Ear noise

[Muss Muggins]

I've had it since I can't remember when. It varies from a high pitched whine to a tree full of cicadas to a jet helicopter winding up. At the moment, it's just a bush full of baby cicadas.

It's always there, but there are times I forget about it or don't notice it, but then I do. It's kind of like breathing or being aware of your tongue (some of you have never heard of the latter, but will now never forgive me) . . .

 

[Ron In MD]

A high pitched buzzing noise in my right ear, been there so long I hardly notice it anymore.
Mostly happened when I took off my ear protection before unloading an old model Ruger Super Blackhawk. Put it on half cock to rotate the cylinder and the hammer fell on a live round, boy was that loud.
This must have happened alot, because not long after that Ruger began their "conversion of old model's to the new transfer bar system".

 

[Papa32129]

Here is my Tinnitus story

In my twenties, I visited my My First PCP '(primary care physician) .
I told him I had ringing in my ears.
He said that's tinnitus, that's caused by your HBP(high blood pressure).
My BP was 130/80. I was 21 yrs old. 5'10" 225 36" waist.
Twelve years later, still suffering with that crazy 130/80 BP. ???
I failed an employee Physical not for HBP. But for Hearing. I was deaf in one ear.
I was Dx(diagnosed) with an acoustic neuroma.
Tumor was large and creating a midline shift of my brain.
I had immediate Sx to remove the tumor.
My HBP to this day 130/80.
And the tinnitus rages on.
I think if I was referred to a ENT I might still have my hearing

Papa

 

[jeffrefrig]

My tinnitus is aggravating, but at least it comes in stereo. I believe I owe it to Large amps and PAs at a close range, headphones at an unacceptable volume, stereo surround sound at an even more unacceptable volume, and Ten Years After. Of course, our cars always had the latest & greatest stereo systems, also. (Not like these 4-wheel boom boxes that rattle their license plates off.)

 

[opoefc]

My tinnitus was traced to heavy gunfire in Korean war ( Artillery gunner and Army didn't issue ear plugs ) and my GI medical records showed I was treated for it ( fortunately) and VA gave me a small pension as 20% disabled. If you think your military service exposed you to loud gunfire and your ears rang, get a test at the VA. Worst case is you get free hearing aids, if no pension. Ed

 

[Univibe]

I always wore ear protection with guns, but not with the band when I was younger.

And I was running two Marshall heads and two 4x12 cabinets, and that stuff was cranked. The day after one gig, I had a telegraph going in my right ear. Got to the very edge of tinnitus and backed off, started wearing earplugs; no apparent permanent damage.

 

[hemiram]

I went to a lot of drag races and back then, wearing hearing protection was felt to be a "girly thing". I somehow made it through those years and still had good hearing, but that started to change after the ear infection from hell I had about 25 years ago. I hadn't had one for like 15+ years. I went to the "Urgent Care" in town and the doctor gave me a script for an antibiotic. It got worse, much worse. Went to see my family doctor, who shook his head and said, "He gave you the wrong antibiotic for an ear infection!". Great. It was pretty bad at that point, it hurt like hell, and my hearing in my right ear was pretty much gone. I got the new meds, and they took the steam out of the infection, but as soon as those pills were gone, the infection came roaring back, and the left ear joined in. I had stuff coming out of both ears and ended up at an ENT and he said I had one of the worst infections he had seen in a very long time. A shot of some insanely expensive antibiotic and two different ones in pill form finally got rid of it. My hearing in both ears came back fine, and he was shocked that I could still hear 20KHZ with my right ear, and the left wasn't as good, but it was still better than the average 40 year old man.

But the infection scarred my eustation tube on my right ear, and as time went by, I had to "pop" my ear more and more often, or I lost all my high end hearing. Along with that, I had Cicada sounding buzzing, which started on NY day. I woke up hearing "them" and wondered what was going on. Later I added whistles and hissing. Not loud enough to really bother me, my having to constantly pop my ears was the main hassle. Finally, it got to the point where popping them only lasted about a minute or so, so I finally went to the ENT, a different office, and after testing, "You have a very odd hearing loss!", and I had a choice of living with it, getting a tube put into my eardrum, or getting a hearing aid. I ended up getting the tube, and the only positive is my tinnitus was much reduced, the Cicadas are totally gone, the whistles are few and the hiss is now almost hard to hear. Along with the Cicadas being gone, so is most of my hearing. The tube will be falling out soon, and I don't know what I'm going to do.

 

[OLDSTER]

I have the Tinitis issue. WAY too much indoor handgun shooting over many years.

 

[raljr1]

Mine is from a combination of high speed threading in a machine shop as a young mand and one afternoon of shooting a 22 caliber revolver, indoors, without proper hearing protection...it's only a 22, right?


My ears have been ringing for 45 years...i can ignore it most times...of course I have about 35% hearing loss in both ears...if there was only one thing in the past I could change, that would be it.

Robert

 

[bruce5781]

Too many guns and loud engines as a kid. Had to cheat on my hearing test to get in the service. I could not hear the tones in the earphones, but I could hear the guy next to me clicking away. Failed twice, 3rd time I just clicked when the guy next to me did.

Sent from my SM-S506DL using Tapatalk

 

[Old Corp]

Have had notable hearing loss for years due to being around sirens and building alarms and probably a little unprotected shooting - but no tinnitus until a few weeks ago.

I deer hunt with a handgun - this season's choice a S&W M57 .41 Mag, 6". In the past, I always hunted from either a climbing stand or a ladder stand, i.e., out in the open. Never used or felt I needed ear protection for that one shot.
This season I hunted from an elevated plywood-constructed box blind and shot at a doe at last light. The muzzle and cylinder gap were outside the blind window, but OMG, did it ever ring my bell.
Now I have tinnitus.
I'll never use that box blind again without electronic ear muffs.

 

[Camster]

I have it bad in both ears, super high pitch surround sound 24/7.

Me too, though the volume can change, and at times, one ear is louder than the other.
In my twenties, 1970s, I did not wear hearing protection at the range (who did?) I've also used some power equipment without the benefit of hearing protection, so perhaps I was destined to have it one day.
What set mine off, was charging up two flights of stairs when I hear my bedridden 90+ mother repeatedly yelling for help. By the top of the second flight, I had pulsative tinnitus-surely my BP had really spiked. It settled down to just steady tone tinnitus since then.
...I don't think it helped my BP either when I learned that the cause of my mother's alarm, was simply that she could not find the tv remote in the blankets.
Sleep is the only escape.

 

[oink]

Yep. I have it too. I can often ignore it if it's not too quiet. First time I noticed it I was high in the mountains in a lava field in the clouds. It was perfectly quiet except for the whining electrical transformer somewhere close. As the clouds lifted I never could find those power lines and transformer.

Shooting, outboard engine powered patrol boats (use a Bimini Top for the sun and the engine noise is even louder) and chain saws and such, but I think the biggest contributor was patrol cars with crappy speakers you had to turn way up to hear when driving and roof mounted sirens that were pretty deafening inside the car which necessitated turning the radio speakers up even louder.

And yes I hear the noise all of the time. There is no longer any such thing as quiet in my world now.