Not Sure What's Going On (Could Swimming Have Caused My Tinnitus and Can It Be Temporary?)

Hi everyone

I've been lurking here for the past few days and thought I would ask some questions.

To make a long story short, at the end of January of this year I suddenly developed chronic lightheadedness, brain fog, and dizziness. One minute I was fine, and by putting my head down looking at my phone, I got these symptoms and they did not go away. After many useless doctors appointments, I went to an upper cervical chiropractor who has basically healed me. Most of my symptoms are gone except for a bit of dizziness if I move to fast or put my neck in a certain position. When this all first happened, I noticed my ears were clogged and it took a lot of yawning to get them to unclog. As my neck got better, I was able to "unclog" my ears more and it was fine. The consensus is that because of two incidents of whiplash, my posture became distorted ( had headaches, neck pain, upper back pain, and my jaw popped but did not hurt), and thus caused these issues.

Fast forward to last week, I'm still in recovery mode and have been bedridden for most of the year because of the neurological symptoms. I'm 25 and lost a new job due to this, so it's been a journey. Last week, I decided to go swimming to get some body movement that would not strain my muscles. I swam down under about 6ft many times and seemed fine after. That night, I noticed that when I put my right ear on the pillow I had this insane ringing and even when I took it off the pillow, it was still there. I had to fall asleep to meditation music playing right under my ear for two nights. Because I have a friend with T, I started to panic a bit. By the next day I was able to sleep without the music but my nerves are getting the best of me.

I know my ringing is nothing compared to some of you here, but I don't want it to progress anymore. Yesterday I woke up and thought it was gone and suddenly had a "tea kettle" like whistle in my right ear for 5 minutes and it eventually went away but it physically hurt for 20 minutes after. I'm becoming paralyzed by fear and I know I shouldn't but I really don't want this to get worse.

So my question is, could swimming have caused this and is it likely to be temporary? The ringing I hear most often is like someone shaking a chain linked fence or that sound the tv has when you turn it on. And I've noticed it goes away for a few minutes and comes back which is getting better than it being constant. I think it's in both of my ears at a very low level, but yesterday my right was more apparent, and today my left is more apparent.

Thanks for reading.

 

It sounds like you had a virus like labyrinthitus and took a while to go.
Swimming can spike tinnitus especially swimming under the water and diving in.

Time is a great healer and see your doctor if the other symptoms come back or your ears don't settle and see ENT....lots of love glynis