A Newbie Seeking Guidance — Tinnitus Developed After Sinus Infection

Hi all,

Call me Ron. I’m a recent lurker of the forum that’s decided to seek your worldly advice. I’ve just learned how debilitating of a condition tinnitus can be and am in awe of the many of you who face this terrible beast day after day.

As for me, three weeks ago I developed a sinus infection that ultimately made its way up the ETDs. My left ear filled up with fluid and went deaf for a day. Next morning the fluid drained and I found myself with a monotone ring (6 kHz ish) going nice and steady. I went to the doctor, who said the ear drum was swollen and gave me some Amoxicillin. A couple days later, while the left ear was still ringing, I got the dreaded sound drop followed by a short ring in my right ear before going back to normal. It happened twice more in my right ear and once in my left ear. I went to the ENT a week later and she said it all looks good, normal hearing, normal audiogram in both ears. Second ENT and audiogram said the same two days later. Since then it feels like my right ear has developed a slightly louder and slightly lower frequency monotone ring and my left ear has (maybe) ceased... though sometimes both feel as though they buzz in high-pitched unison. I can’t hear any sounds when I’m in ambient background noise but the right ear feels intrusive in quiet rooms ,especially at night when trying to sleep.

I have bad posture and no-TMJ-but-bad-jaw are possible culprits but I’m finding no cessation or change after acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments. I have not tried steroids but not opposed to taking them. Also considering HBOT. Eustachian Tube Dysfunction may be possible and I’m on Sudafed and Flonase but I can pop both ears almost too easily and feels like there isn’t anymore fluid. Stress may be a factor as I have not been sleeping and have been obsessed to no end with finding treatments. No issues with hyperacusis (thank god) but after being outside in moderate nature noise, my ears do feel full and high-pitched after coming in. Any ideas or advice on my next move would be greatly appreciated!

Ironically I work in mid-market private equity and realized just how underfunded tinnitus research is - and how both beneficial (and potentially profitable) a good solution would be. Definitely going to be pushing market research initiatives into current and future solutions that solve this god awful thing. I can say I’ve learned more about bimodal stimulation in the last week than I ever thought I’d know.

Anyways, it is a pleasure to meet all of you and I hope I can gain more knowledge in how to best work with this as well as provide my support to you all.

Best,
Ron

 

Hello, I'm not an expert on immediate steps but I believe folks have highly recommended steroid treatment for newly developed tinnitus. The recommended time limit is two weeks, so I don't know if you have missed the window for a steroid injection. If you do a search here, you should find details.

The good news is that the tinnitus you describe seems mild. To help sleep in a quiet environment, download an Ocean Sounds track to your phone and play it at a soothing level to fall asleep. You can either loop it the entire night or set a timer so it plays for an hour or so.

Best of luck. I imagine other folks will offer their insights, especially in terms of newly developed tinnitus.

Stephan

 

Hi @Ron Stallworth - welcome to the forum!

I'm also relatively new here, and the circumstances that led to my auditory woes are very different from yours, so I'll leave any advising to those wiser and with more similar stories, but I want to salute your desire to advocate for research and future solutions for all of us.

For now, I'm wishing you healing and silence!

 

Hey there @Ron Stallworth, welcome to the forum. I just wanted to mention that stress and lack of sleep affect my tinnitus quite a bit. Are you able to find ways to get good sleep and to lower your stress? I had to overhaul my sleep routine and knock out as many work and life stressors as possible.