Ultra Loud Security Alarm — Is This a Spike I'll Recover from or Did It Cause Permanent Damage?

[Martin G]

If I were you, I would wait for a year. Then, if that sensation is still a problem, to give myself an opportunity to travel by air, I would consider training myself to wear hearing protection for hours. Start by wearing hearing protection until you begin experiencing those symptoms, and then getting yourself to calm down and "take it" for another 5 minutes. Repeat the next day, and try to increase your time by another 1-5 minutes. Do this until you can handle that unpleasant sensation all day long (16 hours). Of course the above might not work, as the sensation might be unbearable. But it just Might work...

Thanks very much. Something like that might definitely be worth considering . . . as I'd hate to have to rule out air travel.

Anyway . . . my attention has actually just moved on from that, following something I saw in a thread-link you sent me recently.

I've just been reading about EMF's from computers. I've been looking at posts here for a few months and can't believe this is the first time I've come across the subject. At first I freaked . . . because I'm surrounded by computers and monitors day and night. However, after researching more thoroughly, I've calmed down a little.

Nevertheless, as soon as I'm back in the office . . . first thing I'm doing is putting by desktop computer on the floor, instead of it being a couple of feet from my head!

Other than that . . . since I've had T . . . I've been sleeping in the living room every night. I have a huge Alienware rig in there and specifically use the sound of the computer itself to help me sleep. As well as having it stream low volume nature sounds through my surround system. Fortunately the machine's about 6 feet away from my head . . . so I should be ok . . . right?

 

[Bill Bauer]

I've just been reading about EMF's from computers.

I don't know much about it. I spend a lot of time near my computer, but it is on the floor, by my feet, far from my head...

 

[Greg Sacramento]

I agree that ear protection is needed around loud noise. After my first onset of T, I did get a temporary spike after 30 minutes of use. Research describes this as lowering the auditory threshold to sound.

Now with somatic neck and jaw tinnitus, I must not bend my head forwards while wearing headphones. Just an extra 2 or 3 pounds can mess with the cranialmandibular complex.

 

[Vicki14]

By the way . . . loved the fact that you said 'wee risks'. I grew up in New Zealand and they say 'wee' instead of 'small' or 'little' all the time. But the term isn't used here in Australia . . . so if I ever say it . . . I just get laughed at.

Lol, glad you can relate to the Scottish lingo and I'm so pleased that your being very positive about all of this which will be so beneficial for you!!! Keep the faith! X

 

[Martin G]

Still hoping this will just be a temporary spike . . . but that's not doing much to help with the depression I'm feeling at the moment.

Things are really bad since my 'alarm' trauma 5 days ago. My T is way more aggressive . . . especially in the evenings, when I have 'two jet engines' roaring in my ears, which I've read about on here before. A horrible, horrible feeling.

My baseline T is loud enough as it is. If I try and watch a movie or tv . . . I can't turn my sound system up so I can hear it over my T, because that causes havoc with my H. So I got Netflix recently . . . just because everything is subtitled . . . and that helps a lot. But not when the T is blaring away as it is at the moment.

Last night the sound was just so overwhelming, I wasn't able to concentrate on doing or watching anything. All I could do was sit there feeling miserable . . . and wait for it to get late enough to go to bed.

For some strange reason . . . by the time I walk to the bathroom, brush my teeth and my head hits the pillow . . . the 'jets' seem to ease off a little. One thing I'm grateful for is that so far, I'm always able to get to sleep, no problem. Takes 5 minutes when I'm baseline and around 15-20 minutes when it's like it is now. So at least I've got that going for me.

Probably the main reason I'm depressed is that prior to last week, I was more or less managing to cope with my T . . . and I had just started to feel there was a possibility I might, eventually, one day, maybe be able to make some progress with H, which is my biggest problem.

I had actually, for the first time, had a few days where I seemed to be getting less distortion than usual and able to tolerate some everyday sounds slightly more. The highlight being . . . when I'm walking home each day, I have my right earplug in about 1/8 of the way (basically just resting in there, in case I need it) . . . and my left earplug (worst ear) in about 1/2 way, just to introduce a little ambient sound. But when I turn into my street, which is very busy, I always push my left earplug all the way in.

Well, on two separate occasions over the last few weeks . . . I arrived home before realizing I'd forgotten to put the plug all the way in for the bad ear . . . but also realizing . . . I hadn't noticed the traffic noise at all, either.

So despite how bad my symptoms were . . . I was nonetheless feeling quietly optimistic about the direction things seemed to be going in.

Then . . . 'a few seconds' last week put an end to all that. Now, along with my T . . . my H is the worst it's ever been. Sound level toleration is reduced and distortion has increased.

Feels like I'd taken maybe half a step forward in recent weeks . . . and now I've taken ten steps back.

All I know is, from now on . . . whenever I read here in someone's bio that their T or H 'worsened following acoustic trauma' . . . I'm going to have a whole new level of empathy.

 

[Contrast]

Not a good day yesterday.

I've had tinnitus & hyoeracusis for 4-5 months now . . . and have been really careful about protecting my ears. The hyperacusis in my left ear is so bad, I really have no choice about being protective anyway.

So far I'm managing to still work a full-time job. Yesterday 32,000 homes and businesses suddenly lost power, including ours. The Boss told me he thought the fire alarm usually went off once power came back on. So I put in ear plugs . . . and then noise-cancelling headphones on top of those, just to be prepared.

To make matters worse, it was a 37°C (99°F) day . . . so being without air-con wasn't the greatest.

Long story short . . . power was restored several hours later. As the fire alarm didn't end up going off . . . I removed all my protection. Unfortunately the Boss had remembered wrong. It wasn't the fire alarm that went off. It was the security alarm, which is WAY louder . . . and it would go off a few minutes after the power resumed.

By the time this actually happened . . . I was walking towards the printer to grab something, with no protection at all. It just about killed me. I put my fingers in my ears as quickly as I could and dived under my desk. It only went for about 5 seconds. My office isn't very big and has a low ceiling. The alarm is actually on the ceiling and I was almost directly below it. I was probably only exposed to the sound for 1-2 seconds before I managed to activate my fingers.

When it was over and I sat at my desk recovering . . . I thought that even though it was so unbelievably loud, surely a couple of seconds wouldn't have been long enough to do anything. However since then, my tinnitus has been worse. Louder and more aggressive . . . and my H is worse, in that I'm getting even greater distortion from close-by sounds.

When I got home, I tried to watch some tv . . . but couldn't concentrate on anything, even with subtitles on. Probably took about 4 times longer to get to sleep than usual . . . but fortunately I did . . . and slept right through.

My tinnitus has had moments of being up and down before, but until yesterday I hadn't experienced a spike caused by a specific incident. I was just wondering if anyone else has ever experienced a super loud noise, in close proximity . . . but only for a couple of seconds . . . and if so, what happened?

Obviously my main concern is whether this is a spike, which I'll recover from . . . or if it's actually caused some damage.

Thanks.

is your hyperacusis ear pain or abnormal loudness or both?

 

[Martin G]

is your hyperacusis ear pain or abnormal loudness or both?

Definitely the 'abnormal loudness' thing.

The terrible distortion I get (mainly from nearby sounds), hurts my ears. If that's what's meant by 'pain' . . . then I guess I have that too.

I get the distortion, most notably in my left ear, from most things . . . including peoples talking, eating anything hard or crunchy (even toast), brushing my teeth, scratching my head etc. . . .

 

[Contrast]

Definitely the 'abnormal loudness' thing.

The terrible distortion I get (mainly from nearby sounds), hurts my ears. If that's what's meant by 'pain' . . . then I guess I have that too.

I get the distortion, most notably in my left ear, from most things . . . including peoples talking, eating anything hard or crunchy (even toast), brushing my teeth, scratching my head etc. . . .

okay uh you have both, you probably could get disability for it, and make sure to repetitively state that there are no FDA approved therapeutics for the inner ear or auditory brain.

 

[Martin G]

okay uh you have both, you probably could get disability for it, and make sure to repetitively state that there are no FDA approved therapeutics for the inner ear or auditory brain.

Thanks Contrast.

However I'm afraid as far as I'm aware, conditions such as T & H aren't recognized as 'disabilities' in Australia. Even if they were . . . I don't think I'd be able to live on what they'd pay anyway.

Still, if at all possible . . . I would much rather keep working if I can. I really enjoy my job . . . and it's in walking distance of my home. So far, at least . . . (aside from unexpected alarms), I've been able to deal successfully with the noises in my working environment by means of earplugs/noise-cancelling headphones.

However, if my symptoms were to deteriorate in the future to the extent I had no choice but to leave my current employment . . . I assume I would either have to look at finding some kind of 'quite' job elsewhere . . . or 'fight' to be recognized for Disability.

Just out of interest . . . as things stand, from what I can tell, the only 'Sensory Impairments" which qualify for Disability down here are Bilateral Blindness and the following . . .

(b) Hearing loss - at 45 decibels or greater hearing impairment in the better ear, based on a frequency pure tone average (using 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000Hz).

(c) Deaf-blindness - diagnosed by a specialist multidisciplinary team, including a professional audiological and ophthalmological evaluation.

 

[Martin G]

X5A are cheap and effective. Their weakness is that they are bulky (X4A are not as bulky, but provide a little less noise reduction) and might be uncomforable to wear for long periods of time. They are certainly less comfortable than my Bose noise cancelling headphones. But it is good to have an arsenal.

Bill . . . just thought I'd update this thread by letting you know I have some Peltor X5A's arriving tomorrow, on your recommendation.

There aren't too many places that sell that model in Australia. Coincidentally . . . turns out one of the places that does, is the company my work gets all of their safety gear from. Unfortunately though . . . you have to buy a minimum of 10 at a time.

However I managed to find a welding supply place that sells them individually and they actually had them on sale . . . for almost half price. So I pounced on that . . . and my Boss said the company would pay for them.

Also . . . thought I'd mention that fortunately, the spike I got from the security alarm at work (which this thread was about) thankfully ended up only lasting 3-4 weeks.

Anyway . . . thanks again for your input on this one.

 

[Alue]

okay uh you have both, you probably could get disability for it, and make sure to repetitively state that there are no FDA approved therapeutics for the inner ear or auditory brain.

Where can you get disability for it?

I know you can't in the US.

 

[Bill Bauer]

the spike I got from the security alarm at work (which this thread was about) thankfully ended up only lasting 3-4 weeks.

I am very glad to hear that your spike wasn't permanent!