Hi Everyone,
My story has three parts.
Part 1:
In the middle of April I awoke one day with my left ear being clogged with earwax and some very slight ringing. I was slightly worried it might be sudden hearing loss so I went to a local Urgent Care and the nurse practitioner there confirmed it was clogged with earwax and we did a hum test to rule out sensorineural hearing loss. She offered to remove it but I had heard about people having bad experiences with this and opted to have an ENT do it later in the month. To finish off April, I got my first COVID-19 vaccine and had my ears both suctioned and irrigated. No problems. I went about my life as normal.
Part 2:
May comes around and I get my second COVID-19 vaccine dose half way through it and get sick for 3 days. Later that week I begin to hear ringing in my left ear, seems like reactive tinnitus as it sounds like my internet modem when I am near it. I do a quick Google search and see some people experience this, and the ringing is so benign that it doesn't even phase me although I do reach out to my ENT for Prednisone just in case.
(I of course can't say if these events are connected. I will say in retrospect I feel as if my ears were stronger and more sensitive after I could hear so much better but it could easily be attributed to the wax removal.)
Part 3:
Here comes the absolute dumbest and truly infuriating unfortunate series of events. Since the onset of the ringing I have not used headphones except for one gaming session. I am sitting on my couch considering taking a nap and the ringing in the left ear was particular bothersome at the time. I had read one some places that hearing the pitch of the tinnitus can be used to mask the sound as well in contrast to white noise. I randomly choose 6000 Hz and go to YouTube and play it, luckily during this my left ear is protected with an earplug as I put it in prior. Again I can't stress this enough, I was not using headphones and my phone is on my chest and the volume had to have been lower than 30-40% before I played it. Immediately after playing the video my right ear tightened as the barrage from the sharp high pitch played. Must have been 5 seconds max.
That night my right ear was tight and on occasion I would hear a small ring that would dissipate in time. My ENT closed early that Wednesday as that's the day they do surgery and was sadly not available the next day. I was on Prednisone around 48 hours after the event as I called the following day which was Friday. Still no ringing... until Friday night where the ringing was so incredibly loud that I could not fall asleep. Between Friday to Wednesday I accumulated 7 hours of sleep. It could not be masked as I would later learn I have some version of mild hyperacusis. The wind from the fan would sear through my right ear and I would be left at mercy of the ringing.
Today is the first day that the ringing has diminished and moreover the sensitivity is slowly starting to wane. One silly test I am using is watching Kevin Hart's Fatherhood on Netflix to track my progress. During the weekend I couldn't listen to anything above 7 volume before the knife like inner pain would take over, I'm currently at volume 20 now.
I am trying to stay away from loud things but have constant low sound around me to rehabituate my right ear sound tolerance. Praying that the ringing goes away. Regardless, headphones are dead to me and if the ringing subsides I'll be wearing earplugs to virtually every above average loud venue I go to.
What an incredibly terrible abomination this is. Fish and reptiles recover their hearing like we grow nails and yet we can't.
I am deeply struggling to forgive myself for pressing play on that video, not sure if I ever will be able to what a sick fucking joke.
Hoping for peace for all of us.
My story has three parts.
Part 1:
In the middle of April I awoke one day with my left ear being clogged with earwax and some very slight ringing. I was slightly worried it might be sudden hearing loss so I went to a local Urgent Care and the nurse practitioner there confirmed it was clogged with earwax and we did a hum test to rule out sensorineural hearing loss. She offered to remove it but I had heard about people having bad experiences with this and opted to have an ENT do it later in the month. To finish off April, I got my first COVID-19 vaccine and had my ears both suctioned and irrigated. No problems. I went about my life as normal.
Part 2:
May comes around and I get my second COVID-19 vaccine dose half way through it and get sick for 3 days. Later that week I begin to hear ringing in my left ear, seems like reactive tinnitus as it sounds like my internet modem when I am near it. I do a quick Google search and see some people experience this, and the ringing is so benign that it doesn't even phase me although I do reach out to my ENT for Prednisone just in case.
(I of course can't say if these events are connected. I will say in retrospect I feel as if my ears were stronger and more sensitive after I could hear so much better but it could easily be attributed to the wax removal.)
Part 3:
Here comes the absolute dumbest and truly infuriating unfortunate series of events. Since the onset of the ringing I have not used headphones except for one gaming session. I am sitting on my couch considering taking a nap and the ringing in the left ear was particular bothersome at the time. I had read one some places that hearing the pitch of the tinnitus can be used to mask the sound as well in contrast to white noise. I randomly choose 6000 Hz and go to YouTube and play it, luckily during this my left ear is protected with an earplug as I put it in prior. Again I can't stress this enough, I was not using headphones and my phone is on my chest and the volume had to have been lower than 30-40% before I played it. Immediately after playing the video my right ear tightened as the barrage from the sharp high pitch played. Must have been 5 seconds max.
That night my right ear was tight and on occasion I would hear a small ring that would dissipate in time. My ENT closed early that Wednesday as that's the day they do surgery and was sadly not available the next day. I was on Prednisone around 48 hours after the event as I called the following day which was Friday. Still no ringing... until Friday night where the ringing was so incredibly loud that I could not fall asleep. Between Friday to Wednesday I accumulated 7 hours of sleep. It could not be masked as I would later learn I have some version of mild hyperacusis. The wind from the fan would sear through my right ear and I would be left at mercy of the ringing.
Today is the first day that the ringing has diminished and moreover the sensitivity is slowly starting to wane. One silly test I am using is watching Kevin Hart's Fatherhood on Netflix to track my progress. During the weekend I couldn't listen to anything above 7 volume before the knife like inner pain would take over, I'm currently at volume 20 now.
I am trying to stay away from loud things but have constant low sound around me to rehabituate my right ear sound tolerance. Praying that the ringing goes away. Regardless, headphones are dead to me and if the ringing subsides I'll be wearing earplugs to virtually every above average loud venue I go to.
What an incredibly terrible abomination this is. Fish and reptiles recover their hearing like we grow nails and yet we can't.
I am deeply struggling to forgive myself for pressing play on that video, not sure if I ever will be able to what a sick fucking joke.
Hoping for peace for all of us.
