Overprotection and Avoiding Most Noise — Yay or Nay?

[GoatSheep]

Yep, I used the subway (95 dB there), and I thought before (I remember the exact words): I should push a bit more to get back to normal, how bad the pain could be? I was sooooo wrong...

What would you say your LDL is before pain now? Is the pain immediate, delayed or a little of both? How long have you been at this level? Have you had any improvement?

I'm sorry you are in such pain. We really need one of these regenerative meds to work for noxacusis too.

I have tried sleeping without protection twice now and each time I've had pain and the next day increased sound sensitivity. But the sound in my room is such low level. It has to be in the 40s at any peak really.

I'm not sure what to do. If I should try to not wear protection while I sleep and deal with this minor pain. Or if I should continue to protect almost 24/7 and just keep periodically trying like once a week to see if I can sleep through the night without pain.

My pain levels are nowhere near your level. I can imagine dealing with that. But I am concerned I seem triggered to mild pain, by such minor stuff. Wondering if it's a sign I'm heading toward getting worse.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Yeah the dishes broke the camel's back for him. I had a similar experience. My ears were weak from shooting guns without earplugs 5 years ago. Blew a hole in my cochlea a year ago which made both ears sensitive as hell. Got in a car accident and the airbag deployment caused bad damage. Then the final straw was a brake squeal from my Hellcat Brembos. It was just enough at the right pitch to break the camel's back. I felt the nerves being ripped to bits from it and ever since I've been as bad as Tom the guy you saw on YouTube. Yeah, trust me dude, it can be that bad. Tom seems like he's over exaggerating in the video but believe me, he's not.

I remember when my tinnitus and hyperacusis were mild and barely affected my life. I watched the video and was like Tom has to be bullshitting, it can't be that bad. I only understand what I had experience with. I never knew you could get ear pain from your phone playing music on volume 1. I mean I was like these people are all just being babies. Nah bro, trust me. Shit can happen. And my pain was moderate from March to June of 2021. It was stabbing and aching but lasted maybe a few hours after a bad sound. I still kept trying to live and push though shit being the dude I am, thinking I can't just give up, I can't just give up my entire career, job, friends, the gym, everything for this. But that was before the pain got so bad I would just throw up and pass out.

I'm telling you man, if you have it like me and @Taw and tom, the pain is like nothing you have never experienced. I've torn my peck, broken bones, torn ligaments, fractured bones, had teeth pulled out with no numbing, had bulging discs in my back. The closest was when I was a kid and had like 30 warts each hand and they used liquid nitrogen to freeze them off, for one or two it was quick and not bad, but nonstop liquid nitrogen for 15 minutes was just horrible pain, and I had to go every few weeks. I used to skateboard and that sport hurts like hell and. I'm no stranger to pain bro, I'm not a cry baby. But i can tell you, the ear pain got so severe I told myself I will never leave my house again if it meant the pain will stop. I literally have thought about death every night holding my gun wanting to end it all because of the pain. This kind of pain is nasty because of where it is, ear pain like this is a bad sensation. If you felt this pain anywhere else on your body, it would not be as bad. Like a 4 on my normal ear pain days is like a 8 or a 9 on normal parts of the body.

It is bad dude, it's hard to understand when you don't have it because I didn't get it until I got it. Try to imagine you get a screwdriver jabbed all the way in your ear and the wound never heals. You feel the pain all the time and every noise including your own voice. Sometimes it feels like rubbing alcohol is being dumped into the wound. God it's seriously one of the worst conditions on the planet man. And having tinnitus with it, hahaha, makes it worse. Because any pain meds you take just make the tinnitus worse. My tinnitus is pretty bad and I don't even care anymore. But yeah I think in these cases it's like a nerve or synapse hanging on by a thread and one right noise just completely disconnects it. I don't think hair cells can be damaged that easily, I mean maybe but it's not likely.

Geez man you got it rough... fuck me

Something, anything has to help you soon.

 

[GoatSheep]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I hope I can find relief from something. I can live in silence but if I'm always in pain too, it's just rough. And yeah the deadlift caused loudness hyperacusis but not actual pain yet. So pushing through stuff didn't make me worse really, just working out would make my ears more sensitive and make the distortions in the fistula ear worse. I didn't get pain till weeks after the car accident, my car's squealing break set the pain in. Yeah it was severe pain, it hurt like hell but it went away after a bit and I only got pain from those high pitch noises, slowly, as I think my issues are synapse damage, I read synapses can keep dying over a period of 9 months.

For months I was ok in the house, no issues. I went everywhere with earplugs in just in case. No pain from artificial audio. Everything started to get bad when I yelled months later and felt the classic snap in that bad ear. Then everything started to just hurt. Even then the pain was short in duration and I was not suffering like I am now. I did my best to avoid loud noise and wear earplugs everywhere because I knew what could happen. I just kept worsening from then on. Before I was careful, and like most people with noxacusis, I would heal, build up tolerance, but after the sound therapy I tried months later my ears just stopped healing and I've been stuck with an open wound in my bad ear most of the time.

As I started getting discomfort from artificial audio, I refused to stop because I literally had nothing else to do. I kept getting more and more discomfort, then starting getting pain but continued to push through it. That didn't help. I remember my last night going to a restaurant with my buddies and I was wearing foam earplugs, everything was fine, the music, the talking, but then my friend's dad starting telling funny jokes and we were all drinking. My other friend has a high pitch squeal laugh. I kept feeling pain from it but I kept telling myself there's literally no way I can get damage through foam earplugs.

From that night onward I kept getting worse. And my ears just stopped healing. I noticed if I feel moderate pain, it's ok, but once it starts to escalate quick to severe pain, I gotta stop quick. If I don't, it's permanent worsening. I remember 3 months after the car accident I only had mild pain in that ear and was fine driving for hours with earplugs in. It just kept getting worse. It's crazy man, like I've had ear shit a long time and I'm not an idiot, I just didn't think noises literally under 50 dB could make this worse. I mean it's definitely not killing hair cells or synapses, it's probably just over sensitizing the Type 2 nerve. Only explanation for all of this.

See artificial audio was my downfall at the record store and afterward. I immediately wasn't able to watch television or listen to music after it happened. But I kept trying in short stints at first. Then I'd give it a week or something and try again. And the pain got worse. But like you said, I was listening at like 50 dB music and lower than that television.

The night my tolerance just bottomed out I listened to about 20 minutes of music and had no issues till the end and then the pain just kept getting worse. I wouldn't say it reached severe levels, but it was strong moderate.

Then I started wearing protection 24/7 for about 10 days. I tried showering without plugs or muffs and it hurt. Never had hurt before. Then I just tried like 30 minutes of exposure in pretty quiet areas of my house and the strong moderate pain would come back.

Now I'm using a journal and documenting daily exposure at very small levels. Like minutes out of an hour 12 hours of the day. So far I've been able to build up a little daily consistently without too much issue. I may have some very mild pain or mild burning here and there depending on the things I'm exposing myself too.

I can't drive, shower, watch television, listen to music or sleep now without pain. The sleeping is especially worrisome to me. Even though the pain is low level now, as you say yours kept building and getting worse. I'm 4 months in from the record store and that has been my trajectory so far.

If I become severe and completely homebound I become useless to my kids and I'll lose joint custody. I'm really hoping if I just keep up this gradual exposures with a ton of protecting for a long time I'll start to see some kind of improvement. But it's hard to be optimistic, since I've consistently gone downhill.

 

[Brian Newman]

Geez man you got it rough... fuck me

Something, anything has to help you soon.

Shit man Anything. If I could work out again without getting worse that would be big. It's crazy.

 

[Brian Newman]

See artificial audio was my downfall at the record store and afterward. I immediately wasn't able to watch television or listen to music after it happened. But I kept trying in short stints at first. Then I'd give it a week or something and try again. And the pain got worse. But like you said, I was listening at like 50 dB music and lower than that television.

The night my tolerance just bottomed out I listened to about 20 minutes of music and had no issues till the end and then the pain just kept getting worse. I wouldn't say it reached severe levels, but it was strong moderate.

Then I started wearing protection 24/7 for about 10 days. I tried showering without plugs or muffs and it hurt. Never had hurt before. Then I just tried like 30 minutes of exposure in pretty quiet areas of my house and the strong moderate pain would come back.

Now I'm using a journal and documenting daily exposure at very small levels. Like minutes out of an hour 12 hours of the day. So far I've been able to build up a little daily consistently without too much issue. I may have some very mild pain or mild burning here and there depending on the things I'm exposing myself too.

I can't drive, shower, watch television, listen to music or sleep now without pain. The sleeping is especially worrisome to me. Even though the pain is low level now, as you say yours kept building and getting worse. I'm 4 months in from the record store and that has been my trajectory so far.

If I become severe and completely homebound I become useless to my kids and I'll lose joint custody. I'm really hoping if I just keep up this gradual exposures with a ton of protecting for a long time I'll start to see some kind of improvement. But it's hard to be optimistic, since I've consistently gone downhill.

That stage before you get severe is so scary, not gonna lie. Because you don't know if you will get better or heal. It's horrible. And when you start getting pain from most things, like you said, it's like such a kick to the face. I understand this condition better than most people, but even that isn't much because it's so unpredictable. I have read crazy success stores and heard crazy horror stories... I mean you never know. I'll have to get the story and post it, someone told it to me, but some Hungarian guy had it, like me, for 5 years and got ready to end it all. The day he woke up to do it everything vanished. I mean it's seriously so unpredictable, all it takes is a few nerves just turning off for no reason.

Just keep being careful like you are. I hope you improve. I forgot if you had really bad pain from the music store but it seems, for me at least, I only get permanently worse when the pain goes over a 7 or 8 and lasts for a while, that's how I know. Other times I'll just be in pain for no reason and it will fade. I'm always feeling something now though.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Shit man Anything. If I could work out again without getting worse that would be big. It's crazy.

Hopefully soon.

 

[GoatSheep]

That stage before you get severe is so scary, not gonna lie. Because you don't know if you will get better or heal. It's horrible. And when you start getting pain from most things, like you said, it's like such a kick to the face. I understand this condition better than most people, but even that isn't much because it's so unpredictable. I have read crazy success stores and heard crazy horror stories... I mean you never know. I'll have to get the story and post it, someone told it to me, but some Hungarian guy had it, like me, for 5 years and got ready to end it all. The day he woke up to do it everything vanished. I mean it's seriously so unpredictable, all it takes is a few nerves just turning off for no reason.

Just keep being careful like you are. I hope you improve. I forgot if you had really bad pain from the music store but it seems, for me at least, I only get permanently worse when the pain goes over a 7 or 8 and lasts for a while, that's how I know. Other times I'll just be in pain for no reason and it will fade. I'm always feeling something now though.

The record store didn't cause severe pain, but it was familiar pain. Deep jaw shooting pain and pain deeper in my left ear that was like an ache I associate with Tensor Tympani tensing up.

Now the pain has been different. My ears feel really brittle when they ache and it's mostly external right now. When I was getting the strong moderate pain that was lasting 8-11 hours, it was that plus my whole face just aching. Not the same as the deep jaw pain, so different. The only thing that was familiar is I used to get tingling and pain on my forehead and that was happening.

So I'm not really sure if this means the pain is maybe more "superficial" than before and take it as a good sign since it doesn't feel as "deep" or if this new type of pain is from irritating the inner ear/cochlea and activating the Type 2 afferents more.

It's like today, I actually haven't had much pain. But I've had a lot of burning sensation on my outer ear. Not like the chisel in the ear you get deep in the ear. I've had that before in the past. And I've had the menthol feeling a lot. So since those are nerve pain sensations I'm wondering if that's a bad sign or just things behaving different.

I've had somewhat of a similar experience to the guy you mentioned where his issues went away. My sensitization in my face kept getting worse for seemingly no reason before I actually had improvement last time. Since there wasn't a trigger, I was thinking maybe this is just the nerves trying to work out what's going on now and it'll get better. I can't say that is what happened, but things did end up improving.

I mean they had improved so much that I thought I would be fine in that record store. Not that it would send me on a downward spiral.

 

[Vassili]

some Hungarian guy had it, like me, for 5 years and got ready to end it all. The day he woke up to do it everything vanished.

God had other plans for this man. Very inspiring story.

 

[Brian Newman]

The record store didn't cause severe pain, but it was familiar pain. Deep jaw shooting pain and pain deeper in my left ear that was like an ache I associate with Tensor Tympani tensing up.

Now the pain has been different. My ears feel really brittle when they ache and it's mostly external right now. When I was getting the strong moderate pain that was lasting 8-11 hours, it was that plus my whole face just aching. Not the same as the deep jaw pain, so different. The only thing that was familiar is I used to get tingling and pain on my forehead and that was happening.

So I'm not really sure if this means the pain is maybe more "superficial" than before and take it as a good sign since it doesn't feel as "deep" or if this new type of pain is from irritating the inner ear/cochlea and activating the Type 2 afferents more.

It's like today, I actually haven't had much pain. But I've had a lot of burning sensation on my outer ear. Not like the chisel in the ear you get deep in the ear. I've had that before in the past. And I've had the menthol feeling a lot. So since those are nerve pain sensations I'm wondering if that's a bad sign or just things behaving different.

I've had somewhat of a similar experience to the guy you mentioned where his issues went away. My sensitization in my face kept getting worse for seemingly no reason before I actually had improvement last time. Since there wasn't a trigger, I was thinking maybe this is just the nerves trying to work out what's going on now and it'll get better. I can't say that is what happened, but things did end up improving.

I mean they had improved so much that I thought I would be fine in that record store. Not that it would send me on a downward spiral.

If you're not in serious pain that's good. I hope you get better again because this condition is the worst. It's brutal. All we can do is wait, right.

 

[Brian Newman]

God had other plans for this man. Very inspiring story.

Yes, that can be the only explanation. I mean he went to concerts again with earplugs in. It never returned. That is only dumb luck. The nerves must have just stopped forever or god had a plan for him.

 

[aura]

@GoatSheep, do you feel ear pain immediately after exposure to a loud sound?

 

[Mister Muso]

I've experienced hyperacusis so bad that the sound of my own voice or a running tap made my ears instantly uncomfortable. Over the past 2 and a half years I've had three periods of easing off from this effect, and I'm in the third one now. I don't know if it's just the passage of time, but I've been trying not to overprotect quite as much as I had been. There have been times when I've tried that and it hasn't helped, which is why I think it may be a combination with the passage of time. I've been to a few small-scale concerts lately and whilst they've been less enjoyable through having to protect my ears, it gives me hope that I may be able to move to less intrusive earplugs i.e. musician's earplugs in future rather than the thick foamy type. I'm already finding I can play the piano quietly with my silicone earplugs only halfway in rather than all the way in, which is progress indeed.

I've seen people mention two years as being a common threshhold for relief, so I'm hoping this is the shape of things to come and I don't get any further setbacks. That's always the risk we run but we try and manage those risks as best we can.

 

[GoatSheep]

@GoatSheep, do you feel ear pain immediately after exposure to a loud sound?

Depends on the sound really.

This morning even with earmuffs on some sound in a video my son was watching gave me immediate pain. The same the other day when they were watching a movie. I was like 15 ft away with muffs on and the rumble during a certain action sequence gave me immediate pain. The volume wasn't that loud really either.

The hand vacuum gave me pain almost immediately with double protection the other day. Was vacuuming out my car. Never had issue before only using single protection Peltor X5A's.

Most of the stuff I am exposing myself to without protection right now is not that loud and I only get a little gradual pain in some cases and most often some following after I put protection back on. It's very low grade pain though. I'm only exposing myself for short periods though.

I experience immediate discomfort and like my ears tensing up and feeling jumpy to the usual sounds like silverware and stuff. Pain usually comes a little later though.

Delayed pain is one of the worst aspects of noxacusis to me. You don't know what's ok a lot of the times till after exposure.

 

[Brian Newman]

I've experienced hyperacusis so bad that the sound of my own voice or a running tap made my ears instantly uncomfortable. Over the past 2 and a half years I've had three periods of easing off from this effect, and I'm in the third one now. I don't know if it's just the passage of time, but I've been trying not to overprotect quite as much as I had been. There have been times when I've tried that and it hasn't helped, which is why I think it may be a combination with the passage of time. I've been to a few small-scale concerts lately and whilst they've been less enjoyable through having to protect my ears, it gives me hope that I may be able to move to less intrusive earplugs i.e. musician's earplugs in future rather than the thick foamy type. I'm already finding I can play the piano quietly with my silicone earplugs only halfway in rather than all the way in, which is progress indeed.

I've seen people mention two years as being a common threshhold for relief, so I'm hoping this is the shape of things to come and I don't get any further setbacks. That's always the risk we run but we try and manage those risks as best we can.

Any long lasting pain? Because yeah, I've been dealing with that level for a year and I didn't have to give everything up until I started getting severe pain from most noise. I miss just having the discomfort because the affects didn't last. Now If I am not extremely careful, I'll just be in severe pain for days. I hope I can get back to that level. This sucks. I'm glad you can go out and do stuff. Keep being careful with those ears.

 

[Mister Muso]

Any long lasting pain? Because yeah, I've been dealing with that level for a year and I didn't have to give everything up until I started getting severe pain from most noise. I miss just having the discomfort because the affects didn't last. Now If I am not extremely careful, I'll just be in severe pain for days. I hope I can get back to that level. This sucks. I'm glad you can go out and do stuff. Keep being careful with those ears.

I've certainly had feelings of fullness that can last for days. At the time of the sound spike, it can feel like a stabbing sensation closer to pain, but that sensation would usually wear off in a few minutes, leaving just the fullness. I can still get all these symptoms but just at a reduced level to before.

Back in 2019 I gave up music completely for three months, before gradually phasing it back in.

I'm sure I have overprotected at some times, and underprotected at others, especially near the start. I used masking sounds most at the start, but only use them occasionally nowadays.

I have no idea if I'll ever be able to go back to a "normal" life. But we'll see.

 

[Vincent R]

I have read some posts from people who may have experienced an improvement of their hyperacusis by protecting their hearing (wearing earplugs most of the time) and otherwise staying quiet. I also know of one person who tried this and became worse as a result.

I know that some "experts" advise against this because the auditory system will be more sensitive after removing the protection and that the auditory system is nourished by sound.

I have been using above the ear generators and listening to pink noise but I have not improved in six (6) months of this approach. I have experienced loudness hyperacusis for sixteen (16) months and have exposed myself to normal, everyday sounds. The tinnitus may have even worsened and the hyperacusis may also be more intense since I started sound therapy.

My audiologist wants me to keep using the sound generators and that he knows of at least one person who took two (2) years of this approach before their hyperacusis improved.

Not wearing hearing protection can significantly worsen your hyperacusis in case you are accidentally exposed to a harmfully loud noise. (Fire alarm, a kid popping a balloon, ambulance sirens and so on.) That's one aspect you may want to consider.

Save from that, constant protection will most likely make your ears more sensitive to noise. But not in the sense that additional, permanent injury is done to your ears; your brain just adjusts to the lower input. Thus, hyperacusis caused by noise incidents and hyperacusis caused by constant protection are different conditions. The latter can probably be cured at any time simply by ditching the protection.

 

[Brian Newman]

I've certainly had feelings of fullness that can last for days. At the time of the sound spike, it can feel like a stabbing sensation closer to pain, but that sensation would usually wear off in a few minutes, leaving just the fullness. I can still get all these symptoms but just at a reduced level to before.

Back in 2019 I gave up music completely for three months, before gradually phasing it back in.

I'm sure I have overprotected at some times, and underprotected at others, especially near the start. I used masking sounds most at the start, but only use them occasionally nowadays.

I have no idea if I'll ever be able to go back to a "normal" life. But we'll see.

Yeah normal is hard to get back to from this, but better is always possible and is livable for most people. I had to not listen to any artificial audio for 5 months. Even the slightest noise would leave me in severe pain. I found out my TV with a soundbar makes it possible for me to listen to comedy shows on a low volume. Sound from anything else still hurts like hell. Definitely a sound quality issue with hyperacusis. I never payed attention to it before.

 

[GoatSheep]

Tom Maholchic. But he played a lot in the garage with his band. The dishes were just the final straw for him, like for many of us.

Has there been any follow up to his story? Is he still homebound after all these years?

 

[Taw]

Has there been any follow up to his story? Is he still homebound after all these years?

I did not speak with him but a friend told me that Tom hasn't had pain for months, although he is still bothered by voices and other noises. So there is an improvement, but a slow one.

 

[Athens]

I did not speak with him but a friend told me that Tom hasn't had pain for months, although he is still bothered by voices and other noises. So there is an improvement, but a slow one.

It is great to hear some positive news regarding someone with such a severe situation. It sounds like he still has some challenges but has improved to some degree.

 

[GoatSheep]

Well this is discouraging for people who are stuck in 24/7 hearing protection.

Sound deprivation leads to irreversible hearing loss

 

[David S]

@Athens, what is your tinnitus like? Does it react to other sounds?

 

[Athens]

@Athens, what is your tinnitus like? Does it react to other sounds?

Yes, it reacts to all kinds of sounds (running water, squeaky wooden floors). The hyperacusis is worse than my tinnitus. I can only hear the tinnitus in a quiet room, but it sounds like an open radio frequency with some high pitched tones. The tinnitus is 24/7. The tinnitus seems more pronounced than it was last year.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Well, 1 year later with hyperacusis and tinnitus. You know me, positive as ever lol. In the beginning I was just living my life not protecting, unless I was somewhere where it was very loud. I got worse. So I started protecting while driving and not when shopping. I got worse. So I started protecting while driving/shopping and walking outside. Looking back at my logs, my hyperacusis worsened my tinnitus baseline, and I now spike to the AC when I didn't before. Only fans, rain, etc. My spikes would be short lived but now last longer. I am also getting intermittent pain randomly and only on some days. My ear does feel hot sometimes in the canal.

So I took the advice of someone here and just letting you guys know I was positive, I was living my life, and got worse.

I am thinking now I need to protect around my son with lower filters, protect when watching TV with lower filters, always protect outside and allow sound enrichment when alone at home (I work from home) in the quiet. This is my next step.

I am beginning to feel that dread pit of the stomach feeling like I am screwed lol.

 

[MindOverMatter]

Sorry to hear this @Wrfortiscue.

You certainly don't deserve it...

This is just another statement telling that we are all different, and there are no certain answers with the many facets of hyperacusis. Which in turn makes it really difficult to give any advice at all.

You are still only one year in though, and things can settle for you. Might take you another 1-3 years - only time will tell. There is always hope!

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Sorry to hear this @Wrfortiscue.

You certainly don't deserve it...

This is just another statement telling that we are all different, and there are no certain answers with the many facets of hyperacusis. Which in turn makes it really difficult to give any advice at all.

You are still only one year in though, and things can settle for you. Might take you another 1-3 years - only time will tell. There is always hope!

Yes sir, always hope, thanks for that

 

[aura]

In the beginning I was just living my life not protecting, unless I was somewhere where it was very loud.

In the beginning I didn't protect either when driving, for example, but now I am very sensitive to the sound of the car engine, so I'm always using my earmuffs in the car, not as a preventive measure but because my tinnitus spikes and my hyperacusis gets worse.

I'm sorry to hear that you're not so good.

Maybe it would be better to protect your ears when driving, outdoors and, as you said, at home when you play with your kid.

I also have stabbing ear pain. It doesn't seem to be noise related (yet) but I don't want to push my luck so I'm trying to be extra careful. I think you should do that too for a period of time.

I am not a very positive person but in the same time I can't accept the fact that this will be our life from now on.

I don't know how or when, but things will get better.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

In the beginning I didn't protect either when driving, for example, but now I am very sensitive to the sound of the car engine, so I'm always using my earmuffs in the car, not as a preventive measure but because my tinnitus spikes and my hyperacusis gets worse.

I'm sorry to hear that you're not so good.

Maybe it would be better to protect your ears when driving, outdoors and, as you said, at home when you play with your kid.

I also have stabbing ear pain. It doesn't seem to be noise related (yet) but I don't want to push my luck so I'm trying to be extra careful. I think you should do that too for a period of time.

I am not a very positive person but in the same time I can't accept the fact that this will be our life from now on.

I don't know how or when, but things will get better.

Thanks aura, we will get through this, at least I hope. I'm double protecting driving now. @Exit warned us all lol. Seems us living our lives we still got worse... maybe we are just unlucky. I still think we need sound enrichment. After taking off my earmuffs and earplugs, just crumpling of a bag was LOUD.

I think our ear pain is a small warning of what's to come if we keep worsening. Who knows.

 

[Rockman]

Yes, driving is a weird thing. My setback was from driving. I had a dB meter with me and the max dB was 80 if I hit a bump. Mostly sat around the 65-70 dB mark. One thing that didn't cross my mind was I'm a smoker and I always open the window. I'm thinking the constant pressure changes and wind noise was too much. I remember waking up the next day and my bare feet running across the floor hurt my ears. I just stood there in disbelief. It doesn't bother me now. But it has been a year. Still can't carry grocery bags without earplugs in.

 

[aura]

Yes, driving is a weird thing. My setback was from driving.

Same here