Infection/Virus — Tinnitus for 10 Months

Hey all. I've been cruising these forums for a while now and wanted to finally jump in with my story. Has anyone had tinnitus from an upper respiratory infection, or illness and had it just never go away? Or, gotten an infection and travelled/flown and got tinnitus the next day?

I got sick in January, and I experienced all of the symptoms of a virus/upper respiratory infection along with dizziness, head rushes, lightheadedness and a "whooshing" as if I could hear water or a fluid running in my ear. Later on, I flew from Detroit to LA for work. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have done that but there was no way out of it. The next day tinnitus started during my business meeting. Over the course of that week, my ears would ring for 15 min a day, then 3-4 hours a day, then all day 24/7. I'm not really sure if the pressure from the flight to LA contributed to it, or if I was going to have T from the infection anyways.

I also noticed that my jaw started popping, my ears started popping and clicking, I could modulate the tone of tinnitus with jaw or neck movements (I still can), and my ears became sore and sensitive at louder volumes.

Anyways, when I got back home, I went to the emergency room, and saw several different doctors and ENT's. None of them had anything useful to say other than "get used to it" or "it will go away", and I had been given varying diagnoses such as labrynthitis, sinusitis, potential hearing loss at higher frequencies that they can't test for, diet, etc. etc.

Over time, the infection/virus symptoms finally subsided, but I still have the occasional ear clicking/popping, jaw popping at night, ear sensitivity to loudness, etc. and the ongoing 24/7 tinnitus.

To be clear, I'm not in poor health. I'm 35 years old. I don't smoke or drink alcohol whatsoever. I am not overweight. I live a very active lifestyle but can't figure out a way to kick this. Frankly the most help I've gotten is from this forum. I've been able to try varying supplements, apple cider vinegar, ear drops, nasal spray, congestion medications, etc. but nothing has worked yet.

Does anyone have a similar story of an illness/virus/infection affecting your ears/jaw resulting in tinnitus? How long did it last? Did you find anything that was effective in resolving it?

 

Similar situation back in July of 2017. Woke up one day with a bad cold and a blocked left ear, no other symptoms. I shrugged it off (regret it now). The cold went away but the ear blockage lasted about a month. By the time I made my appointment to the ENT, my hearing was coming back and this is when the tinnitus started. ENT prescribed oral steroids and antibiotics. Long story short, hearing came back but tinnitus has remained since... going on 3+ years and no, you don't get used to it and it will probably remain. Supplements take the edge off it but it's always there. Stress and "life" will all affect the intensity. I don't mean to be negative but reality is reality and it's better you accept it and find what works best for you to lower the intensity and discomfort.

 

Did you end up having any hearing loss, or try hearing aids? Or, did you fully recover and are just left with the tinnitus?

 

I definitely have some hearing damage in that ear. I would put it at 5% as it’s not enough to be detected with pure tone tests but sometimes when I have very little tinnitus I can feel certain frequencies fainter but very minor. The thing with tinnitus is that the intensity is often not related to the hearing loss. There are people with full hearing loss and no tinnitus and people with undetectable hearing loss with intense tinnitus. But the consensus is that there IS hearing loss for tinnitus to exist.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I did not have ear blockage as a symptom that you mentioned for yourself, or hearing loss on my test at the ENT, so I have not spent as much time looking into it.