First off, I am NOT looking for medical advice. I am just curious to know if anyone has ruptured an ear drum before and how was the healing process. Any lasting side effects? How long did it take to heal? I got pretty sick last weekend and my left ear drum ruptured. I see a specialist tomorrow. Just wondering how it went for others. As of right now, I still have a bit of pain and probably only 1/4 of my normal hearing. How long was it before you could work out again? Will changes in elevation effect it? Thanks for sharing your experience!
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Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
- Thread starter Cinch
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Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
I had a traumatic rupture (flashbang) and it was pretty horrible. It took months of recovery while being careful of elevation changes and loud noise. I have a measurable hearing loss now but I had some of that before anyway so it might or might not be related. Best I can say is get thee to an ENT and not your family practitioner.
I had a traumatic rupture (flashbang) and it was pretty horrible. It took months of recovery while being careful of elevation changes and loud noise. I have a measurable hearing loss now but I had some of that before anyway so it might or might not be related. Best I can say is get thee to an ENT and not your family practitioner.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Yep, going to the specialist tomorrow. As an avid shooter and working in the oilfied the last 15 years, I already have a constant ringing in my ears and a considerable amount of hearing loss. As of right now, if I plug my good ear, I can hear almost nothing from the bad. The ringing is quite a bit worse than usual as well. I'm hoping it will come back around and I don't have to get hearing aids at 34! Was curious about the elevation as I was planning on going up to visit PGS in Glasgow, MT this next weekend. He is about 2,000ft lower than we are here. I guess I'll find out tomorrow what the doc says.
Yep, going to the specialist tomorrow. As an avid shooter and working in the oilfied the last 15 years, I already have a constant ringing in my ears and a considerable amount of hearing loss. As of right now, if I plug my good ear, I can hear almost nothing from the bad. The ringing is quite a bit worse than usual as well. I'm hoping it will come back around and I don't have to get hearing aids at 34! Was curious about the elevation as I was planning on going up to visit PGS in Glasgow, MT this next weekend. He is about 2,000ft lower than we are here. I guess I'll find out tomorrow what the doc says.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Lower is OK. Pressure goes down as you go lower. It's the going back up part that can screw with you. Of course, if you have a hole in your ear drum it's not a problem. Pressure will equalize through the hole. The ringing is called tinnitus (TIN-eye-tis) and is caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise i.e. the oilfield. You can drop the term on the ENT and sound like you know something now. Good luck with it.
Lower is OK. Pressure goes down as you go lower. It's the going back up part that can screw with you. Of course, if you have a hole in your ear drum it's not a problem. Pressure will equalize through the hole. The ringing is called tinnitus (TIN-eye-tis) and is caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise i.e. the oilfield. You can drop the term on the ENT and sound like you know something now. Good luck with it.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JB Gleason</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Lower is OK. Pressure goes down as you go lower. It's the going back up part that can screw with you. Of course, if you have a hole in your ear drum it's not a problem. Pressure will equalize through the hole. The ringing is called tinnitus (TIN-eye-tis) and is caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise i.e. the oilfield. You can drop the term on the ENT and sound like you know something now. Good luck with it.</div></div>
You got it backwards there JB. Pressure gets lower as you climb in elevation and pressure gets higher as you get closer to sea level. The air is thinner at higher elevations and therefore weighs less.
Are you back to work yet Cinch? Never can tell as you leave the office when I am just getting out of bed!
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JB Gleason</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Lower is OK. Pressure goes down as you go lower. It's the going back up part that can screw with you. Of course, if you have a hole in your ear drum it's not a problem. Pressure will equalize through the hole. The ringing is called tinnitus (TIN-eye-tis) and is caused by prolonged exposure to loud noise i.e. the oilfield. You can drop the term on the ENT and sound like you know something now. Good luck with it.</div></div>
You got it backwards there JB. Pressure gets lower as you climb in elevation and pressure gets higher as you get closer to sea level. The air is thinner at higher elevations and therefore weighs less.
Are you back to work yet Cinch? Never can tell as you leave the office when I am just getting out of bed!
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Healing time will depend on the size and location of the perforation. Your eardrum is skin, so it is always growing and will heal if there are not complicating factors. For now, keep it dry. Dont let any water get in it. ENTs are sometimes split on whether they use antibiotic drops for a "dry" ie not infected perforation. If the cause of the rupture was infection, you have to clear up the infection first, but they generally heal well. There is not a lot of hearing loss from these if your hearing was good initially. This is only a mechanical loss until the drum heals. A barotrauma rupture (scuba, overpressure from flash bang, external blow, etc) can also cause neurological hearing loss, which has nothing to do with whether or not your eardrum heals back properly. Judging by some of your history, you likely have some of this already from your time in the "patch".
As it is healing, your ENT will probably tell you to avoid any changes in barometric pressure, up or down in altitude. The important thing is the change, not really which direction it is. While the hole is there, its no big deal, but once it is healed but fragile, you can have some problems. Air is not really a big deal, because the relative changes in pressure across the drum are still small. We keep our divers with ruptured TMs out for quite a while because the pressure changes in water are significantly greater, plus the temperature differences with a perforation under water can cause some nasty problems.
Keep it dry until the ENT says otherwise. They will check your hearing, and tell you if it should heal well based on how it looks. The last one I had hurt for about 2 weeks.
Good luck
Sean
Healing time will depend on the size and location of the perforation. Your eardrum is skin, so it is always growing and will heal if there are not complicating factors. For now, keep it dry. Dont let any water get in it. ENTs are sometimes split on whether they use antibiotic drops for a "dry" ie not infected perforation. If the cause of the rupture was infection, you have to clear up the infection first, but they generally heal well. There is not a lot of hearing loss from these if your hearing was good initially. This is only a mechanical loss until the drum heals. A barotrauma rupture (scuba, overpressure from flash bang, external blow, etc) can also cause neurological hearing loss, which has nothing to do with whether or not your eardrum heals back properly. Judging by some of your history, you likely have some of this already from your time in the "patch".
As it is healing, your ENT will probably tell you to avoid any changes in barometric pressure, up or down in altitude. The important thing is the change, not really which direction it is. While the hole is there, its no big deal, but once it is healed but fragile, you can have some problems. Air is not really a big deal, because the relative changes in pressure across the drum are still small. We keep our divers with ruptured TMs out for quite a while because the pressure changes in water are significantly greater, plus the temperature differences with a perforation under water can cause some nasty problems.
Keep it dry until the ENT says otherwise. They will check your hearing, and tell you if it should heal well based on how it looks. The last one I had hurt for about 2 weeks.
Good luck
Sean
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
MDShooter, Thanks for the great info. This explains a lot. The ER pretty much sadi no lifting weights, keep it dry, no ear drops, see a specialist in a week to 10 days. Been following that, though it kills me to not work out. Will know more tomorrow. Thanks again for the info!
MDShooter, Thanks for the great info. This explains a lot. The ER pretty much sadi no lifting weights, keep it dry, no ear drops, see a specialist in a week to 10 days. Been following that, though it kills me to not work out. Will know more tomorrow. Thanks again for the info!
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Cinch, I busted my left one last summer while tubing on the lake. It wasn't too bad at first but after a couple more hours it really started hurting. For about two or three weeks my hearing was noticeably poor, sounded like I was listening through a paper towel tube full of cotton. I never really did notice when it got better, it must have been either a very gradual improvement or a very small one. Either way I don't notice it now, good luck
Cinch, I busted my left one last summer while tubing on the lake. It wasn't too bad at first but after a couple more hours it really started hurting. For about two or three weeks my hearing was noticeably poor, sounded like I was listening through a paper towel tube full of cotton. I never really did notice when it got better, it must have been either a very gradual improvement or a very small one. Either way I don't notice it now, good luck
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
I took a digger wakeboarding. I perforated my eardrum. There really wasn’t much pain more uncomfortable pressure. I went to the doctor and they actually gave me eye drops to put it to keep it clean and irrigated. Because of the nasty ass lake (Jackson)water they were most concerned with infection. Couple of weeks and I was fine. Elevation changes have not bothered me at all. Driving and flying have both been fine. No hearing loss associated with it either.
I took a digger wakeboarding. I perforated my eardrum. There really wasn’t much pain more uncomfortable pressure. I went to the doctor and they actually gave me eye drops to put it to keep it clean and irrigated. Because of the nasty ass lake (Jackson)water they were most concerned with infection. Couple of weeks and I was fine. Elevation changes have not bothered me at all. Driving and flying have both been fine. No hearing loss associated with it either.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
I had a bad tear in the TM from a flashbang that bounced off a door when dumb ass #2 decided he just had to toss one too. It detonated about 2' from my left ear and I was to the side of it so I took the shock wave square on the ear. My balance was shit and I ended up with a 25-30% loss in my left ear but no damage at all in the right.
I had a bad tear in the TM from a flashbang that bounced off a door when dumb ass #2 decided he just had to toss one too. It detonated about 2' from my left ear and I was to the side of it so I took the shock wave square on the ear. My balance was shit and I ended up with a 25-30% loss in my left ear but no damage at all in the right.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Don't fire a 357 magnum powerhead in a deep undercut ledge with your head in there iin 165ft of water while spearfishing.
I watched air bubbles from my ear go up to the surface on my slow ascent up
It look about 2 months the my ear to completely heal. Havent had an issue since. I don't hear the high frequency sounds that well though. Overall about a 20% loss of hearing but I had tubes 2x and lots of ear infections as a kid
Don't fire a 357 magnum powerhead in a deep undercut ledge with your head in there iin 165ft of water while spearfishing.
I watched air bubbles from my ear go up to the surface on my slow ascent up
It look about 2 months the my ear to completely heal. Havent had an issue since. I don't hear the high frequency sounds that well though. Overall about a 20% loss of hearing but I had tubes 2x and lots of ear infections as a kid
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Had a massive rupture two years ago. I crashed at jet ski at about 60mph and shot lake water through the left ear drum. about a month after it healed I started getting alot of pain and headaches. then got on an air plane and passed out on the climb to 30k ft. as it ruptured again midflight. Trip to the doctor revealed a cist on the eardrum caused by the original rupture and lots necrosis of the tissue in the ear canal and it had started dissolving the bones in the inner ear. two surgeries later I have a 15% hearing loss (thank GOD for an amazing surgeon) in that ear and titanium (replacement bones). Balance is now back to normal and I have never had a problem since.
Had a massive rupture two years ago. I crashed at jet ski at about 60mph and shot lake water through the left ear drum. about a month after it healed I started getting alot of pain and headaches. then got on an air plane and passed out on the climb to 30k ft. as it ruptured again midflight. Trip to the doctor revealed a cist on the eardrum caused by the original rupture and lots necrosis of the tissue in the ear canal and it had started dissolving the bones in the inner ear. two surgeries later I have a 15% hearing loss (thank GOD for an amazing surgeon) in that ear and titanium (replacement bones). Balance is now back to normal and I have never had a problem since.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
Had an ijury to the left one last Autumn. Family shooting, had to give my earmuffs to grandkids, then 'someone' let go with a ported 12ga Mossberg about 5ft from my left ear. Pain, ringing, tunnel effect. The diagnosis, months after the fact, finds no evidence of perforation.
Long story short, my hearing is essentially gone in the left ear for mid-high freq sounds per VA audio testing within the past month. The ENT exam OK'd me this Monday for a hearing aid in my left ear.
Good news, the hearing in my right ear is significantly better, and allows me to use the phone without any issues.
It's your Grampa Greg ("I'm sorry, could you repeat that...?") from here on in. The only good news is the VA's covering it; comparable units look to be around $3k.
That's all it took, just one shot. Sucks.
I made a mistake and I'm dealing with it. Maybe there's a lesson in there for the rest of us.
Greg
Had an ijury to the left one last Autumn. Family shooting, had to give my earmuffs to grandkids, then 'someone' let go with a ported 12ga Mossberg about 5ft from my left ear. Pain, ringing, tunnel effect. The diagnosis, months after the fact, finds no evidence of perforation.
Long story short, my hearing is essentially gone in the left ear for mid-high freq sounds per VA audio testing within the past month. The ENT exam OK'd me this Monday for a hearing aid in my left ear.
Good news, the hearing in my right ear is significantly better, and allows me to use the phone without any issues.
It's your Grampa Greg ("I'm sorry, could you repeat that...?") from here on in. The only good news is the VA's covering it; comparable units look to be around $3k.
That's all it took, just one shot. Sucks.
I made a mistake and I'm dealing with it. Maybe there's a lesson in there for the rest of us.
Greg
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Cinch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">First off, I am NOT looking for medical advice. I am just curious to know if anyone has ruptured an ear drum before and how was the healing process. Any lasting side effects? How long did it take to heal? I got pretty sick last weekend and my left ear drum ruptured. I see a specialist tomorrow. Just wondering how it went for others. As of right now, I still have a bit of pain and probably only 1/4 of my normal hearing. How long was it before you could work out again? Will changes in elevation effect it? Thanks for sharing your experience! </div></div>
I burst one twice, unfortunately the same one. The first time (a slight rupture) was when some asshole threw an artillery simulator into a basement I was occupying in a concrete MOUT facility, and the second time was water skiing. (That was the day I learned that 60MPH on the water is a lot faster than on land, but I digress). My ear's never really been right since, but when I have had mandatory hearing tests it comes back good....which is bullshit because I sleep with that side up so things don't keep me awake.
Long story short. I can't dive any more, I'm not able to equalize - and any attempt to do so hurts like hell. Flying with a head cold can be torture if I don't properly load up on Sudafed first. Other than all that, no other long lasting effects.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Cinch</div><div class="ubbcode-body">First off, I am NOT looking for medical advice. I am just curious to know if anyone has ruptured an ear drum before and how was the healing process. Any lasting side effects? How long did it take to heal? I got pretty sick last weekend and my left ear drum ruptured. I see a specialist tomorrow. Just wondering how it went for others. As of right now, I still have a bit of pain and probably only 1/4 of my normal hearing. How long was it before you could work out again? Will changes in elevation effect it? Thanks for sharing your experience! </div></div>
I burst one twice, unfortunately the same one. The first time (a slight rupture) was when some asshole threw an artillery simulator into a basement I was occupying in a concrete MOUT facility, and the second time was water skiing. (That was the day I learned that 60MPH on the water is a lot faster than on land, but I digress). My ear's never really been right since, but when I have had mandatory hearing tests it comes back good....which is bullshit because I sleep with that side up so things don't keep me awake.
Long story short. I can't dive any more, I'm not able to equalize - and any attempt to do so hurts like hell. Flying with a head cold can be torture if I don't properly load up on Sudafed first. Other than all that, no other long lasting effects.
Re: Anyone ruptured an eardrum?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tasers Hurt!</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Had a massive rupture two years ago. I crashed at jet ski at about 60mph and shot lake water through the left ear drum. about a month after it healed I started getting alot of pain and headaches. then got on an air plane and passed out on the climb to 30k ft. as it ruptured again midflight. Trip to the doctor revealed a cist on the eardrum caused by the original rupture and lots necrosis of the tissue in the ear canal and it had started dissolving the bones in the inner ear. two surgeries later I have a 15% hearing loss (thank GOD for an amazing surgeon) in that ear and titanium (replacement bones). Balance is now back to normal and I have never had a problem since. </div></div>
Greetings brother Where's your surgeon? Sounds very similar to my experience, only less the surgery.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tasers Hurt!</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Had a massive rupture two years ago. I crashed at jet ski at about 60mph and shot lake water through the left ear drum. about a month after it healed I started getting alot of pain and headaches. then got on an air plane and passed out on the climb to 30k ft. as it ruptured again midflight. Trip to the doctor revealed a cist on the eardrum caused by the original rupture and lots necrosis of the tissue in the ear canal and it had started dissolving the bones in the inner ear. two surgeries later I have a 15% hearing loss (thank GOD for an amazing surgeon) in that ear and titanium (replacement bones). Balance is now back to normal and I have never had a problem since. </div></div>
Greetings brother
Where's your surgeon? Sounds very similar to my experience, only less the surgery.
