Tinnitus Spiked from the Shower (Water Going Directly Into My Ear)

Hi,

While in the shower this morning I bent down and got quite a lot of water going directly into my ear. And I mean directly into the ear, probably for about 20 or 30 seconds. I didn't really think much about it at the time as I obviously shower every day and it's never caused a spike in the past.

Now, my tinnitus has really spiked. It's only been like it for a few hours so I'm trying not to freak. I'm hoping that the ear will dry out eventually and return back to my normal levels (which weren't great to start with).

Anybody else had this happen? Did it go back to baseline? How long did it take?

Any advice is appreciated.

 

How are you now?

 

Hi @Hardwell,

Thanks for asking. It actually settled down early in the evening. Yesterday was a pretty good day. But last night and today it seems to be spiking a bit. I think the shower caused a temporary spike only. At the same time I'm stopping anxiety meds (which is one of the candidates for what caused my tinnitus). I'm told that coming off them can make it worse for a while. So that may be happening as well.

That's one of the hardest things about tinnitus I find. Trying to find patterns when there are so many variables in life and things that may have caused a spike, it's sometimes hard to tell what did it. Or it could just be total chance!

Either way, my sound machine is getting lots of use today!

 

The best is to plug your ears while taking a shower. Getting water in ears may damage even healthy ears.

 

This happened to me another time, and again just a few minutes ago. I was tilted to the side and turning the knob of the shower to get it a bit warmer and got a 'full force' stream of hot water right onto my ear. It definitely sent me into worry as can happen with previous acoustic injuries. Hopefully it's nothing for you or for me.

It kind of makes me nervous because a lot of people seem to have issues with water irrigation blasts for ear wax treatments. They're not the same thing, I know, but it's about the only other comparison I can think of when it comes to a stream of high pressure water hitting your ear.