10 Years with Tinnitus and Something's New

Where do I begin? I abused my ears for most of my life and never thought twice about it.

Then one day I had a ringing noise in my ears for a minute and then it disappeared, until the day that it didn't.

After that I took good care of my ears until I went to a concert 7 years later and forgot my earplugs, 5 hours later when they shut the music off I realized what I had done.

The ringing was loud, louder than I thought that I could handle, for a few months I thought I would go crazy. I didn't and as the months wore on I habituated.

Life was good again, until yesterday.

I was riding in my car listening to some music singing along, and I noticed that my left ear was starting to feel full, then it hurt a little, and I realized i couldn't hear as good out of it. Them everything started sounding tinny and crackly.

When I talked I'd have a ring in that ear at certain pitches, running water makes a metalic ring too. I went to the urgent care and they said that I had a little fluid in my ears and told me to take zyrtec and prednisone.

Which I did, it got worse for awhile, today it got better, but it's still there when I laugh, or certain sounds at the right loudness, or pitch.

But it is better, I'm praying that it goes away.

Is this some new to me form of tinnitus?

 

Welcome to the forum. Your ears are a bit unstable now and the fluid in the ears may have something to do with the quality of the sounds you hear. Sometimes, this feels like your T is reacting to some pitch and loudness of those sounds and so people here often call their T the 'reactive' kind. Also, people who have sudden increase in T and pitch can experience some element of hyperacusis and outside sounds suddenly become piercingly hurtful to varying degree. Unstable ears can also do some unexpected spins on people, such as changing tones or having more than 1 tone, or with fullness and sudden spike. Often this is only a temporary condition. Try to stay positive and calm as much as you can, as stress, fear and anxiety can aggravate T. Take good care. God bless.

 

Thank you, it does seem to be getting a little better. I believe that the steroids are helping..maybe it just needs time to settle down.