Recent Severe Pain H/Nox - looking for tips/tricks/help
Hi everyone,
I went to a rock concert in late July (without plugs....) and got T/H which has turned into pain hyperacusis (nox) unfortunately in the middle of last week. Typical acoustic trauma, I believe. I come in search of advice from the sub as to how to best "recover" if possible.
I'd like to note that I believe that I had loudness H immediately after the concert along with T and didn't recognize it until it later turned into nox. I took 1 week of prednisone/trazodone which gave me some ETD/ear fullness but ultimately I believe not protecting ears well enough in the weeks after the acoustic trauma did me in.
My nox has been fairly severe from the start (8/4/26), I noticed facial nerve pain and jaw pain with headaches. Strangely, I haven't felt the intense burning ear pain others have mentioned with nox... I didn't know what was truly happening until I had an awful day at work/home where everything set off immense pain. Major setback...
Since last week, I have spent tons of time with double-pro on in quiet spaces and have noticed my LDL level rebounding a little bit. I would estimate it to be between 35-45 db right now.
Questions for the community:
As I noticed loudness H before taking the steroids, I'm assuming the nox is from the acoustic trauma even though it set in about 3 weeks post concert?
What can I do in the coming weeks/months to protect my hearing to try to reintegrate to real life? (currently mostly housebound)
Should I visit an ENT/Audiologist? (It appears that most in this sub would say no?)
When should I begin to desensitize my ears to sounds? Or do I need to protect for x amount of weeks/months before doing so? The majority of sounds are eliciting some type of pain response (although seems to be improving with more time spent in quiet spaces)
Thank you all for your time. This has been the most stressful and debilitating thing I've faced in my life (M24) - I hope I can recover