Spike or Further Damage?

[matfromaust]

Hey guys

I posted once when I initially had a ringing in my ears, it was brought on or atleast made noticeable after I had impacted ear wax.

After having my ear cleaned the ringing went down by alot, it was always still there and I couldn't even remember if I always had it and never really noticed or if it was something new.

Since then I've been more careful with my hearing, turned the music down. Always wear ear protection at work, I'm a carpenter and use power tools.

If anything I would have said I was ok with it, it was only a problem if I slept with my ear cupped on my pillow.
Today however, I was in a very noisy environment, inside a new factory working, there was a 20tonne excavator doing work inside the shed to make way for the concrete floor, generators and power tools going.
Since my initial onset I went to the hardware store and bought the most expensive ear muffs I could that claimed to block out the most noise, which they do. I wore those ear muffs all day today and I thought it was ok, they blocked out a good amount of the noise. Surprisingly I was the only person who had ear protection On.
Now I sit here typing this wondering why my tinnitus feels louder again? Could the ear muffs be doing something with the pressure inside my ears? I feel like my hearing is fine, if anything I keep feeling like I'm talking too loud for conversation but my partner assures me I'm not.

I feel scared, sick in the stomach at the thought it will be loud again like the ear wax. Going through this makes me understand the feeling of being depressed. I don't want to be a downer but I wanted to get this feeling off my chest and hopefully see if anyone else had experienced similar Symptoms.

Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this

 

[glynis]

Hi Mat,
Well done for using protection on your ears.
Your ears might have a little spike from wax or just from the nosy machinery but should settle back to your base sound again in a day or so .
Try stay calm as stress will ramp up your tinnitus....lots of love glynis

 

[dboy]

Hi. Wearing ear protection all day could make your hearing more sensitive and spike your tinnitus temporarily. I hate wearing protection for long periods for this reason. Wearing ear protection is obviously important around loud sounds but as I understand the situation (not perfectly), if you wear it too much then your hearing/brain might try to compensate for the loss of input. Unfortunately this is catch 22 if you work around loud noise a lot.

I hope this is all it is. My advice would be try to work somewhere quieter for a couple of days (if this is a possibility) and see if it calms down without the ear defenders on. Best of luck.

P.S. I'm not advising to avoid the ear defenders if you are still around loud noise however. Better to have a temporary spike and over sensitive ears for a few days than to damage your hearing and have worse t for life.

 

[matfromaust]

Thanks for replying guys

I was wearing the ear muffs for a good 9 hours, they're double insulated for noise so when you wear them its Almost like being deaf so it's very possible it made my hearing sensitive.

Luckily it's not my every day work environment, typically I work on new homes but the builder I work for managed to get 2 factory jobs. Which for me is a nice change and the excavator being there was more of a once off and should hopefully be gone when I go into work today.

If this is a spike as it's called, it's my first one and to be honest it's quite scary that this has happened as they're still ringing after a nights sleep.
How long does a spike typically last?

 

[Quentino]

Yeah,spikes does not mean more dammage. When you have tinnitus it can spike just for no reason. Fleeting tinnitus happen to a lot of people who have T, but it just that their body react to the fact thay have already T, it's not a sign of dammage.

 

[dboy]

How long does a spike typically last?

Can be a few days up to a few weeks. Your t is still fairly new, and I think more likely to be up and down a bit because of that. Try not to worry if you can - stress just makes it worse.

 

[matfromaust]

I thought I would do an update post here as the ringing is still more noticeable than what I was use to.

I feel like my hearing is normal for me. When I first got tinnitus it was from impacted ear wax, the drops you use to clean the ear "soften" the ear wax and made it worse by making the blockage expand. I was told to use it by the gp so after 4 days of usage they could remove it. Ended up going to an ent and they removed it with a vacuum and said they don't like the ear drops as they tend to make things seem worse. Which is did, my ear felt like I had something shoved in it, I could barely hear out of the ear and the ringing noise was very loud.

After I left the hospital I could still hear a ring, but maybe a 2/10 of what it was, today it feels like a 4/10.

I'm wondering if the fact I've also been using ear plugs, the kind that are on a bar and you can reuse could be pushing the wax deeper? Pushing dirt in? I wore this same type of hearing protection the day I first got tinnitus.

It seemed like I got impacted ear wax in one day, I went to two gp's and one mentioned that ear wax doesn't built up that fast and with the amount I had I should have had noticed it getting worse for a while. But I hadn't, I was sick, went to work and came home with my ears ringing in one day.

Another side note is after the ent doctor had finished cleaning my ear she said there was still a little bit left in there but it was still hard and would have required more hydrogen peroxide so we left it, I was happy at the time as I felt normal again, but could it have just helped the wax get worse over time? It's been about 2 months.

Another thing I'd like to mention is I'm certain it's only the left ear, the ear that had the impacted ear wax that's ringing. The only way I can tell though is if I block my ears one by one only the left ear gets louder when blocked. Other than that it's hard to pint point.

Thanks guys