New to Tinnitus — Fleeting Tinnitus

Hello all,

I have had tinnitus because of loud noise exposure since July of this year. At first I did not know I had it, but a week out from the exposure I noticed the usual ringing after going out was still present on my left ear. I used to listen through headphones at work at least 4h a day. A week after the exposure I remember I was working and all the sudden a high pitched sound popped into my left ear for good 7 seconds. That happened couple times that week and once I visited an ENT I was introduced to tinnitus. Giving you a little more background I am a DJ who is constantly exposed to loud noise. After realizing I had tinnitus I stopped listening to music and gigging for good two months a half. I bought custom earplugs with 17 db filters and wear them now for every gig or when going out.

However, since the start of my tinnitus it has gotten worse. It was initially just in my left ear but then it also started on my second ear. Furthermore after couple weeks in I started noticing a humming sound on my left ear, and last week (2 months later) a very similar humming sound started on my right ear after a gig.

My real concern is not the sounds I hear. My questions to all of you with more time dealing with this are the below. I would really appreciate any guidance that you could provide, all the doctors I have visited don't gave tinnitus and don't really know much about the condition and its symptoms.

1.) How often new sounds have developed for you and was there a specific trigger for this? I feel like these new sounds are showing up too quickly even after I am already wearing protection for my ears when exposed to loud sounds.

2.) How many of you experience fleeting tinnitus and how does it present for you ?
I only experienced it the first week after being exposed couple of times but it was real loud. To the point that I couldn't hear anything on that ear for those 7 seconds. Once I stopped all music for two months it was not present. However, I did notice that driving my motorcycle would trigger a spike high pitched tone but not very loud. After those months of resting I started gigging again and listening to music through headphones. At that point I started noticing I would get these spikes the next day after going out or gigging. Then after a week and a half of listening to a fair amount of music and two gigs I had three spikes in only two days, but this time they were just like when I first got the condition. They were really loud and I couldn't hear anything on that ear while it happened (it happened twice on right ear and once on left ear). Since then I completely stopped listening to music on headphones for recreation purposes and only use them for my gigs. I have been doing this for the past month and the fleeting tinnitus reduced a lot. However, it is still present if I ride my motorcycle (with foam earplugs) and then listen to some music. And it has also been present a couple times while gigging which really scares me cause at the moment it only lasts about 5 - 7 seconds, but what if im performing and it comes fro 10 min ? I'd be screwed.

If any of you have experience with fleeting tinnitus I would love some feedback on how it was, how often, what were the triggers and honestly what it means. Does it mean the condition is getting worse? I had cases when the spike wasn't high pitched, instead it was just like the humming sound which is a lower frequency.