Noise-Induced Tinnitus from a Wood Workshop

[Grete]

Hi!

I have had tinnitus for 3 weeks now. It started when I visited a wood workshop and stayed there for about 20-25 minutes without ear protection. While I was there, the noise did not seem to be too intense, but afterwards my ears hurt a lot and sounds were muffled. Next day, my ears were still in pain and I developed a pulsatile tinnitus in my right ear. So I went to the emergency room. They did hearing tests and everything and told me that I should be fine. There was no sign of acoustic trauma. Yet I was struggling a lot. All the sounds were loud and painful (hyperacusis).

At the time I was also suffering from severe depression and this trauma did not help me at all. I had had insomnia for many month prior this incident and still had insomnia after the incident. I was taking 15 mg of Mirtazapine daily, but after trying to get myself checked in a psych ward, they told me to start taking Zoloft and Quetiapine. So I did. 7 days after the trauma, I noticed that I had very mild tinnitus in my left ear as well. This sounded like a high pitch noise. I got extremely stressed and googled tinnitus for almost a week non-stop.

A week after the incident, I got ear wax removed from my left ear. After this, the tinnitus became even louder. Now it's been 3 weeks and I am left with a very high pitch ringing in my left ear (different tones and a bit like tea kettle) and a pulsatile tinnitus in my right ear. I did blood tests and I have severe anemia, so I started taking iron supplements and b12 as well.

Anyway, my depression has gotten a bit better. I was prescribed 0.25 mg Xanax, because I had too much anxiety. My main issue is the tinnitus, which is quite loud and hard to mask. I try to avoid loud noise (first week I still listened white noise at a low level from my headphones, but not anymore). I have lost all my hope. Will this stay forever? I don't think I will be able to live with this constant high pitched noise in my head

 

[KBombRN]

Give it time... this is what an audiologist who specializes in tinnitus told me. Could take up to 6 months, longer for some people. Let your ears rest. Eat healthy. I hope it starts to fade out soon. Try not to get overly anxious . I did the first month, but now I'm much more calm and letting time take its course.

 

[Mark82]

Hi there, try not to worry .. the noise can subside to either silence or a very low level hiss and get better over time. Personally I worked in a factory for 7 full years that was very loud with wearing ear plugs that I don't believe were sufficient.

 

[Grete]

Hi! It's been now one month since the incident and meanwhile my tinnitus has gotten better. The last couple of days, my pulsatile tinnitus has been almost totally quiet just after waking up, but later in the day I can still hear it, but much less. The high pitched tinnitus is still there, but now it's not screaming over everything. I can hear it mostly only when I wear earplugs. Hopefully it will get even better with time! =)

 

[PortugalTheMan]

Hi! It's been now one month since the incident and meanwhile my tinnitus has gotten better. The last couple of days, my pulsatile tinnitus has been almost totally quiet just after waking up, but later in the day I can still hear it, but much less. The high pitched tinnitus is still there, but now it's not screaming over everything. I can hear it mostly only when I wear earplugs. Hopefully it will get even better with time! =)

I find it strange that the acoustic trauma has given her pulsatile tinnitus.

Have you ever had a CT scan or an MRI to rule out other pathologies?

 

[Stacken77]

I find it strange that the acoustic trauma has given her pulsatile tinnitus.

This is just my speculation, but I think a lot of things can modulate tinnitus once we have it.

It may not be fully comparable, but mine is totally noise induced, but I can modulate it a bit through jaw movements. We usually call that somatic tinnitus, and it's very common even for noise induced tinnitus. If jaw movements can modulate it, so can probably the heartbeat given the right circumstances.

Stacken

 

[Brandon Wong]

@Stacken77, mine was noise induced, but past the 2 month mark, I realized I can increase it by clenching my teeth or flexing my neck. Guess the brain started to do its own thing even though it wasn't supposed to be somatic.

 

[Grete]

I agree that it is strange that I developed pulsatile tinnitus after the noise trauma. I find that it could be related to my severe anemia, but I'm not sure. Next week I have an audiologist appointment... if it's not going to get cancelled, because the corona situation is really bad right now in my country. Thanks for the support!

 

[Freerunner]

@Grete, how did you have your earwax removed? I have tinnitus with hyperacusis from over a week now. It was caused by caloric test (blowing hot air in both ears for a minute). Since then I had my ears a bit deafened for two days but this subsided. However, the noise in the head , the sensitivity to sounds and pain in years still here. The hyperacusis came several days after the procedure. It does not get any better. The only thing I was advised was to clean my earwax (which is not so much) and I am wondering If I should still try it. ENTs do not offer me a manual removal, only with a water syringe.

First started with high pitch hissing sounds and now I developed one high pitch one like a siren which comes and goes. Today it is unbearable. I also noticed that clenching my teeth and moving my neck from side to side do change the sound a bit.

Guys, can this be considered as an acoustic trauma? Are you aware of any people with similar conditions that got better?

I pray everyday that it subsides so I can at least run my life back to normal to some extent. I have extreme anxiety and I am taking medicines to calm myself down. I am looking for solutions and therapies all day long but I am starting to loose hope. This ear year been extremely difficult for me and I am not sure how I deserved this... From the start I had severe problems with disc herniation, shoulder trauma, windpipe trauma, head injury that leads to vertigo still, my longtime girlfriend left me because all of my health issues, and now this... Why do we have to suffer like this guys...

 

[Grete]

Hi, Freerunner!

I got my ear wax removed also by a water syringe. Before that procedure, I used ear drops for a week. I can totally understand your tinnitus anxiety. First 2-3 weeks were insane for me. I would recommend you to try to distract yourself. The more you think about your tinnitus, the louder it gets. Anxiety will only worsen it.

What kind of medication are you taking?

My hyperacusis got better after a week. Now I don't feel that it's that much of an issue. Yours will hopefully go away soon as well.

All I can say is that try to distract yourself and protect yourself from loud noise. Hopefully it gets better with time, as it does for most of the people =)

 

[Freerunner]

@Grete,

I am taking Grandaxin and Atarax at the moment. Alongside with the high pitch hissing sound in both ears I also have another one which comes and goes.

Do you think that the earwax removal did the trick? Didn't it irritate your ears since you had hyperacusis as well?

 

[Grete]

@Freerunner, I think I had tinnitus before the earwax removal, but maybe it just got louder because the wax got removed. But I don't know. It could also be just related to the stress or the antidepressants I was taking. Today I had my first visit to an audiologist and she had me take an hearing test again. Turns out that my right ear with pulsatile tinnitus had hearing loss after the incident. One month later, the hearing had restored and she said it was a good sign. Otherwise my tinnitus has remained the same for the last weeks.