Starting My Tinnitus Recovery Journey After a Gunshot

[Christopher E.]

Hello All,

Thank you for your advice over the last month I have been lurking on. It's helpful to see a community of suffering working together and trying to help others solve their tinnitus even before their own. I hope I can be a contributing member as well to helping us all get on track.

I want to start by saying I am a faithful man, so I will be praying for you all. I know to some it won't mean anything and that's okay. But it's my way to give back a little in the beginning.

I hate reading super long posts so here is my quick story.

I shot a .300 win mag rifle at a deer on November 3rd, 2019. It was my first big game animal that I harvested to feed my family. If you don't like hunting I am sorry for the detail here but I believe it's part of my story. I instantly had muffled hearing, hyperacusis, and ringing. The muffled hearing has gotten better, the hyperacusis has as well. I was sensitive to water running at first and now it's only certain sounds of voices at high volume. The ringing has been constant.

I took prednisone for two weeks with no results. I have a hearing loss at the 4 kHz frequency. My tinnitus is also a 4 kHz tone.

I am looking into a hearing aid to help with my loss and mask some of the tinnitus.

I am trying a number of other things but I am open to suggestions from folks much wiser than me that had hearing loss and what helps early on. It's been 1 month today.

My dog is currently freaking out and needs to go outside so I will catch up with more later.

Thanks in advance.

God bless,
Chris

 

[billie48]

I want to start by saying I am a faithful man, so I will be praying for you all. I know to some it won't mean anything and that's okay. But it's my way to give back a little in the beginning.

Warm welcome to the forum, Christoper.
There are members here who are persons of faith too, myself included. Your prayers are needed too besides your advice to those who in need of help. Feel free to contribute any time you want. If you feel much better than consider writing a success story so others can benefit from your experiences.

God bless you, my brother of faith,
Billie

 

[Christopher E.]

Thank you, Billie! I really appreciate the warm welcome. Hard and Easier days lie ahead for me I am sure. So far I would say my tinnitus is a 4 or 5/10. It is constant in my left ear with some fluctuations for 30 seconds or so randomly a few times during the week. I am trying a Widex hearing aid for now to correct some of the hearing loss. I also am taking some supplements but I am trying to narrow down what kinds and dosages. I have eliminated caffeine, sugar, alcohol, carbs, and salt. I don't currently exercise enough so that will be beneficial for my mood and blood flow I would assume.

I have lost 30 lbs since my tinnitus started. I have been depressed and my mood swings daily from hopeful to hopeless. I am most concerned about the toll this might take on my marriage. My wife is handling it well so far but I am hoping I can overcome this soon so she has "ME" back.

A few questions I would like to ask.

1) I pressed on the back of my neck one morning and my tinnitus went WAY UP. I haven't been able to replicate this but I do work a desk job and have poor posture. I know I got my tinnitus from the gunshot because it started then and has not stopped. Could my neck also play a role in tinnitus though? Should I look into it or was it probably a coincidence?

2) NAC - I am just one month in. Should I be trying this stuff? It has me a little confused and I don't want to make my condition worse

3) Any noised induced folks with notch hearing loss? My Audiologist said I have a notch at 4K and a slight dip but still normal hearing at 6k. I'd be curious to hear about others with notched hearing and tinnitus or other shooters/hunters.

Thanks in advance. Praying for you all.

 

[Bobby B]

You look young if this is your first ear injury it will improve a lot over time but it may take 1 to 3 years, be patient

don't expose the ears to more noise and don't use hearing aids to amplify noise this may make things worse or delay healing. keep yourself busy during the day and use smartphones speakers and the MyNoise app to generate sound enrichment at night.
I got T shooting insanely loud large caliber rifles, was in the army and also did recreational target shooting with large cal rifles since the age of 14, and regularly visited loud nightclubs for 2 decades , played insanely loud car music and of course loved portable music players since the walkman years, so its not only due to shooting all is added up.

 

[AfroSnowman]

Chris,

I'm going to keep this short becauseI have to run, but I wanted to say that I am praying for you as well.

First of all it is very possible that you will get better, but that is something that we can't control, other than taking care to not do further unnecessary damage.

I'm 8 months in to my healing journey this is what I have learned. I was in trauma for the first 2-3 months. The situation was maddening and honestly I didn't see how I supposed to manage. I had no choice but to get better, even 'pretending' to be Ok-ish as much as I could because of the toll it was taking on my family.

Fast forward sometime in months 2-4 my panic response to the screeching stopped. Sometime between months 4-6 I ceased hating the sound. Months 6-8 I am getting closer to fine; I'm living at almost peace with my noise. Not perfect, not without its challenges but even with the same sound in my ears that drove me mad half a year ago now it is more of an annoyance and at times I forget to notice it.

My advice:
Have faith brother, you will likely improve or heal entirely, but even if you don't know you will get to fine. At this point I am quite sure in another 2-4 months I will be fine. In the meantime be kind to yourself. Give yourself every break imaginable ,what you are going through in really hard. Try to stay busy if you can. The happiest I am is when I am busy, but especially early on there were times (and still occasionally even now) that I had to acknowledge that it was very hard and therefor I couldn't do something I might otherwise have done. Over time you will have less and less times like this, but right now be kind to yourself take the time and space when you need it. Don't hide from sound, make good decisions, buy a good pair of earplugs to have in your pocket but don't hide from sound. Rely on your loved ones, you got hurt and you will need their help for a while, sometimes this isn't an easy role for a man to take. Last I would advise asking a doc for Xanax, itty bitty tiny dose and only when you can't stand it anymore, but especially early on when you are having a panic response it can take just enough of the edge off to make it more manageable. Do not make a habit of the stuff! I have never taken such a thing before, but having read descriptions of people that take it regularly scares the bejebbies out of me. I never have and I used it occasionally and sparingly during my first 6 months but it saved me some real misery on my worst days.

Peace brother

 

[AfroSnowman]

notched hearing and tinnitus or other shooters/hunters

Not sure what did mine, but I have done some shooting in the past. I have a 6 kHz notch.

 

[Bill Bauer]

It's been 1 month today.

Have you noticed any fading or change in pitch, compared to how you felt three weeks ago?

 

[Christopher E.]

don't expose the ears to more noise and don't use hearing aids to amplify noise this may make things worse or delay healing.

Thanks, Bobby! I appreciate the reply. I'm just about to turn 31 so not as young as I'd like to be. My photo was from about 3 years ago but I look the same. The Hearing thing is interesting. My doc has told me it will help to bring my hearing back up in my notch and maybe trick my brain into thinking it can hear that freq. and it might drop the tinnitus. Do you think there is validity to that?

I am looking into a Widex with TRTherapy. I also have explored notch therapy as well. Now I am wondering if the hearing aid is a good or bad idea... (I've been testing one for almost two weeks and it feels like I can hear better)

 

[Christopher E.]

Fast forward sometime in months 2-4 my panic response to the screeching stopped. Sometime between months 4-6 I ceased hating the sound. Months 6-8 I am getting closer to fine; I'm living at almost peace with my noise. Not perfect, not without its challenges but even with the same sound in my ears that drove me mad half a year ago now it is more of an annoyance and at times I forget to notice it.

My advice:
Have faith brother, you will likely improve or heal entirely, but even if you don't know you will get to fine.

Thanks, Afro! I really appreciate the details. It's helpful to know there could be healing ahead for me. My poor wife is putting up with a lot from me right now. I am trying to hard to be the man she married but it has really taken a toll on me. I was in a panic response early on, probably part of 3-4 weeks. These last couple of days I have tried to better position my mind and I although it doesn't seem better, I am dealing with it a LITTLE better.

I guess right now I just hold a lot of guilt for not protecting my ears. This condition is something I knew so little about. Like anyone, my ears rang after hunting birds or shooting a big rifle at an elk. But it always used to stop after a few hours or even a day. When you get past a few days and realize it's not stopping that can throw you immediately for a whirl. I am holding on to faith. I thank god for how good I have it and have been praying desperately for relief.

Here's something I heard that helped me recently. "When you ask God for healing or for any matter in your life, the bible says to put it up to God and he will always provide. It may not be immediate or in the timing you are hoping for but the second you say your prayer, consider it done. God has promised to take care of you."

Anyway, I will implement some of your suggestions. Xanax might be in my future. I am not a big pill guy but I have some underlying anxiety that doesn't help...

 

[Christopher E.]

Have you noticed any fading or change in pitch, compared to how you felt three weeks ago?

Hey Bill! Nice to meet you. I see you might have a similar scenario (acoustic trauma) that started your tinnitus. I have noticed a couple of things. Here would be my observations.

-Right after the event I immediately had muffled hearing, hyperacusis, and a loud ring
-The ring faded a little over the first couple of days but was still very audible.
-The muffled feeling lasted about a week and a half. Hyperacusis went from faucet water running hurting my ear, to the fan on my truck hurting my ear, to now where certain levels of my own voice or speakerphone in my car is midly annoying sounding (Almost feels like vibrations in my ear at certain levels).
-The ring has stayed a fairly constant 4 or 5/10 and I matched it to a 4K tone. HOWEVER, yesterday I had a much better day. It seemed that parts of the day the tinnitus had decreased to a 2 or 3/10 for brief periods. It might have been my more positive attitude I was trying to put on but it seemed the sound diminished for little parts of the day (1-2hrs at a time).
-Today the ring is back up a bit and I am not sure if it's related but I have been trying some supplements which I restarted last night.
-Sometimes it seems like the tone is a little higher frequency at times. But if I listen really hard I can find that same 4K tone. Is it possible to have two tones in the same ear at once?

Two weird observations:
-I have the tinnitus in my left ear but sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night and I swear I can hear a higher frequency but drastically quieter ring in my right ear. It seems to come and go. I have noticed it once during the day. I can't decide if I am just hearing my left ear in my head at times so it seems like my right ear is ringing too or if I could actually have it in my right ear at times as well. Regardless, my right ear is very manageable as it can't be heard in most silent room situations.

-One morning I was rubbing the back of my neck. I moved my hand upward toward the base of my skull while pressing firmly. Almost immediately my left ear T went from a 5 to a 9/10 for about 20 seconds. I was freaking out a bit. Then I did it one more time and it happened again for 15-20 seconds. Now I can't seem to get this to happen anymore. I have been rubbing my neck all over but I am not sure what that was all about.

Lastly, I have noticed the temporary T where my ear goes muffled, the T goes really loud and then it goes back to my baseline. I had that randomly before this event so it wasn't super shocking that it's still happening now.

That's a WAY longer answer than you wanted but I am new to this so I figured it might give you guys more clues since you are much more knowledgable than myself.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Is it possible to have two tones in the same ear at once?

Unfortunately, the answer is "yes." Some people are tormented by a large number of tones...

HOWEVER, yesterday I had a much better day

This is encouraging. Based on my own experiences, and on what I learned after reading the posts on this forum almost every day for the past 34 months, what matters is the monthly trend and the global lows. It makes sense to ignore the daily/weekly fluctuations and retracements.

In your case, the T is making new lows, and that's a sign that hopefully it will continue to gradually fade and eventually you will get to "can hear it only in quiet rooms" stage or even get to hear silence again. You will need to be patient, as healing is a gradual process. It can take 6-24 months to experience significant fading. Another fact is that the more it fades, the slower it tends to fade.

Many (not sure if they are the majority or the minority) people discover that once they have T, their ears have been compromised and the noises that they wouldn't even notice in the past, can give them a huge (sometimes permanent) spike. It makes sense to be easy on your ears and to stay away from the loud sounds (and even moderately loud sounds like that of a vacuum cleaner, power tools, etc) during this time of possible vulnerability. In the future your ears might become more resilient.

It looks like you are making a recovery. Hyperacusis often goes away, but it can take up to a year to go away. Yours seems to be going away a lot faster than that.

In any case, I believe that for now it is reasonable to assume that you will get better.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

[Bobby B]

@Christopher E.
I think that the 4khz loss will recover naturally after a while but maybe not the high frequency loss- above 12khz You don't need a hearing aids to help with 4khz since there is enough sound of such frequencies in daily life.

Give you ears rest, your audiologist wants to sell these aids but you should avoid for the time being.
31 is young you will be fine but it will take some time

Don't go shooting anymore even with ear protection

 

[RichardGuy]

Praying for you too, Chris. Next year please take electronic hearing protection... and a can, if possible.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Next year please take electronic hearing protection

I would wait at least 2-3 years before taking that risk.

 

[Bigboi1221]

Bro same things happening to me right now but from a firework I've had it for a month 2 weeks ago my gp told me that she has a good feeling it's going to go away(long story short) she told me it's going to fade well 2 weeks later man and my tinnitus is at a 1. When it first happen it was at like a 9 and I'm using a scale of 1-10 but I'm not sure because I used the scale in my own head don't laugh at me lol. Btw the firework was thrown as I was driving down the road. But I'm 17 I graduate this year and I plan on moving in with my buddies not sure how to even do that now I'm so scared but it is getting better anyways hope u feel better man praying for u

 

[Christopher E.]

But I'm 17 I graduate this year and I plan on moving in with my buddies not sure how to even do that now I'm so scared but it is getting better anyways hope u feel better man praying for u

Hey Bigboi,

Well, I am super glad you have gotten some relief. There are days I feel like mine is a 2/3 out of 10 and days I feel like its a 5. Definitely seems to fluctuate a bit.

I graduated from college in 2012. About 6 months prior to finishing my degree I was hit with really bad Vertigo. I had it constantly almost 24/7 for almost 8 months. Everywhere I went it felt like I was on a cruise rocking back and forth. I had to finish college and go to school every day like that as well as work a 40-hour job on a sales floor at BestBuy. I didn't see how it would be possible to move in with my best friend at the time and enjoy my twenties. But I did. I just forced myself to and guess what? My vertigo got better. I finally figured out it was linked to diet but I think my stress about it played a big role in the intensity which sounds much like tinnitus. Surround yourself with people you enjoy, even if it doesn't fully go away you will get a lot of distraction from being with your friends and family and hopefully habituate sooner. I bet you will recover though.

Best of luck and I'll be praying as always.

Chris.

 

[Nick M]

Hey Bigboi,

Well, I am super glad you have gotten some relief. There are days I feel like mine is a 2/3 out of 10 and days I feel like its a 5. Definitely seems to fluctuate a bit.

I graduated from college in 2012. About 6 months prior to finishing my degree I was hit with really bad Vertigo. I had it constantly almost 24/7 for almost 8 months. Everywhere I went it felt like I was on a cruise rocking back and forth. I had to finish college and go to school every day like that as well as work a 40-hour job on a sales floor at BestBuy. I didn't see how it would be possible to move in with my best friend at the time and enjoy my twenties. But I did. I just forced myself to and guess what? My vertigo got better. I finally figured out it was linked to diet but I think my stress about it played a big role in the intensity which sounds much like tinnitus. Surround yourself with people you enjoy, even if it doesn't fully go away you will get a lot of distraction from being with your friends and family and hopefully habituate sooner. I bet you will recover though.

Best of luck and I'll be praying as always.

Chris.

Hey Chris,

I've had tinnitus for a couple of years now from an unusual viral ear infection that caused some mild nerve damage and undetectable HL. This set off my tinnitus one night in that one ear and I went on a two year old rollercoaster. All I can tell you is that it will definitely improve. There's also a good chance it gets worse before it gets better. At least that was the case for me. My tinnitus was on and off at the beginning and only in the affected ear. About a year later, the tinnitus morphed into bilateral head tinnitus. This is where you no longer hear it from one side or the other, it's just in your head. I tried EVERYTHING and I mean everything... From medications to natural supplements, diets, exercises etc etc. All of them had some affect but they were either unsustainable or short-lived at best.

If your tinnitus is like mine, it has it's own cycle as to when it's there and when it's reduced. What I can tell you in these few years that really affects my tinnitus is #1 Lack of sleep/rest and #2 Stress. These two are the absolute worst for tinnitus and it's pretty consistent from person to person. My major goal is to make sure I get more than an average amount of sleep and to keep my stress levels down. I also use sound therapy during sleep these three things combined has kept my tinnitus in check for most of the year in 2019.

What has kept me sane is the fact that if my tinnitus is a 9 today, it always settles down to a 2/3 in the next couple of days so I no longer freak out when it's a 9 thinking it's going to stay there. You will learn it cope with it when you have learned it's pattern. Keep positive and patient as anything having to do with the ear takes a long long time to heal.

 

[Christopher E.]

I just wanted to come back and post an update. I still have my tinnitus but it is fluctuating a lot. It can be fairly quiet one minute and the next ramp back up to baseline. No real rhyme or reason to it. I have been doing some fasting and whether I am eating or not it seems to bounce around in volume a bit. I have been listening to the Neuromodualtion video I posted above at night in headphones on low and it seems to help sometimes too. My T varies but at Night seems to be when it's closer to baseline and middle of the day it drops pretty significantly.

I am not sure if these are signs of it fading or not but I will take the quieter periods.

I will continure to keep you posted.

 

[JohnAdams]

it is fluctuating a lot.

go get a big bottle of curcumin and take it with food every night. take like several grams.

 

[MRItechssuck]

Turmeric or curcumin... what's the difference?

 

[Cape crusader]

If you have hearing loss get the hearing aids. Widex Evoke is what I bought and they increase your hearing and thus the brain isn't searching for the missing sounds. This will in turn lower the brain from trying to "sing along" to make up for the hearing loss. Also they have built in maskers that act like TRT over time. You can control everything on your phone, not only what Widex offers, but you can Bluetooth anything including other masking apps, radio stations and even your phone calls.

I am not a dealer, work for or own any stocks in Widex. I did tons of research and found them to be the best. Warning: they are costly. But is your heath betterment with it? ....darn right it is.

 

[Christopher E.]

go get a big bottle of curcumin and take it with food every night. take like several grams.

I have heard of it. What is the benefit? Is there a certain reason to take it with fluctuating T?

Turmeric or curcumin... what's the difference?

I have the same question.

If you have hearing loss get the hearing aids. Widex Evoke

I just bought one. Got a smoking deal. It was the Passion 440. Paid just over 2K I think.

 

[JohnAdams]

I have heard of it. What is the benefit? Is there a certain reason to take it with fluctuating T?

It helps me ALOT to keep my tinnitus on the low low. It also have many other health benefits and is a power anti-oxidant and is anti-inflammatory.

It has been shown to reduce the effects of oxidative stress.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27423629

I am not joking at all, it really does keep my tinnitus at bay and I'm not just fooling myself either. If I can take it with food, preferably meat, fat, etc. right before bed and get at least 7-8 hours of sleep, the next day my tinnitus is pretty much a non-thing.

Turmeric or curcumin... what's the difference?

Curcumin is in turmeric, and turmeric has several other compounds that may have a complementary effect but the main active ingredient seems to be the curcumin.

If you try it, eat a lot of it. It is a very safe compound. At least it won't hurt.

 

[Christopher E.]

If you try it, eat a lot of it. It is a very safe compound. At least it won't hurt.

I got my Curcumin in this week and will try it shortly (after my fast). I feel like my tinnitus is really fluctuating a lot. I woke up last weekend to a morning of almost pure silence but then slowly as the morning went on it came screaming back at me.

Yesterday I was playing a game on my phone and my little nephew was watching me play behind me. He screamed at something and it surprised me and sent my tinnitus into an all-day spike. I woke up today with my tinnitus super loud and I started moving around and it seems it has gone back down to near baseline now.

I have been eating like crap with the holiday but plan to get back on a clean diet to see if that will help bring the volume down even further.

Things I have noticed:
-Warm baths help my tinnitus (maybe its the calming effect to the nervous system)
-White noise seems to exacerbate symptoms. (no explanation for this)
-I've been on vitamins (E, Slenium, B12, C, Fish Oil, Magnesium, Daily Multivitamin, Vitamin D, Zinc) and am not sure of any effect it has had.
-Exercise helps bring down my tinnitus level the next day but not immediately after.
-Ill wake up in the night to quiet or close to, go back to sleep easily, then wake up in the morning to loud screeching T. (not sure of the correlation yet)
-I've been trying my own tinnitus neuromodulation at night and it seems to help a bit. I plan to give tinnitusmix a try next.

 

[JohnAdams]

-White noise seems to exacerbate symptoms.

Same here.

-I've been on vitamins (E, Slenium, B12, C, Fish Oil, Magnesium, Daily Multivitamin, Vitamin D, Zinc) and am not sure of any effect it has had.

I tried all of that as well. Did nothing.

-Ill wake up in the night to quiet or close to, go back to sleep easily, then wake up in the morning to loud screeching T. (not sure of the correlation yet)

I've had this happen too.

 

[Angela Riffe]

Hey, how have you been doing @Christopher E.?

 

[Jeremy TB]

Thanks for your prayers. I'm not practising or anything. I had a fabulous experience this summer. I picked up a hiker. He turned out to be from a religious family from Switzerland and he was making his way to see friends in mid France. I gave him a ride and even stopped with him at an old abbey near the route. Dropping him off next to the church some 30km past where I was going. He had his Bible, he prayed for me, my family and my mum suffering and it felt fantastic. So keep praying for us please.

 

[Christopher E.]

Hey, how have you been doing @Christopher E.?

Hey Angela,

I randomly decided to come and take a look on here today so good timing. I've been okay. Having my ups and downs. I have listened to TinnitusMix for 8 nights now. No substantial change from that therapy in my opinion. I am going to stick it out for the three weeks and see what happens.

I have been doing a Keto diet and fasting and that seems to be helping the most. My T is around a 2/3 out of 10 most days and it was a 4 borderline 5 in the beginning. I was told it can take a while to drop the volume of T after an acoustic trauma. I've also been doing some Julian Cowan Hill calming stuff. Body work and trying to not fear my T as much. I still do facial myofascial release with a massage ball for my neck and jaw. Getting plenty of Sun is a key for me as well so I try to let the sun hit my skin for 30 minutes a day but it is winter so its not every day.

I guess what I have noticed helps the most is dry fasting for 2 days. By the end of the second day, my T is pretty damn quiet. Then I eat and it seems to come back but not as angry as before. I will continue this for a while and see if I can get it to lower even further. I am just over 2 months in now.

So keep praying for us please.

I am always praying and God is always listening. I have taken a much more positive outlook since I decided that I WILL GET BETTER. MY T WILL NOT DOMINATE MY LIFE. I plan to look back at this on the tough days.

 

[Christopher E.]

I forgot to mention that I am following a very clean diet (Keto). Working on getting into Ketosis. I have read a lot about its benefits and can say I think that is helping a lot. When I eat clean my T doesn't spike like when I eat a Pizza or lots of starch. I was Gluten-free before T for Vertigo issues I have had since 2012 so bread and pasta isn't hard to cut but I did consume a lot of rice, potatoes, and Corn. When I eat the latter 3 I can almost guarantee some low-level spike in my T.

I know most of you are thinking it's probably the sodium content, well I have eaten higher sodium on a keto diet because when you can't use sugar or sauce on practically anything you turn to salt and pepper. It doesn't seem to affect my T.

I will keep you posted. I am sure what works for me, like everything else, won't work for everyone. But I want to be transparent so you can try it too if you feel similarly.

 

[MRItechssuck]

Make sure you take vitamins. When I got my first tinnitus I was on Atkins, and I always wondered if I was unprotected due to lacking nutrients.

Of course you probably know Ketosis is hard on your kidneys, so stay hydrated or stay just out of ketosis if your object is not to lose weight. I still lose weight without full on ketosis.

Good luck.