Tinnitus Just Started — Likely Cause ETD

Hi,

On Jan 18, 2020 my left ear felt clogged and muffled and after 3/4 days everything was good and back to normal, 3 weeks later I travelled on 14 hours flight and back in February. Last week on Friday (March 27, 2020) my left ear was clogged again similar to what happened on Jan 18, 2020. Then during the next day or two it went to the right ear and back to left ear. This past Tuesday when I woke up the muffled sound/clogginess of ear was gone however I had this high pitch ring (tinnitus) only on my left side. It was really loud and not pleasant at all. I couldn't sleep at all and I gotten stress and anxiety cause of what I read online about this being tinnitus.

So yesterday a GP doctor called and looked at my ear for wax/infection and saw nothing. I explained to her my situation and how this all started, while she is no ENT doctor she prescribed me Nasal spray and Advil for decongestion. She said that most likely I am congested, which makes sense cause I had an allergic reaction to warm weather and pollen, felt congested. So yesterday after seeing her I applied the nasal spray and after a hour or so the ringing went down drastically and it's much more bearable. Today morning I woke up with very minor high pitch ringing, but mostly like background old TV sound. Through the entire day it has been very mild and now only at night I can hear the high pitch ringing little bit more than usual.

However I did notice my left ear is little bit more sensitive to sounds like if I play something loud the ear drum is vibrating. Reading through here I understand this could be due to ETD tube still recovering and I shouldn't be concerned as long as I take care of my ear and not listen to loud sounds.

However is this too good to be true that I am recovering just in 48 hours from high pitch sound which wasn't bearable to almost gone in this time? Or is this normal for most people? Or this doesn't mean much? Please tell me as I am still in great stress and anxiety. I will call my doctor next week and ask for ENT specialist if things don't get better.

 

Welcome to the forum. It is possible that if your tinnitus is caused by ETD, a problem in the ears that can be healed, then when your ETD is healing, your tinnitus will fade. If this happens, count yourself quite lucky because many members have tinnitus that can't be traced to a medical reason. Also anxiety and stress are bad for tinnitus. They can cause your limbic nerves system to kick in and then your tinnitus will sound worse due to all your nerve senses focusing on this 'threat' of tinnitus. So take it easy and wait it out as positive and relax as you can. Give it some time and hopefully you will be back to recovery. In the meantime, if the high pitched ringing bothers you, try mask it with an APP for tinnitus masking sounds. Play it on a bluetooth speaker so you don't have to use earbuds or headphones too much. They are not good for long termed usage and try to limit the volume of the masking sounds. Good luck to you. Take care. God bless.

 

Thank you for your feedback. I noticed my tinnitus has gone down so much that I can only hear it when the room is fully quiet or when I am about to go to bed and lay down. So my left ear was the culprit however I noticed when I am about to sleep and I lay down on my left ear facing down it's pretty much gone and/or dulls however I can hear it little bit in the right ear. If I switch over to my right ear facing down both sides are much more dull and almost pitch black. When I lay down with my back down and face up it's worse in both sides and almost like I can't even feel my face...but that being said is this ETD related? I am guessing it's how I lay down affects the pressures in the tube?

 

Not sure if it is ETD related. I am not an ENT so I can give expert opinion on your condition. But from your description that different positions can change your tinnitus, then it is likely your T is somatic in nature. That is something inside your ears is causing this. This is actually a positive thing because when the ears can heal itself overtime, or an ENT can fix the ears for you which then will make T fade or disappear. Anyway, from your description, your T seems quite mild. So it is best to focus on other aspects of life so habituation will happen quite readily especially for mild tinnitus. Take care. God bless.

 

Thanks for your comment Billie.
I think you are right, I need to see an ENT ASAP but this COVID-19 situation is making it hard. I will try to see ENT by end of month.

I noticed few things as well my tinnitus spiked on days where the Pollen is high, I pulled up the data for my city and noticed their is clear correlation between Pollen and my tinnitus. I am feeling like I have more phlegm during high pollen days due to allegories.

 

Welcome to the forum. Pollens can cause allergic reaction which can cause inflammation in the sinus and eustachian tube and these can cause ringing ear. Here is a site that explain the linkage of allergies and hearing loss plus perhaps tinnitus. Hope you continue to recover. All the best to you. God bless.

https://www.hahc.net/possible-seasonal-allergies-cause-hearing-loss/

 

@billie48 if the tinnitus is from allergies, does that mean it can possibly go away or not? Damage is done?

 

Hi Billie,
I think over 70% cases Tinnitus will disappear. There was some popular post on here which I can't seem to find anymore and they collected data and determined that in most cases the Tinnitus does go away within few weeks to 18 months. The key was to take care of your ears and avoid loud noises.

 

Just an update, my Tinnitus is only on left ear now the same ear when originally which was clogged for a few days right before when my Tinnitus started. I could here sound on my right ear for few days, however it's been 3 days now and the sound from right side of my ear/head disappeared and now it's only left in the left ear.

Is this a good sign? or it doesn't matter? Also is my Tinnitus Unilateral? If yes what is the difference between unilateral vs. bilateral?

 

I have the same issues right now. Tinnitus is constantly changing ears, sounds etc. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I recently had a ear infection/retracted ear drum. Also have issues with ETD/ clearing my ears etc.

 

Just came back from seeing ENT.
Prior to seeing an ENT I had to get a hearing test done and send it to him.

He wasn't concerned at all, and said the hearing test looks good with no hearing loss.
I told him I had this sound since 3 weeks, it has been only in my left ear now and it has faded a lot, with spikes sometimes. He did few tests and mentioned that everything looks good and not to worry because there isn't seem to be any issue and asked me to see him end of June if it doesn't get better.

I feel a lot better knowing I don't have hearing loss, however it made me realize how delicate our ears are and we need to take care of them.

 

I have a question why does my Tinnitus go up when I sit down vs. Standing? Example when I stand I can barely hear it in my left year but when I sit down I can hear it more in my left year and somewhat back of my head/right earish.

 

Just another update, I noticed after every spike day, my tinnitus fades more and more the next day when. Example would be last week I had major spike for the entire day, however the following and next few days my tinnitus has faded a lot. I had another spike yesterday and today I noticed my Tinnitus has hit new low levels which is almost silent and faded much more than ever before.