Street Hockey & Tinnitus — What Hearing Protection to Wear? What Precautions to Take?

[TealD]

Hello everyone.

Been about a little over a month now since I started with the dumbest symptom for human kind. I don't want to say how my tinnitus is for fear of jinxing myself (I may be irrationally superstitious).

Anyways I was wanting to join a local street hockey league (feet, no skates) to get out of the house and try to enjoy my life again, but I obviously need to worry about my hearing.

So I am looking for advice on what precautions I should take for tomorrow, I will also explain the noises that may be of worry as well. The game will be outdoors at a middle school and there are refs at the game who do blow whistles. The game will be played with a ball and I can expect lots of yelling and hockey sticks hitting the concrete. There is also hitting allowed and I have seen some people where helmets to the game but not all.

Is there anything I need to worry about with the problems I listed above? Should I wear hearing protection? If I do not will this make my tinnitus worse? What type of hearing protection should I wear?

So far I only have the foam plugs you can get from a CVS store but they block out a crap ton of noise. I am in the process of of looking for good ear plugs that can help with different levels of sound and also keep out pressure during air travel.

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[bSiDeQuiEtWaTeRS]

Yo, I would definitely wear foam plugs. Not much else you can do unless you also want to wear protective earmuffs... maybe one of those helmets can be of additional hearing protection but probably not if there is a hole for you to hear through. If you really don't want your tinnitus to get worse it would be wise to guard against the whistles, especially if there is a ref nearby... and yelling can be loud... and a stick slapping the pavement. You obviously are aware of this. I'd go for the fattest foam plugs you can jam in your ears (as deep as you can tolerate in that ear canal). Hearos Xtreme are the fattest I know of, but CVS has a knockoff of those... both brands are blue.

But it sounds like a fun sport to do, this street hockey. And it is good to do stuff, but at the same time be careful for your ears.

Take care.