Need Advice — New Tinnitus Ear Onset in Second Ear

Hi all, just wondering if anybody could offer some advice. My T started unilaterally in my left ear at the beginning of October with an ear infection and while I was a little uncertain if the T was in both my ears, as my ears unplugged, it became apparent that my T was really situated in the left ear. (This is also the ear that has the dip in its audiogram at the 3-4k level.)

Over the last week or so I have noticed some fleeting T in my right ear and sometimes going to sleep some intermittent, easily maskable but detectible T in the right. Cut to this morning when I woke up and it has been pretty much persistent all day, with a few big "fleeting T" moments at the office this afternoon.

My main question--is there any worth in attempting to go the steroid route for my other ear? Since it seems like this is more of an onset of persistent rather than intermittent and/or fleeting T, it makes sense. On the other hand I am currently running on about 6 hours of sleep over the last two days, mainly due to our 1 year old coming down with pneumonia, and so it could just be a spike due to lack of sleep. (So far I have managed to avoid getting real sick this time around--last time I did I got my ear infection that coincided with the onset of the original T.)

@attheedgeofscience I know you have particularly advocated for the steroid route as soon as possible and so far the right ear is in that 24-48 hour window that you talk about and would love your thoughts. But if this is just a symptom of the T "centralizing" then it's probably not worth it.

Thanks in advance.

 

@marqualler Tinnitus does seem to "move around". Mine was left ear only for a few years but now effects both equally. Same sound, just in stereo. I think this is very common.

It's difficult to say if its worth going the steroid route. I have no experience of it so I'll leave that to someone else. What I will say if my T always appears worse when I've gone on a run of having too little sleep. Try to sleep as best as you can in the coming days (sometimes easier said than done) and re-evaluate.

 

@Marcini Thanks for your advice! For what it's worth today has been back to being more "intermittent" in the right ear than before. I also got a good night's sleep and today have just felt overall a lot less annoyed/dejected by it. (Probably helps that it is also a sunny day outside and I have some nice streaming radio going at my work desk today--KEXP based out of Seattle.) My wife has started embracing falling to sleep with white noise and actually was the one who turned it on last night so that helps. Yesterday I felt pretty hopeless and so today is a giant relief.

 

@marqualler That's great to hear. There are always going to be good days and bad but as time goes by you will hopefully learn what it takes to have more good days than bad.