Should I Avoid Any Loud Situations at the Moment?

[Anthony Micallef]

I've been told that exercise is good for your t so I played a game of football/soccer with some friends but I was getting annoyed at the noises around me like when someone strikes the ball and hits the wall etc. or when someone raises their voice as guys do in sports . When I got home my t was screaming but I went to sleep nod it seems to go down a bit. But I'm very anxious that I m making further damage to my ears cos I felt a bit of fullness on the left ear

 

[Magpie]

Sometimes hyperacusis mild or otherwise accompanies tinnitus. And sometimes with tinnitus our hearing becomes sensitive. It usually settles down over a period of time and maybe your ears is a bit sensitive atm. Exercise is a good distractor and good for our health so you should do what you get enjoyment out of. Maybe you could try some ear plugs to cut down some of the noise next time.

 

[driven insane]

Yes, avoid any loud situation especially any prolonged, persistent loud noise. I had tinnitus for years, and stupidly assumed "it couldn't get any worse" because I am a moron. So I spent a long time around very loud engines and drilling with no ear protection (I can't stress how stupid and avoidable this was), and much like anyone would expect this caused more hearing damage and much louder tinnitus.

The moral of the story: get some noise cancellation headphones and wear them whenever you expect anything to be loud. Or if those are prohibitively expensive, get some ear plugs. The custom earplugs your ENT can give you would be the best but if those are still too expensive, just wear any earplugs. Low quality ear protection is better than no ear protection.

 

[erik]

Carry some ear plugs but don't over protect or you can make your ears over sensitive to even normal sounds. Normal everyday sounds will not harm you. If you are going to be exposed to loud sounds like at the movies, concert, loud public places, then wear them.

I just got back from playing 2 hours of indoor soccer, no ear plugs. When I first got T, I quit exercising and doing sports. After about a year, I got back into it. For several months, my T would spike every time after playing, but I eventually adapted and now I play sports 3-5x a week and no spikes, or little spikes I don't pay any mind to. You will be fine.

 

[Zimichael]

Anthony...

Sigh! I looked up your Profile to see if I could find out more about you/your situation/your tinnitus, and...like so many others there is nothing there to help me. PLEASE DON'T BE OFFENDED! However it is a pet peeve of mine that answering questions or trying to help with no background is like throwing darts over my shoulder and hoping it will hit the board...I mean, look how many different types of tinnitus there are for starters! All over the map - from blood pressure/vascular-circulatory/pressure/TMJ/neck stuff/anxiety-stress/plain old "BANG" sound induced/long term/repetitive/constant...etc., etc., etc.
It sure helps to have more info than less, but again, don't take this as a personal criticism as most on the board have no info either.

Anyway, my short answer to your question, with no basis to judge, is: YES!!! Don't play with fire unless you know why it's burning.

Incidentally I wonder if you are/were taking a simple medication like Ibuprofen at the time??? Or any other med??? (If so what, if you don't mind me asking).

I have found these "pre-warnings" of increased "annoyance-kind of hurts" sensitivity to noise and especially residual fullness/bruising to be 100% predictive of future danger FOR ME!!! I can only can speak for me OK. But even with all my awareness, experience, history...I sort of did not think much more of it at the time(s) as my consciousness just shined it off.
"Mmmmmmmm, I seem a little more annoyed at sound today. Oh well, maybe I'm just tired" Or some such lame mental flitting thought. I had been having long periods of slow improvement and adaption so the brain "forgets" (or my idiotic one did! - well, like it's designed to do I guess or we would never forget traumas enough to ever walk out the door each day).
It's like the old joke about hitting your thumb with a hammer driving in a nail or whatever...you think/know you are going to do it before you even strike down with the hammer, then "wham" you hit and sure enough you zapped your thumb! "Ouch, ouch, ouch...I KNEW ! was going to do that!"...yet we still ignored the warning!

Same deal. Consider a sudden, new hearing sensitivity level to be a potential pre-warning... Play it safe until you know what's going on, or it just cools off and you find that same level of sound (LATER) OK again and not annoying or sensitizing...back to baseline.

And...I would still be super interested to know if you were taking a new med of any kind.

Take care, Michael