After a week away in the Canary Islands to escape the cold northern European
weather I've now returned with bad hearing loss.

I made the mistake of going out to one particular dance bar each night. I
had the usual next morning ear ringing which subsided but I think because of
the frequency of going out to these places (ie: nearly every night) my
hearing is now very different to what it once was. I even began to develop
chronic toothache around my back teeth which later subsided.

I now have a constant high-pitch whistling/hissing in both ears. The
loudness comes and goes but is definitely audible if I lie in a quiet room.
Everything now sounds somewhat "shut in" or artificial. My ears feel blocked
and under pressure. I have frequent earache. Swallowing produces loud
popping in my ears although I had this problem before it was never this bad.
It feels like there's maybe a catarrh blockage or something but so far I've
not been able to shift it with a nasal spray. I keep hoping that one day I
will swallow and my ears will pop so I can hear better again.

I'm also very sensitive to even moderate sounds (hyperacusis?) in particular
frequency ranges, eg: dropping a metal spoon on a plate is painful to hear.
While sitting in the moderately noisy staff restaurant at lunchtime I cannot
follow conversations anymore because the background noise scrambles
everything so much that I can't follow. I had to move my PC at work from the
table to underneath because the whistling noise it made drove me nuts and
made my tinnitus worse.

So all in all one holiday has potentially ruined my life. Great! I think
I've always had sensitive ears but now I fear I've gone past the point of no
return. Has anyone else had this experience where one holiday has ruined
their hearing? The friend I went on holiday with has no (noticeable)
problems with his hearing but then each person is built differently I
suppose. Needless to say I have some earplugs now but it's too late. I
really hope some day I can get some sort of return to normality.

What I find incredible is that there are people who work in these places
every night for weeks and months and wear no hearing protection. Really
crazy.

Stu