Hi guys,
I recently got tinnitus for the first time - I was out at a nightclub and unfortunately ended up very close to the speakers for 2-3 hours.
Initially I had no tinnitus for the first two days although I did regret exposing my ears to the level of sound involved.. then I started to notice slight ringing in my right ear.. then in my left too. It got worse from days 3 - 6 however my GP advised me to give it a couple of weeks and it should be gone. It seemed to be settling reasonably well after two weeks of rest but on day 14 I went out to a nightclub (with earplugs) and it came back worse than before.
It's now been 2 weeks and 5 days and I still have the ringing. It's intermittent. Sometimes it's a high pitched tone, other times its like the faint noise of a fan in the distance.
The strange thing is that after exposure I'd of thought the worst period would be the first few days.. but it almost seems like the onset is delayed or that it gets worse over the days following exposure. Initially no ringing for couple days, then very slight ringing (only perceptible with ear plugs and noise cancelling headphones), now ringing thats sometimes loud enough to hear above the din of London traffic noise.
Hopefully it will start to settle.
One thing I've noticed is that whilst there is a lot of advice for managing chronic tinnitus, there isn't a lot of advice for managing the acute stages. I'm not sure if the damage caused by tinnitus is analogous to a twisted ankle but I would of thought the period immediately after noise exposure is an important time to protect the ears - in the same way as you might use crutches for a while after hurting your ankle. It's hard to know whether the best thing to do is to avoid all loud noise (eg. even wear ear plugs walking along the street. avoid the cinema/TV etc.) or whether it's better to get your ears used to normal noise but avoid excessive noise.
My thinking is that if tinnitus is caused by the brain amplifying sounds disproportionately, then wearing earplugs a lot might actually encourage tinnitus as the brain gets used to compensating for an abnormally quiet environment. On the other hand, maybe the ears really need rest and the less pressure you put on them the better meaning that wearing earplugs constantly for the first couple of weeks might be a good idea. I don't know which is true.. even the doctors I've spoken to don't seem to be clear about that.
I've decided to take the next few weeks and just avoid loud noise. I had started to wear earplugs everywhere but now I feel that may be counter-productive - although I'm avoiding excessive noise (eg. bars/clubs/noisy restaruants) I feel like my ears need to adjust somewhat to normal levels of sound and also I'm trying not to get too paranoid about it.. I know I'm anxious and that this might make things worse.
Overall I just wanted to put this out there, maybe some of you can relate to it. I'll post updates every now and then to tell you whats going on.
At the moment I've had an ear test at Boots and hearing is normal. I've spoken to a few GPs and their advice has ranged from 'it'll almost certainly settle down with a few weeks of rest' to 'it's impossible to know when it'll settle down.. it probably will but it might not'.
I'm getting an ENT referral to get further specialist advice. The only consistent advice I've got is to say stress can make it worse so try to forget about it.. this is challenging but I'm gonna try!
Nick
I recently got tinnitus for the first time - I was out at a nightclub and unfortunately ended up very close to the speakers for 2-3 hours.
Initially I had no tinnitus for the first two days although I did regret exposing my ears to the level of sound involved.. then I started to notice slight ringing in my right ear.. then in my left too. It got worse from days 3 - 6 however my GP advised me to give it a couple of weeks and it should be gone. It seemed to be settling reasonably well after two weeks of rest but on day 14 I went out to a nightclub (with earplugs) and it came back worse than before.
It's now been 2 weeks and 5 days and I still have the ringing. It's intermittent. Sometimes it's a high pitched tone, other times its like the faint noise of a fan in the distance.
The strange thing is that after exposure I'd of thought the worst period would be the first few days.. but it almost seems like the onset is delayed or that it gets worse over the days following exposure. Initially no ringing for couple days, then very slight ringing (only perceptible with ear plugs and noise cancelling headphones), now ringing thats sometimes loud enough to hear above the din of London traffic noise.
Hopefully it will start to settle.
One thing I've noticed is that whilst there is a lot of advice for managing chronic tinnitus, there isn't a lot of advice for managing the acute stages. I'm not sure if the damage caused by tinnitus is analogous to a twisted ankle but I would of thought the period immediately after noise exposure is an important time to protect the ears - in the same way as you might use crutches for a while after hurting your ankle. It's hard to know whether the best thing to do is to avoid all loud noise (eg. even wear ear plugs walking along the street. avoid the cinema/TV etc.) or whether it's better to get your ears used to normal noise but avoid excessive noise.
My thinking is that if tinnitus is caused by the brain amplifying sounds disproportionately, then wearing earplugs a lot might actually encourage tinnitus as the brain gets used to compensating for an abnormally quiet environment. On the other hand, maybe the ears really need rest and the less pressure you put on them the better meaning that wearing earplugs constantly for the first couple of weeks might be a good idea. I don't know which is true.. even the doctors I've spoken to don't seem to be clear about that.
I've decided to take the next few weeks and just avoid loud noise. I had started to wear earplugs everywhere but now I feel that may be counter-productive - although I'm avoiding excessive noise (eg. bars/clubs/noisy restaruants) I feel like my ears need to adjust somewhat to normal levels of sound and also I'm trying not to get too paranoid about it.. I know I'm anxious and that this might make things worse.
Overall I just wanted to put this out there, maybe some of you can relate to it. I'll post updates every now and then to tell you whats going on.
At the moment I've had an ear test at Boots and hearing is normal. I've spoken to a few GPs and their advice has ranged from 'it'll almost certainly settle down with a few weeks of rest' to 'it's impossible to know when it'll settle down.. it probably will but it might not'.
I'm getting an ENT referral to get further specialist advice. The only consistent advice I've got is to say stress can make it worse so try to forget about it.. this is challenging but I'm gonna try!
Nick
