Loud Music Sets Off Rare Ear Disease in Nepalese Man

I work as a media person here in Nepal. Before the hyperacusis started, it was just a camera operator and me, working to shoot dance parties and music events a few times a week for a national television network.

The exposure to loud noise first caused me to develop tinnitus–not surprising in my line of work. Gradually the high pitch and loud noises began to cause pain in my ears.  I went for a check-up with many top ear, nose and throat specialists but they couldn’t find a diagnosis.

Many of them said it was psychosomatic, some said there was no treatment and advised me to consult with a psychiatrist, others said surgical operation needs to be done to stop the inner vibration of the ear, few of them advised me to insert cotton into my ears for noise reduction and they also prescribed medicines like stugeron, torcef, zellar, mecon, tryplin, neurocal, ginkoba, and many others.

Even with the intake of all of these drugs, the condition didn’t improve. It actually began to get much worse!   I kept on seeing new doctors in a hope to get better treatment.I tried the homeopathy treatments too, but to no avail.

I started searching online for any kind of ear related rare disease. The search worked and I found a site on a condition called hyperacusis.

The search stated all of the symptoms that I had were part of this disease. I came to know that there were only few clinicians worldwide who have completed the course on Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT). One of them was in New Delhi, India. His name was Dr. N.N. Mathur (Neeraj Narayan Mathur). Since India was near to my country I went there for the treatment about a year ago.

Since then I have been continuing with the TRT. The progress has been touch-and-go. I’m uncomfortable around loud music or other loud environments. Environments that are too quiet also aggravate my symptoms. While the decline in my hearing is unfortunate, I still hold out hope that I might lead a normal life. Only patients living with this disease day-in and day-out can tell you just how off-putting the sensitivity to noise truly is. My advice to other patients dealing with this is to be careful, to know your limits, and to exit situations which can cause increased pain.