Hello, my name is Johnny and I’m 21 years old. I have had good hearing all my life (slight tinnitus in both ears after an accident with fireworks while I was 8. Beeping, barely audible except at night).
Let me start off by saying that I never go to loud places and rarely use headphones in fear of worsening my tinnitus. In June, however, I went to a club with a couple of friends. The music was relatively loud. We stayed there for two hours and afterwards sounds were muffled and my ears were ringing like crazy. Could not hear a thing. This lasted only a couple of minutes though and everything seemed to be back to normal. However, a few days later I noticed that I could not hear people properly when they were in another room. I also had a tough time hearing people who spoke with soft voices. Next thing was the tv. People sounded like they were mumbling at times. No use turning up the volum as the other sounds would become too loud. Used all my energy trying to pick up what they said. In addition I now had a whoosing sound and a loud beeping in both ears (slightly louder in my right ear). My ears feel warm (inside) and I have an annoying ache from time to time. I decided to go to visit my doctor two weeks after the incident and he did the tuning fork test and looked inside my ears. He said that it was most likely a noice induced hearing loss and referred me to an ENT. As I was waiting for them to contact me I made a few observations:
- I went to a cafè with some friends and had few problems making out what they were saying even though it was crowded and background music (could not hear much of the background music though).
- Talking to people in the backseat while driving my car. No problem. Hearing what people said on the radio, almost impossible.
- Music now sounds weird. It’s like some instruments are completely missing. For instance I cannot hear acoustic guitars with other instruments present (I can hear the sweeping sound of changing chords). The snare drum also has a different sound to it. I was surprised because I could now hear instruments and synthesizers in the background that I’ve never noticed before.
- In movie theaters I need subtitles to understand what’s going on. Also the loud sounds have become almost unbearable (recruitment?). I was thinking about leaving several times during the movie.
- I can still hear birds, the rustling of leaves, raindrops, cats purring and mosquitos. I realize that speech sounds are complex, but still.
Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone?
After 1.5 months it turns out that my doctor forgot to contact my ENT and thus my appointment isn’t until the 29th. I just needed to share my story as this has been bothering me for two months now.
Edit: I took a test online with noice-cancelling headphones. With them on I discovered how loud my tinnitus has become since I haven’t used them since the incident. Holy cow!
Results:
250 15 db
500 15 db
1k 15 db
2k 20 db
4k 20 db
8k 10 db
I tested with both ears at the same time and I know it isn’t accurate. The website said to add a 10 db tolerance so that makes it 20-30 db hearing loss at those frequencies. Any comments?