I'm terrified and ENT visit has not eased my fears.....
My story began after attending a concert a month ago. As an avid concert attendee, I've never given much thought to hearing protection. I've been to many loud rock shows with no ill effects over the years. In fact, my hearing has always been spectacular. For this show in particular, we had pit tickets which put me right in front of the stage. Due to the few hours of tailgating beforehand, and my excitement to see this band, I never thought of the ill effects of being so close. Making it worse, we ended up aligned almost dead center to the speaker stacks because of the surrounding crowd. In the few days immediately afterwards, I felt fine.....
Problem #2: I'm an audiophile and have an amazing home theater setup in a dedicated room in my basement. In the week after the concert, I had a few friends stop by on two different days who wanted to hear it for the first time. It can easily peak at 96db or so if I play it loud enough, and during this time we might have gotten there a few times, but otherwise it was lower, in the 80's. We didn't spend more than 20 minutes listening and I never thought anything of it.
In the following days, I began to feel some pain in my ears. I can't say I heard any T symptoms, but the irritating pain was noticeable. My ears also felt a bit "full" which was enough to scare me. My newborn son had a ENT appointment coming up and I decided to make one for myself as well to see what type of damage I may have done. My hearing test came back as completely normal. The tech said there were very minor signs of a downward trend in the high frequency but it's probably due to the fact that I'm 40 now and my hearing will gradually trend that way anyhow. Otherwise I passed with flying colors. I also ordered custom molded hearing protection while I was there to avoid this in the future.
Why am I writing now? I still have some bothersome ear pain which he said perhaps a course of steroids would help if I call back. I haven't yet but am planning on it. I also hear some minor ringing in my ears when in silent places. This could have always been there as far as I know, but I'm hypersensitive to my ears right now and focus on every little thing. Can T start a month after noise exposure? Can T be temporary? What confidence can I have in the hearing test or will I wake up one day with terrible hearing from this? Finally, I love music, enough to build a very extensive system in my home. Aside from the major investment, I would prefer to continue enjoying it. Sure, I can turn the volume down, and have definitely learned a lesson here. From what I've read, less than 85db can usually be handled for 8 hours straight before it becomes dangerous. I never listen for that long, so is it safe to say I could do that for maybe an hour or so, especially since music is not sustained at that volume the entire time as songs shift from loud to slower often. Or, is it time to retreat into a shell, sell all of my gear and never attend a concert again? That would be a terrible alternative, but the fear of not hearing is crippling. And this slight ringing isn't too fun either....
My story began after attending a concert a month ago. As an avid concert attendee, I've never given much thought to hearing protection. I've been to many loud rock shows with no ill effects over the years. In fact, my hearing has always been spectacular. For this show in particular, we had pit tickets which put me right in front of the stage. Due to the few hours of tailgating beforehand, and my excitement to see this band, I never thought of the ill effects of being so close. Making it worse, we ended up aligned almost dead center to the speaker stacks because of the surrounding crowd. In the few days immediately afterwards, I felt fine.....
Problem #2: I'm an audiophile and have an amazing home theater setup in a dedicated room in my basement. In the week after the concert, I had a few friends stop by on two different days who wanted to hear it for the first time. It can easily peak at 96db or so if I play it loud enough, and during this time we might have gotten there a few times, but otherwise it was lower, in the 80's. We didn't spend more than 20 minutes listening and I never thought anything of it.
In the following days, I began to feel some pain in my ears. I can't say I heard any T symptoms, but the irritating pain was noticeable. My ears also felt a bit "full" which was enough to scare me. My newborn son had a ENT appointment coming up and I decided to make one for myself as well to see what type of damage I may have done. My hearing test came back as completely normal. The tech said there were very minor signs of a downward trend in the high frequency but it's probably due to the fact that I'm 40 now and my hearing will gradually trend that way anyhow. Otherwise I passed with flying colors. I also ordered custom molded hearing protection while I was there to avoid this in the future.
Why am I writing now? I still have some bothersome ear pain which he said perhaps a course of steroids would help if I call back. I haven't yet but am planning on it. I also hear some minor ringing in my ears when in silent places. This could have always been there as far as I know, but I'm hypersensitive to my ears right now and focus on every little thing. Can T start a month after noise exposure? Can T be temporary? What confidence can I have in the hearing test or will I wake up one day with terrible hearing from this? Finally, I love music, enough to build a very extensive system in my home. Aside from the major investment, I would prefer to continue enjoying it. Sure, I can turn the volume down, and have definitely learned a lesson here. From what I've read, less than 85db can usually be handled for 8 hours straight before it becomes dangerous. I never listen for that long, so is it safe to say I could do that for maybe an hour or so, especially since music is not sustained at that volume the entire time as songs shift from loud to slower often. Or, is it time to retreat into a shell, sell all of my gear and never attend a concert again? That would be a terrible alternative, but the fear of not hearing is crippling. And this slight ringing isn't too fun either....
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