- Dec 3, 2017
- 17
- Tinnitus Since
- 11/2014 (increased 10/2017)
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Mild hearing loss
Hello everyone,
I felt like I wanted to share my tinnitus story, maybe I could help someone out or maybe someone helps me.
I am 25 years old by now.
My first encounter with tinnitus was actually februari 2012 after a concert, I did bring earplugs but later on when I was moving out from the venue I did remove them and later that evening I did experience tinnitus for the first time. However, this tinnitus was very mild by then so it faded away from time after.
Three years later during a Christmas party with my work I did wear my earplugs during (almost) the whole night. Somehow when we were a group of 10 people chatting I decided to remove the plugs because I couldn't hear the other ones talking and I though the music wasn't that loud.. and what a mistake..
Since that moment I have suffered from tinnitus in my booth ears and hyperacusis.
I went to two different ENT doctors and all they could say after I did a audiogram was that my hearing was normal, but they couldn't help me out with my tinnitus.
My tinnitus level by then was like this: I did notice it a lot if it was quiet in a room, so especially when I was about to sleep I heard it a lot, I don't really remember if it did bug me in outer situations but I do remember I was very able to listen to it in many situations. So I guess from a scale from 1-1o my tinnitus was 5 by then.
I remember having a hard time sleeping during that first period with my tinnitus, I tried to have music on in the background or an open window but I guess I didn't find that solution that great.
I did remember I had a lot of anxiety and was constantly trying try google a solution to everything, because I though by then that my tinnitus was so bad.
A lot of questions that came up inside my head was, how can you even live like this?
Time went by and somehow I managed to start live a life again, I don't remember how long it took but I would say it took about a month until i could calm down. I did protect my ears a lot during this period, tried to avoid loud situations as good as I could, and since then I've always had a set of earplugs with me.
After about 1,5 years i did not even think about it that much at all, it wasn't really bothering me at all actually.
I guess this part of the story is a success story because when I got my "real" tinnitus 11/2014 the first time was awful, I remember having a such a hard time with it and now 3 years after it doesn't really bug me at all.
I don't even remember the last time I was annoyed by it.
Now to the next chapter of my story..
This is actually a sad part.
5 weeks ago during a Friday evening at 20:30 (8.30 pm) I took the tram to one of my friend to play the guitar.
I stepped on the tram and took a seat. About 4 minutes into the trip I saw a man walking in the tram and a few feet away from me I saw him facing his head towards me, so I kindly though I just might ask me something, perhaps where he should get off, or if I dropped something.
However.. he did not, he instead punched me in the face with a "slap" that did hit right on my left ear.
I had never met this man before or seen him ever.
What I just was exposed to was an unprovoked assault.
The man that obviously had some huge issues then started to yell a few words and then went off the tram at the next stop. After the punch I decided to not do anything because I didn't want the situation to escalade.
The punch (slap) on my left ear instantly caused a extremely high tinnitus sound and my ear got all muffled, I felt like you had tons of wax in it, or the feeling you sometimes get when you fly with an airplane.
After a few calls I decided to go to the emergency room to check my ear.
I told the doctor that I had tinnitus since before but not this high, the loudness by now was like 3 times higher and I never had a muffled feeling before.
He checked my eardrum but it was not broken, so he basically just told me to get home and get some rest and it will probably be over within a few days. I guess I was in a chock at that moment.
The day after my ear was still ringing and the muffled feeling was still there, so I decided to call a ENT doctor to get more information what to do and they set an appointment for me 3 days after but all they could say over phone was that they though it would get better, so I guess I was happy with that answer..
The days went by but neither my tinnitus or my hearing loss got any better (muffled feeling).
On Tuesday 3,5 days after the assault I had my appointment with the ENT doctor, at first they sent me to do a audiogram test, and it turned exactly like I though.. it showed that I had an hearing loss in my damaged ear. The hearing loss was in the higher frequencies.
The ENT doctor did an inspecting of my ears and he said that indeed my eardrum was fine and what I had gotten was a noise induced hearing loss from the punch (slap). This slap was similar to a gunshot.
He also told me that this damage is permanent since the hair cells in cochlea usually dies after 48 hours, so after that it can't repair.
I went home and got panic and anxiety..
I started to ask myself, why did this happen to me?
I felt like I had already gotten enough ears damaged since my tinnitus in 2014.. and since then I had been super protective of my ears, always had earplugs at louder places and never listened to music loud in headphones either.
And of a sudden I get increased tinnitus and hearing loss because an idiot decided to punch an innocent person?! It just felt so unfair.
The days went by and the first week was horrible..
I had so much trouble sleeping at night, I usually woke up like 5 times per night and just couldn't get back to sleep. During the days I was crying a lot and was in general just so sad and mad at the same time.
I knew that even if the police found this guy they couldn't get my hearing back.
My left ear kept ringing like crazy and in combination with that muffled ear feeling (hearing loss) I couldn't hear like I used to ear, all the high pitch noises was gone..for example I could not hear birds singing.
Even tho I had managed to get through my tinnitus back in 2014 I couldn't see the light of the tunnel with this one..
The tinnitus was so loud that I heard it constantly, even if there were loud noises around, and during conversations my tinnitus definitely was higher the the voices.. I found out that the only time that I did not hear my tinnitus that much was during shower.
And to explain the one sided hearing loss.. I don't know where to start.. I guess I always though that a hearing loss was like normal hearing but just a bit lower, but it is not.
If you have a loss in the higher freq like me things gets removed from normal sounds, things just doesn't sound like they use to.
And the muffled feeling I have is horrible aswell, its like a constant pressure on my left ear, it feels so weird and is really annoying.
The weeks went by and I am on week 5 almost 6 when I'm writing this.
I guess I've gotten more used to the sound over the weeks, but I'm still not the same person..
I still feel that my life have shattered into small glass pieces..
At the moment the tinnitus is at the same high level and the hearing loss is the same.
But I do not have anxiety anymore I think. My sleep seems to be better now, its not great but its okey.
I am still so worried tho about how it would be to live a life like this with a one sided severe tinnitus and a hearing loss, so I guess I would appreciate any story if someone had a similar experience.
Iam a hobby musician that loves playing the guitar and recording at home, usually listening to a lot of music aswell.. I'm so afraid of how this would affect everything.
Well, I guess this was a long story, the first part is like a said a success story and the second part is horrible..
/Martin
I felt like I wanted to share my tinnitus story, maybe I could help someone out or maybe someone helps me.
I am 25 years old by now.
My first encounter with tinnitus was actually februari 2012 after a concert, I did bring earplugs but later on when I was moving out from the venue I did remove them and later that evening I did experience tinnitus for the first time. However, this tinnitus was very mild by then so it faded away from time after.
Three years later during a Christmas party with my work I did wear my earplugs during (almost) the whole night. Somehow when we were a group of 10 people chatting I decided to remove the plugs because I couldn't hear the other ones talking and I though the music wasn't that loud.. and what a mistake..
Since that moment I have suffered from tinnitus in my booth ears and hyperacusis.
I went to two different ENT doctors and all they could say after I did a audiogram was that my hearing was normal, but they couldn't help me out with my tinnitus.
My tinnitus level by then was like this: I did notice it a lot if it was quiet in a room, so especially when I was about to sleep I heard it a lot, I don't really remember if it did bug me in outer situations but I do remember I was very able to listen to it in many situations. So I guess from a scale from 1-1o my tinnitus was 5 by then.
I remember having a hard time sleeping during that first period with my tinnitus, I tried to have music on in the background or an open window but I guess I didn't find that solution that great.
I did remember I had a lot of anxiety and was constantly trying try google a solution to everything, because I though by then that my tinnitus was so bad.
A lot of questions that came up inside my head was, how can you even live like this?
Time went by and somehow I managed to start live a life again, I don't remember how long it took but I would say it took about a month until i could calm down. I did protect my ears a lot during this period, tried to avoid loud situations as good as I could, and since then I've always had a set of earplugs with me.
After about 1,5 years i did not even think about it that much at all, it wasn't really bothering me at all actually.
I guess this part of the story is a success story because when I got my "real" tinnitus 11/2014 the first time was awful, I remember having a such a hard time with it and now 3 years after it doesn't really bug me at all.
I don't even remember the last time I was annoyed by it.
Now to the next chapter of my story..
This is actually a sad part.
5 weeks ago during a Friday evening at 20:30 (8.30 pm) I took the tram to one of my friend to play the guitar.
I stepped on the tram and took a seat. About 4 minutes into the trip I saw a man walking in the tram and a few feet away from me I saw him facing his head towards me, so I kindly though I just might ask me something, perhaps where he should get off, or if I dropped something.
However.. he did not, he instead punched me in the face with a "slap" that did hit right on my left ear.
I had never met this man before or seen him ever.
What I just was exposed to was an unprovoked assault.
The man that obviously had some huge issues then started to yell a few words and then went off the tram at the next stop. After the punch I decided to not do anything because I didn't want the situation to escalade.
The punch (slap) on my left ear instantly caused a extremely high tinnitus sound and my ear got all muffled, I felt like you had tons of wax in it, or the feeling you sometimes get when you fly with an airplane.
After a few calls I decided to go to the emergency room to check my ear.
I told the doctor that I had tinnitus since before but not this high, the loudness by now was like 3 times higher and I never had a muffled feeling before.
He checked my eardrum but it was not broken, so he basically just told me to get home and get some rest and it will probably be over within a few days. I guess I was in a chock at that moment.
The day after my ear was still ringing and the muffled feeling was still there, so I decided to call a ENT doctor to get more information what to do and they set an appointment for me 3 days after but all they could say over phone was that they though it would get better, so I guess I was happy with that answer..
The days went by but neither my tinnitus or my hearing loss got any better (muffled feeling).
On Tuesday 3,5 days after the assault I had my appointment with the ENT doctor, at first they sent me to do a audiogram test, and it turned exactly like I though.. it showed that I had an hearing loss in my damaged ear. The hearing loss was in the higher frequencies.
The ENT doctor did an inspecting of my ears and he said that indeed my eardrum was fine and what I had gotten was a noise induced hearing loss from the punch (slap). This slap was similar to a gunshot.
He also told me that this damage is permanent since the hair cells in cochlea usually dies after 48 hours, so after that it can't repair.
I went home and got panic and anxiety..
I started to ask myself, why did this happen to me?
I felt like I had already gotten enough ears damaged since my tinnitus in 2014.. and since then I had been super protective of my ears, always had earplugs at louder places and never listened to music loud in headphones either.
And of a sudden I get increased tinnitus and hearing loss because an idiot decided to punch an innocent person?! It just felt so unfair.
The days went by and the first week was horrible..
I had so much trouble sleeping at night, I usually woke up like 5 times per night and just couldn't get back to sleep. During the days I was crying a lot and was in general just so sad and mad at the same time.
I knew that even if the police found this guy they couldn't get my hearing back.
My left ear kept ringing like crazy and in combination with that muffled ear feeling (hearing loss) I couldn't hear like I used to ear, all the high pitch noises was gone..for example I could not hear birds singing.
Even tho I had managed to get through my tinnitus back in 2014 I couldn't see the light of the tunnel with this one..
The tinnitus was so loud that I heard it constantly, even if there were loud noises around, and during conversations my tinnitus definitely was higher the the voices.. I found out that the only time that I did not hear my tinnitus that much was during shower.
And to explain the one sided hearing loss.. I don't know where to start.. I guess I always though that a hearing loss was like normal hearing but just a bit lower, but it is not.
If you have a loss in the higher freq like me things gets removed from normal sounds, things just doesn't sound like they use to.
And the muffled feeling I have is horrible aswell, its like a constant pressure on my left ear, it feels so weird and is really annoying.
The weeks went by and I am on week 5 almost 6 when I'm writing this.
I guess I've gotten more used to the sound over the weeks, but I'm still not the same person..
I still feel that my life have shattered into small glass pieces..
At the moment the tinnitus is at the same high level and the hearing loss is the same.
But I do not have anxiety anymore I think. My sleep seems to be better now, its not great but its okey.
I am still so worried tho about how it would be to live a life like this with a one sided severe tinnitus and a hearing loss, so I guess I would appreciate any story if someone had a similar experience.
Iam a hobby musician that loves playing the guitar and recording at home, usually listening to a lot of music aswell.. I'm so afraid of how this would affect everything.
Well, I guess this was a long story, the first part is like a said a success story and the second part is horrible..
/Martin
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