Cough/Cold and Blocked Ears

Hello

So I've had mild tinnitus in my right ear that sounds kind of like morse code for around 8 years now, and it usually worsens slightly when I have blocked ears... which is quite often, I've suffered from multiple ear infections and blocked ears all my life. (Apparently due to narrow ear canals, so waxy blockages are common for me, despite my best cleaning efforts!)

Anyway, I'm VERY prone to illness, I got over a bout of Scarlet fever about a month ago which thankfully didn't affect my tinnitus at all, but just under a week ago I caught this pretty bad cold and just as it was starting to ease, last Thursday my right ear blocked up suddenly, leaving me with hardly any hearing at all, then a few hours later, my left ear blocked up just slightly less severely as the right. Naturally, I panicked because I always do. My first instinct was to use olive oil to expel any wax, which had no effect. By the Friday night, multiple intense high pitched ringing sounds had started in both ears and on the Saturday a pretty intense cough had also started up.

Because it was the weekend, I couldn't see my GP so I went to my pharmacist who recommended sudafed, a dry cough syrup and some menthol crystals to use with hot water fir steam, she is convinced that my blocked ears are entirely congestion related, so I've been using all of this since Saturday, and now two days later, I've only managed to clear the pressure in my right ear and restored a small amount of hearing in it, but my left ear remains the same and the tinnitus is still loud in both ears.

I was told not to use any more olive oil since I had experienced slight aches in both ears on and off, just in case it's an ear infection, and she advised for me to not see my GP until Wednesday at the earliest so my cold symptoms can subside first... but I'm just concerned! What if this level of deafness and ringing becomes permanent? Or of it is temporary, how much longer do I have to live with this? The worst part is, with the combination of the intense cough I have and the loud, relentless ringing, I've had a grand total of 6 hours sleep in the last three days... which I'm sure doesn't help...

 

Steam inhalation can help and Sudafed to help loosen and clear mucous out of your tubes but can take a few days so I would keep up the treatment a while longer.
Lack of sleep won't help and quite easily spike tinnitus.
Try lavender on your pillow and sound therapy and something to help aid sleep till your feeling better and a extra pillow might help sleeping a little more propped up...lots of love glynis

 

Thank you Glynis, my ears are slowly starting to unblock, I managed to get some more sleep and the steam has helped, hopefully the ringing will calm soon!