Tinnitus Spike, Ear Fullness and Muffled Hearing After Shower

To make a long story short i’ve been in the hospital for the past 2 weeks due to a collapsed lung and came home yesterday.

Tinnitus has been bothering me today and decided to take a shower and my right ear felt a bit plugged up during it and when I got out my tinnitus seems much louder.

I really need help and to calm myself. I don't know if it’s from all the meds I'm on or what but I need help.

My right ear feels full and I feel like my hearing is muffled, plus my jaw is clicking.

 

switch to bubble baths

 

Did you get any water in your ear?

 

Use a sound meter in your shower to check how loud it is. Mine is around 65 dB and has never bothered me.

 

That's what I had been doing for about a year.

Now when I take a shower, I wear earplugs.

 

Could it be wax blockage? That’s happened to me lots recently

 

No I still have a tube in my chest that may get removed Wednesday, so no water went near my head.

 

I did get my hearing checked perhaps a month ago and had no blockage

 

Shocking that you can’t even enjoy a bloody shower!!!! Who’d have though this condition could be SO limiting...

 

Showers have never bothered me until today.

 

I sometimes get shower spikes. They are usually short lived. Less than a day, maybe even less than hour. Don't think it's dangerous.

 

If you don't experience spikes after a shower, then there is no reason to worry about it.

 

Do you experience ear full/dull feeling during or after it? Mine feels like so at the moment.

 

No, I do not.

 

I do sadly Bill. I wish there was no reason to worry about it. This condition will be the death of me...

 

Plugged up, muffled feel with occasional clicking? (like popcorn sound). Clogged in a sense like with a bad cold, reducing hearing a bit and spiking up tinnitus?

 

TMJ/D I'm guessing? And yes but never this bad before.

 

It depends how you FEEL where it's coming from on the "clicking" type of sound. Obviously the muffled feeling in the ear feels to be dampening your hearing ability?
Does it sound like a popcorn -click- -click- clickety click type in the ear or from the jaw? w/ the tinnitus?
The description/explaining these sounds are so critical to understanding and helps narrow it down to the source, because there's such a common pattern really with all tinnitus/hyperacusis sufferers.

 

I'm gonna say the jaw, like really close to the bottom of the ear.

 

@Kain It’s got to be something more than the shower causing it. Showers should be safe. They can often reset my T to a low level (what I call a shower reset). I consider them therapeutic.

It could either be your middle ear muscles and muscles around the jaw tensing up if you are sensitive to sound.
Otherwise maybe something vascular to do with your lung or the meds. Can you check to see if they’re on the ototoxic list?
Have you talked to your dr or checked for earwax?

 

Any other inputs? Could the meds I've been taking cause this trouble in my right ear? Or most likely due to the TMJ that’s causing the ear fullness?

 

the painkillers are on the ototoxic list unfortunately and i don’t believe it’s wax in my ear as i have had my ears checked maybe over a month ago

 

It could very well be the painkillers then. They can cause spikes, ear fullness and worse. There’s almost no painkiller that is not ototoxic. But if you must take it I’m not sure what you can do. I just endure the pain these days even for broken bones.

 

I wake up quiet. Get in shower and there goes my spike for the day.
So freakin stupid.

 

I’m not sure if you are still active but can you help me with this? I’ve had a slight muffled/decreased hearing in both ears for 2 months now... is this normal and will my hearing return back to clarity and at a higher volume? This is across all frequencies