Tinnitus Since 2015

HI everyone
Long time follower but never posted. In my mid 30s and I got T out of the blue one day back in the summer of 2015. I did have some ear infections as a kid and unrepaired (by choice) perforated ear drum in the ear that I have developed T so there is probably some connection there.

Originally it started off as fluctuating tones like someone playing a flute in the distance (nothing too bad). I got used to it after about a year and it there seemed to be periods of it fading and then coming back. I am mostly able to ignore it all together.

I saw the top ENT specialist at one of the main hospitals and he said it may get worse but he didn't recommend surgery because there was no guarantee and it may even make my hearing worse. My hearing is minimally impacted (but always has been). I also did an MRI last year just in case to rule out anything abnormal in the brain and it was negative luckily.

Anyway this week I started to develop different/louder sounds almost like that annoying sound when someone is rubbing their finger around the tip of a wine glass in addition to the quieter dual pitch 'flute' sounds. I do have a cold and I was reading in the form that sometimes T can increase in volume when we get a head cold. It's harder to sleep at night and white noise actually keeps me up at night (how do people actually sleep with a white noise machine and find it relaxing?!).

Anyway it's now about a 5-6/10 in loudness when usually it's been like a 2/10 or 3/10 (ignorable). My hope is it will go away back to what it's 'normally' been the last two years once this cold passes. Thanks and good luck to all.

 

A cold or illness can ramp up the tinnitus, we have no choice to wait till the cold/illness improves.

Hopefully, your tinnitus will get back to the volume/intensity before you got your cold

 

Yeah the cold started to clear up over night and already I noticed a slight improvement in my T.
I never experienced that drastic change before with sickness. Thanks for the reassurance.