Tinnitus After Installing & Testing Fire Alarm

I made a big mistake last Sunday when I installed my fire alarm and kept running the test without protecting my ears. After that I got tinnitus. I saw an ER doctor and he said there is no treatment available. My family doctor can transfer me to an ENT doctor but I still haven't heard about that.

I'm depressed, helpless. The noise is humming in my ears 7/24. I couldn't sleep for more than 3 hours.

Folks, what can I do?

 

Is going to a private ENT an option?

 

I wouldn't panic just yet. It could be temporary. How long has this been going on?

 

@aikok, I think if you do your best to protect your ears from loud sounds in future, your tinnitus might get quieter or even go away. Ears can sometimes take a long time to recover from a trauma. So maybe give loud places a break for now (e.g., bars, clubs, loud restaurants, concerts etc.) and if you really have to go somewhere loud (like a wedding with a music band), wear hearing protection. Also, maybe don't use headphones or in-ear audio, and if you listen to music or TV on speakers, put it on a low/safe volume.

I do not believe that there is nothing you can do. You can eat well, exercise, do things you enjoy that distract you (e.g., hobby or sport), meditate, do yoga, try low-level white noise or something like a fan in the background. You can even try to find a CBT therapist that helps people with tinnitus. Once your nervous system calms down and you are less anxious, your brain will stop paying so much attention to the tinnitus.

You are in the early days. There is still hope it will fade with time.

 

Welcome to the club you did not know about and did not want to join. There are many of us like you here. Sorry.

You could try steroids though technically you may be outside the window (24-72 hours), and it is off-label use for noise trauma. Some people got worse. You need to toss a coin. And as you found out, it is difficult to find a doctor that will prescribe/administer it (you need an ENT).

Other than, take it easy, avoid loud noises, but don't isolate yourself completely. Try to not think or read about it and maybe, just maybe your brain will be able to tune it out.

I did myself in with a loud power tool 9 months ago. Still in hell for the most part. And it got worse a few months after the trauma. It does not mean your fate will be the same. You may be in the clear in a few weeks or months, you never know.

 

I would give the Prednisone a shot if you are within the two week window (as specified in the below study). There is also a chance that the tinnitus will diminish, especially within the first year.

• Avoid loud sounds.
• Don't use earbuds to play loud music (some people advise not to use earbuds at all).

Also, you might:

• Find activities you enjoy that are calming (walks in the woods, tai chi, yoga, playing guitar as long as that's not exacerbating tinnitus).
• Try hot baths with Epsom salts in the evening if you are having trouble sleeping.
• Use sound enrichment such as an ocean sound playing on your phone when you sleep.
• Self-massage with sesame based massage oil.
• Eat warming soothing foods. Avoid ice cream in winter, too much sugar, dry crunchy foods. Favor warm soups, hot cereal for breakfast...

Oral steroid regimens for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss

Abstract

Objective: To determine hearing recovery in patients with idiopathic sudden hearing loss treated with varying amounts of oral steroids.

Study design and setting: A retrospective chart review (n = 75) in a tertiary care clinic examined sudden hearing loss patients treated with 1 60-mg prednisone taper, 1 course of steroid less than a 60-mg taper, or any 2 courses of oral steroid.

Results: Overall, 35% of the patients recovered a clinically significant amount of hearing. Recovery was associated with immediate treatment (within 2 weeks from onset), better hearing at the onset of treatment, and treatment with the higher dose of prednisone in patients with just 1 additional symptom (dizziness or tinnitus). Patients tended to continue to experience some recovery in hearing up to 4 months after treatment.

Conclusion: Immediate treatment of patients with unilateral idiopathic sudden hearing loss and additional symptoms (dizziness or tinnitus) with a 14-day course of 60 mg prednisone (with taper) is recommended.

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Good luck with it. The early days are often the most difficult and emotionally demanding.

 

Hi @aikok.

Your post is reminiscent of someone I, and other members helped back in 2016, when he developed severe tinnitus and hyperacusis due to exposure to loud noise from a fire alarm. At the end of this post, please click on the link and read: From Darkness Into Light. It is @Jason C's success story which is partly in his own words. When I wrote it I used the pseudonym Marcus. Jason has returned to Tinnitus Talk and given advice to people in distress with tinnitus. Click on his name and peruse his many posts.

I have every confidence that in time you will also recover and look back on this period in your life, that you were once in a dark place but now in the light. In order for this to happen, it is important that you read the posts that I am going to mention below that are available on my started threads. I strongly advise that you print them and refer to them often, this way you will absorb and retrain the information far better than reading them on your phone or computer screen, where once read will quickly be forgotten. The habituation process takes time and therefore you need to fully understand the process and what it entails. Please follow the advice given and try not to deviate from it.

Please do not listen to any type of audio through headphones, earbuds, headsets, noise-cancelling or bone conduction headphones, even at low volume. Start using low-level sound enrichment during the day and especially at night by placing a sound machine by your bedside. It takes time to get used to using a sound machine at night so be patient and keep the volume low. More about this is explained in my posts. You need to be careful of exposure to other types of loud noise, but this doesn't mean to be afraid of sound or to continuously wear earplugs, as this could make your situation worse.

New to Tinnitus, What to do? Tinnitus, A Personal View. Hyperacusis, As I See It. The Habituation Process. How to Habituate to Tinnitus. Tinnitus and the Negative Mindset. Acquiring a Positive Mindset. Keeping Things Simple with Tinnitus.

Try not to worry. Things will get better.

All the best,
Michael

From Darkness Into Light | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

The best thing is to give it time. Without knowing how loud and how long the exposure was, it is most likely temporary and will fade away over the next few months. Avoid loud noise while your ears heal.

 

Thank you guys! I'm now trying to ignore the noise, get the brain adapted and hopefully I will recover. Fingers crossed.

 

I often wonder if my hiss type tinnitus in the left ear was caused by a smoke alarm. Honeywell model installed in old folks' accomodation. They claim it was 85 dB. I wonder if they boost them because old folk can be hard of hearing. It was a piercing very high pitched pulsing alarm - and very sensitive so it went off quite a few times when I was cooking.

I also had hardened ear wax at the time and COVID-19 so I don't know.

You have a hum and me a high-pitched hiss which makes me think maybe mine was not caused by the alarm.

 

You have good advice. Please try and utilize it yourself. Wishing you luck and a speedy recovery/habituation.

 

If I could go back to the onset of my acoustic trauma, I would try intratympanic Dexamethasone injections & a keto diet combined with intermittent fasting & some longer periods of fasting! You want to do everything you can to decrease the inflammation.

Best of luck to you.

 

My tinnitus is still there but it's kinda on and off. Sometimes it's very quiet but sometimes it's very loud. It's still loud at night which makes it hard to fall to sleep.

 

It takes time for the tinnitus to reduce @aikok. Eventually you will habituate. Remember to use low-level sound enrichment during the day and especially at night by placing a sound machine by your bedside.

One of the most important things that I advise, is not to listen to audio through any type of headphones even at low volume. This also applies when your tinnitus reduces to a low level and you habituate. If you choose not to follow this advice, you risk your tinnitus returning with a vengeance that you wouldn't believe is possible.

Take care and give it time,
Michael