I've been ghosting this board for a bit when I first noticed ringing in my right ear almost three weeks ago. Decided it was time to introduce myself. I'll go by Abacab for now, I'm 36 and male.
On December 23 I was shooting with a friend. At one point we were talking and I took off my *left* ear muff so I could hear him. He wasn't paying attention and turned away and fired his rifle about 15 feet from me outside in a field. Didn't notice any ringing but I knew a gunshot unprotected wasn't good - obviously. I knew nothing about any emergency preventatives post acoustical trauma and carried on.
On January 8th I woke up to this odd ringing sensation in my *right* ear. Tried not to focus on it but it got progressively more bothersome and I couldn't shut it out of my head. By the weekend I knew something was wrong as I was having pain in my right ear and really bad headaches so I made an appointment with an ENT. On the 16th I had an exam with CT scan. Sinuses were clear, ears weren't clogged, some scar tissue on my right ear drum from infections and tubes as a child. Asked me if I was hard of hearing in one ear (I was not) etc. Found no evidence of infection. He sent me home with a prescription for Prednisone and a hearing test.
Walked downstairs for the hearing test and they found my left had normal hearing/function while my right ear had some high frequency loss at 8 kHz - not news to me. We did the tones and the word repeat back portion which I got all correct. She played a tone at 8 kHz and asked if that's what my tinnitus sounded like and I said yes.
Her message to me was that it didn't look like a brain tumor, that the hearing loss on the right ear, which was muffed, is a legacy of the tubes and infections probably. As for my situation, she wasn't sure. It could be from the two bad colds I had over the winter and the amoxicillin I took or something else. As an aside, I have TMJ and have worn a bite guard for 20 years but no evidence it changes the tinnitus by opening my mouth, shifting my neck, etc. The only other thing to happen to me was I whacked my head on a metal pipe but it didn't break the skin.
I took the course of Prednisone and the tone fluctuated a lot where it goes from ring to static and back. When I'm out doing things I don't really notice it except for some sounds that seem to trigger that static/hiss like noise. I've even taken the voodoo gamble of NAC and Magnesium because $30 out of my wallet for supplements with a longshot is better than not trying at all.
Noticed a couple of days ago a slight warble effect in my left ear started that I'll notice if I put a set of ear muffs on. If I focus while sitting in the quiet I'll notice it too, or putting my left ear on a pillow etc.
Like anyone in that acute stage, I'm utterly terrified, paralyzed and depressed that I may have this for life. I am insane about wearing ear protection when I shoot and avoid loud events because I remember what it was like to have a hard time hearing as a kid with ear infections alone.
I try not to succumb to the despair I understandably see in so many posts. I'm always looking for anecdotes about people recovering in instances like this - different from just learning to live with it. I realize that is necessary for many here and I'm not mocking it. I can't imagine what it's like to suffer from chronic tinnitus though I know that's a very real possibility. The ENT gave me another course of Prednisone and his view was it won't hurt but it might not do anything either.
What I don't understand in my situation is why I started hearing noise in my right ear as it was protected and it's very different from the new noise in my left. Will it heal? Did the cochlear cells get blasted away? Is this my life going forward?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
On December 23 I was shooting with a friend. At one point we were talking and I took off my *left* ear muff so I could hear him. He wasn't paying attention and turned away and fired his rifle about 15 feet from me outside in a field. Didn't notice any ringing but I knew a gunshot unprotected wasn't good - obviously. I knew nothing about any emergency preventatives post acoustical trauma and carried on.
On January 8th I woke up to this odd ringing sensation in my *right* ear. Tried not to focus on it but it got progressively more bothersome and I couldn't shut it out of my head. By the weekend I knew something was wrong as I was having pain in my right ear and really bad headaches so I made an appointment with an ENT. On the 16th I had an exam with CT scan. Sinuses were clear, ears weren't clogged, some scar tissue on my right ear drum from infections and tubes as a child. Asked me if I was hard of hearing in one ear (I was not) etc. Found no evidence of infection. He sent me home with a prescription for Prednisone and a hearing test.
Walked downstairs for the hearing test and they found my left had normal hearing/function while my right ear had some high frequency loss at 8 kHz - not news to me. We did the tones and the word repeat back portion which I got all correct. She played a tone at 8 kHz and asked if that's what my tinnitus sounded like and I said yes.
Her message to me was that it didn't look like a brain tumor, that the hearing loss on the right ear, which was muffed, is a legacy of the tubes and infections probably. As for my situation, she wasn't sure. It could be from the two bad colds I had over the winter and the amoxicillin I took or something else. As an aside, I have TMJ and have worn a bite guard for 20 years but no evidence it changes the tinnitus by opening my mouth, shifting my neck, etc. The only other thing to happen to me was I whacked my head on a metal pipe but it didn't break the skin.
I took the course of Prednisone and the tone fluctuated a lot where it goes from ring to static and back. When I'm out doing things I don't really notice it except for some sounds that seem to trigger that static/hiss like noise. I've even taken the voodoo gamble of NAC and Magnesium because $30 out of my wallet for supplements with a longshot is better than not trying at all.
Noticed a couple of days ago a slight warble effect in my left ear started that I'll notice if I put a set of ear muffs on. If I focus while sitting in the quiet I'll notice it too, or putting my left ear on a pillow etc.
Like anyone in that acute stage, I'm utterly terrified, paralyzed and depressed that I may have this for life. I am insane about wearing ear protection when I shoot and avoid loud events because I remember what it was like to have a hard time hearing as a kid with ear infections alone.
I try not to succumb to the despair I understandably see in so many posts. I'm always looking for anecdotes about people recovering in instances like this - different from just learning to live with it. I realize that is necessary for many here and I'm not mocking it. I can't imagine what it's like to suffer from chronic tinnitus though I know that's a very real possibility. The ENT gave me another course of Prednisone and his view was it won't hurt but it might not do anything either.
What I don't understand in my situation is why I started hearing noise in my right ear as it was protected and it's very different from the new noise in my left. Will it heal? Did the cochlear cells get blasted away? Is this my life going forward?
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
