New Sufferer to Loud Tinnitus, Help!

[RallySportRyan]

Hello everyone!

I've had an unfortunate incident a month ago where I went to a new indoor shooting range. I always wear ear protection in the form of foam ear plugs that have a 32db nrr. This particular range allows patrons with rifles. About midway into my 1 hr shooting session I think one or two people showed up with a shotgun and a high powered .308 rifle. Once they began firing I should have just got out of there or at least been told by a range officer to double up with ear muffs because it literally felt like it shook the whole range every shot. I finished the entire 1 hr session. I fired 100 rds of 9mm and 100 rds of 40 cal ammo.

I never did notice any ringing or cotton ball effect on my hearing after leaving the range that night and went to sleep. The next day I decided to mow and weed eat the yard which took about 2 hrs to do with foam ear plugs but no muffs. That day I didnt notice anything different with my hearing either. Then by Friday morning and definitely by Friday night the ringing in my ears was unbearable and I only got 4 hrs of sleep for the next 2 or 3 days.

On the 5th day I finally went to immediate care about my problem and told them about taking prednisone for my acoustic trama. He agreed to start me on a 12 day regimen of 10 mg pills 4 times a day and then taper off. He also gave me a steroid shot that night in the thigh to get it going. I noticed on the 3rd or 4th day my tinnitus went silent but I was having some hypercusis.

Well after tapering off by the 12th day my tinnitus came back about the same as before. So I scheduled an appt with an ENT since my T spiked back up. The audiogram shows that my left ear is fine and robust at all frequencies. My right ear is reduced at 6 to 9db around 5 to 6 kHz and 19-20db around 8-9 kHz :-(. Thats the right side the rifle/shotgun people were on but several stalls down from me. I am hearing ringing in both ears though.

The ENT talked about the intratympanic injection in my ear but he wanted to put me back on prednisone first for 14 days and to take all 4 10mg pills each day for a week and then taper off. This time around though the prednisone is not working as well as the first course I took 3 weeks ago. What are my other options left to get this tinnitus under control?

I've been taking NAC this whole time since the first round of prednisone and I am now taking Inner ear health pills (aka lipo-flavonoid). So far my T is slightly reduced but I can still hear it above certain sounds like for example air rushing out of the floor vents at night doesn't mask it :-( What should be my next course of action?

This is depressing and maddening knowing what I had before all this incident occurred.

Thank you all!

 

[BobDigi]

Hi I'm no expert but I think you should take extra care of your ears for the next few weeks. You don't need to go mad and sit in a silent room. But you need to give your ears a chance to repair.
If there's anyone else you can see for instance your doctor, do it now.
There's still a good chance your tinnitus will subside. But in the meantime, and easier said than done, try not to monitor it all the time. Sometimes it will change in volume and severity. But just allow it to do its thing. Monitoring won't help it, but it may contribute you you getting more upset and stressed.
I've read some people have relief from nasal steroid spray. But my understanding is, the soon you start use, the better the chance of it helping.

 

[Michael B]

First off, I'm sorry this happened to you. I can't speak from a medical point of view, but you do want to protect your ears from futher damage. That means using earplugs when necessary (mowing the lawn, using power tools, etc) and while it wasn't mentioned, not using earphones or even headphones. There are those here who believe they can worsen noise induced tinnitus and I agree (it happened to me). As far as the gun range is concerned, I would personally keep my distance for awhile.

 

[Bobby B]

thats pretty much how i got my T except I was the one shooting the rifles and machine guns, in fact I have been shooting with large bore 7.5mm assault rifles since the age of 15 and did it in the military as well, and after ...sometimes the hearing protection used was not very adequate.

my T was very loud the minute I left the shooting range last time in 2015 and never really stopped ever since. And the loss was 35 db at 4khz and 50db at 8khz and beyond . I recovered some of it months later though. Now its maybe 20db at 4hkz and 30 at 8, ski slope after that and i cannot hear beyond 12 khz

Did not get steroids until 2.5 weeks ..so you did the right thing, and your T did not start right away its a very good sign, I am confident it will vanish given the minor hearing loss and quick action. Make sure to protect your ears in the next 12 months and you will be fine

 

[Jason37]

@Bobby B when you say 30 dbl...do you mean it is 30 dbl out of the normal range or that is where it is on the chart. Mina is 37 at 6000 hrz on the chart. I feel blessed as my T is very mild most of the time.

 

[RallySportRyan]

@Bobby B when you say 30 dbl...do you mean it is 30 dbl out of the normal range or that is where it is on the chart. Mina is 37 at 6000 hrz on the chart. I feel blessed as my T is very mild most of the time.

It means his decibel level response to that frequency is down 30db compared to the rest of his hearing range. He would need to amplify that certain frequency a lot (hearing aid) to perceive it at the same level as the rest of his normal hearing.

 

[Jiri]

I'm super sorry to hear that. A lot of people agree that tinnitus may get better between 1 - 6 months. My ENT told me that our ears have some capability of regeneration up until 1 year after onset. A neurologist told me that there are cases of people whose tinnitus disappeared 2 years after onset.

In any case you might find this thread helpful: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-many-recover-3-studies.21441/

Also, seeing you're a shooter you might find this report helpful too:
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/earplugstore/recommendations-for-shootrs-and-hunters.pdf

Cheers,

J

 

[Bill Bauer]

Check out the thread below where I summarize everything (27 tips) I learned about managing tinnitus after reading the posts on this forum for the past year.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

[PaulBe]

Congrtas on getting a Doc who took the steroid solution seriously. You are already one-up on most of us. The problem I have with this is that I think its something that probably requires higher dosing for longer than the Medical profession currently recommends. You may still get out of this OK.

 

[RallySportRyan]

Congrtas on getting a Doc who took the steroid solution seriously. You are already one-up on most of us. The problem I have with this is that I think its something that probably requires higher dosing for longer than the Medical profession currently recommends. You may still get out of this OK.

Thank you! Im trying to be as proactive as I can to get this T hopefully resolved. How many more milligrams and days should I continue on taking prednisone? I'm already suffering side effects of insomnia and bad acne on my back from taking another 2 week course in less than a month. This 2nd treatment isn't working as well as the first since I can still hear my T when it's silent but It has dimished during daily tasks with background noises.

 

[Bill Bauer]

How many more milligrams and days should I continue on taking prednisone?

The standard course is 14 days at 1 mg per day per 1 kg of body weight, max 60 mg per day + taper. You might ask for another steroid injection...

 

[PaulBe]

since I can still hear my T when it's silent

That may be as good as it gets, in which case your steroids have probably worked as well as they will. You got good cover. I'm impressed with your Doctor.