Within the last 4 months, I have developed a ringing my left ear. What's worse is that as the weeks go by, it is getting louder and louder - now it is at the point where I don't sleep well. It takes me a long time to fall asleep and it'll wake me up in the middle of the night and then I'm awake for a long time before I can fall asleep. I do have signs of hearing loss that can come with getting older (I'm 41), and so far I've seen my family doctor, an audiologist and as of yesterday, a ENT Physician. Each one tells me the same thing, it's most likely a side effect of hearing loss and there is nothing they can do to cure it. This scares the crap out of me because I don't know how I can go the rest of my life with this torture. Anyone who's been through it will say how brutal it is - there is no getting away from it and there is nothing you can do to even temporarily relieve it. The doctors have said that white noise (like a fan or TV) at night as "sound replacement" often helps but the problem is that my ringing is so loud that if I turned the TV up that loud it would wake the whole house. The one good thing is that I am getting an MRI this week to see if there is something medically wrong. This is one time that I am praying that they find something wrong that can explain or treat this - this is pure hell. So anyway, the one thing that these medical professionals all were adamant about - hearing protection while shooting a gun is an absolute must. I was never too concerned with it in the past but they say that is what "probably" led to the hearing loss and ringing.
Sorry to hear that, hopefully they can figure something out for you. Would getting a hearing aid help since you would then be able to hear or would that just make the ringing louder?
I was diagnosed a few years back. I tried a drug (can't remember the name) that supposedly works to help alleviate the symptoms. It didn't work for me. I tried acupuncture and some special tea mixture for a while. That didn't work either. I have a constant ringing (sounds like locusts). I hope you can find something to suppress the sound a little. I haven't and have given up hope that I will. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Have had it since I was in the marine corps, over 20 years now. At one point I had this machine that created a background noise that helped a bit. Now I just deal with it. After a while you won't notice as much, but it will still be there.
When I got out of the Navy, I had a constant whine in my ears from being on ship with generators running at a constant frequency. I was only onboard ship 3 years not a lifetime so I hadn't done any permanent damage. The whine went away after a while of not being exposed 24hrs a day to the constant noise.
That's the interesting thing. I went to the audiologist assuming I would need hearing aids but she says I don't have enough loss to qualify. This surprised me because if I am anywhere that has any type of background noise, such as a restaurant, I can't hear a thing. This is the reason I got referred to the ENT physician and ultimately the reason I'm getting the MRI is because my hearing test results suggest I should hear a lot better than I do.
For the most part I can ignore it, the problem is that mine actually has different volumes. About 10 times a day, the volume really intensifies anywhere from a few minutes to an hour. During these times, I can't hear hardly anything out of that hear except for the ringing, and what wakes me up at night.
Really sorry to hear a fellow BH'r has similar hearing. Fortunately, it's mainly in my left ear, I had to learn to live with and depend more on my right ear. The first 50dBs is nothing but ringing....compensate with extra vision and a hunting partner. Best of luck, MOBU
Man that sucks, I hope you find some relief. Years ago, I started really protecting my hearing, both at work and while shooting. Mainly because I realized how important good ears are in the tree stand.
Mine is more like a field full of tree frogs. I hear fine, just the irritating tree frogs won't shut up.
I've got a mild case of it... Thought it was going to be extremely bad because of a singular event a few years back. I was in a double buddy ladder stand with my oldest boy and a nice buck came trotting in from our right. I picked his gun up and swung it over to the buck and told him to shoot. I had my finger stuck in my left ear because he was sitting to my left... but left my right ear open because I couldn't afford that much movement on that side of us. I thought I'd be fine... wrong. When he pulled the trigger, it sounded like a bomb went off over there. It was BAD for about six months. I went to the doctor and everything. It's finally subsided somewhat... though there is a light ringing there very faintly that I've just learned to live with. So what I'm saying I guess is if it's brought on by a singular event, perhaps it'll subside somewhat eventually...
Sorry you are having to deal with this. Hopefully, the MRI will lead the Docs in a direction that will result in a remedy.
If anyone finds something that helps, share. I've been to two ear, nose, and throat specialists... They both said it was just something I would get used to...
So that is what tinnitus is. Every time I try to do the swipe texting on my phone to spell tomorrow it always comes up as that first. On a serious note, hopefully you can get everything figured out.
