New Tinnitus from (Suspected) Cold/Allergies/Sneezing

Hi everyone! Long-time lurker, first time poster. I'm a 31M living in the Northeastern United States.

Around mid-August I had what I thought was really bad seasonal allergies that I tend to get every year. I was sneezing a lot (many times an hour for the whole day) and had a runny nose for about a week or so. During this time, I started noticing what sounded like a high-pitched "whirring" in my left ear.

After about a week of it not going away and getting worse at night, my anxiety starting building. I would stay up late at night anxious and distracted by the high pitched sound and then decided to see an audiologist after my sneezing got better. The audiologist informed me of no hearing loss but an absent auditory reflex in my left ear and suggested I see an ENT.

I ended up seeing two ENTs. ENT A sent me for an MRI and auditory brainstem response test which both came back normal. ENT B put me on a weeklong treatment of methlypredinosolone and said the MRI was premature. The steroid may have helped for a day or two as the sound may have subsided a bit, but it never fully went away. I think the sound has been changing on a daily basis, sometimes better, sometimes worse, and that any difference I sensed with the steroid could have or could not have been because of it.

When I followed up with ENT A, he told me to get a neti pot, start Flonase, and an antihistamine (I was already on Zyrtec). The Flonase has definitely helped with congestion and I am now taking Zyrtec proactively every day instead of in response to allergies. It's been nice for my allergies and congestion, but my tinnitus is still there and it's hard to say if it's gotten better due to the new regimen or if I've just been habituating.

This week I experienced a morning of no tinnitus for about 30-60 minutes after waking up which was UNREAL! But then it came back... and I don't really know what to credit it to.

Today I saw ENT A and he told me that we've eliminated all the causes we should worry about and that at this point it's just about mitigation and he recommended masking with white noise... I'm a little disappointed that he didn't say that the allergy regimen just needs more time and then it'll go away, it seemed a little like a defeat and like it's just something to have to get used to now.

So I felt like it was finally time to introduce myself and join the community as someone who is early in a similar journey to many of you and hopeful of getting relief. Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories and advice. This is not where any one of us wants to be, but given the situation, it feels like the best place to be.