnly]

Personally disagree with the post above. That's the kind of overly optimistic post I see a lot when it comes to supporting someone who recently developed tinnitus but it paints an overly positive picture of tinnitus in general.

Your audiogram could be perfect but you could nonetheless have hidden hearing loss or hearing loss in the higher frequencies. The pain you're describing could be pain-hyperacusis.

Try to relax and distract yourself, stay away from loud events, protect your hearing from loud sounds, have some natural sounds or white noise on in the background (over external speakers) during the day and during the night. You could also try taking magnesium and NAC.

Don't get me wrong, your chances are still good that you will see improvements and for many people it gets better but there is a severe side to tinnitus and I don't want anyone to end up with severe tinnitus because they were told they don't have to worry about it getting worse. However, I genuinely hope the post above will be true for you and that your tinnitus will reduce to such a mild level if not go away completely.

 

[Mathieulh]

Avoid loud noise exposure (anything over 65 dB) without wearing ear protections at all costs for the few months after the onset, you need to let your ears heal, do not listen to headphones, especially soon after the trauma for the same reasons. Ears heal slowly and improvements can still be seen up to 2 years after onset. That said, it is likely that your cochlear sustained permanent, irreversible damage, just don't make it worse and let it heal the cilia that are damaged but not yet dead, depending on where the damage is, it may or may not make your tinnitus go away or drop in loudness.

You need to realize though that the likelihood of being cured of tinnitus after a month is thin, and will likely require actual treatments such as the ones currently at clinical trial stages for inner ear cell regeneration. Tinnitus after a noise trauma is usually the result of cochlear neuropathy, this is not a condition that usually fixes itself on its own (although it can happen if the damage is not too substantial). You need to aim towards habituation and wait for treatments/cures to become available down the line, we are likely still 10 to 15 years away from seeing a cochlear cell regeneration treatment become available, meanwhile palliative care, such as Lenire or CBT are currently your only option, Lenire wouldn't be what I would label as wildly available either.

If you are only 6 weeks from onset, I also suggest you attempt HBOT sessions as those may allow your ears to heal faster and are relevant up to 3 months from onset (you would need multiple sessions to see any positive effects).

 

[DanielJ]

It depends which way you look at it. You can prepare someone for the worst obviously but he was looking for some encouragement and advice which I think I gave. I do feel like most of the advice that will be given by members isn't realistic to what most people experience. The idea of wearing earplugs to leave the house or taking prednisone because a car horn went off nearby sounds crazy and over the top to me. For most people its a baseline noise which may go up and down from time to time but excluding any serious noise trauma shouldn't get any worse.

This message board isn't representative of the general population imo.

 

[Mathieulh]

It depends which way you look at it. You can prepare someone for the worst obviously but he was looking for some encouragement and advice which I think I gave. I do feel like most of the advice that will be given by members isn't realistic to what most people experience. The idea of wearing earplugs to leave the house or taking prednisone because a car horn went off nearby sounds crazy and over the top to me. For most people its a baseline noise which may go up and down from time to time but excluding any serious noise trauma shouldn't get any worse.

This message board isn't representative of the general population imo.

Wearing earplugs/earmuffs outside the house makes sense when you suffered a noise trauma recently and the outside environment is noisy (over 65 dB) and you need your ears to heal.

It doesn't make sense if you had trauma a year ago and are just overparanoid about noise exposure (unless the outside environment is really noisy, like walking nearby a construction work or whatnot).