Tinnitus Started Two Days Ago...

Long post.

Hi! Two days ago at approximately 1 PM, I woke up with ringing in my ears. When I realized what it was, I got so anxious that I got sick (vomiting). I'm a very sound-invested person (huge music fan, need utter silence to sleep), so the thought of having possibly-permanent tinnitus filled me with horrifying anxiety. It sounds exactly like the static whine of an old TV tuned to a black channel.

After about a day of waiting for it to go away (and a nearly sleepless night because of the anxiety (1-2 hours of sleep)), I went to the immediate care center and explained my symptoms. The doctor there prescribed me 18 20 mg tablets of prednisone. I've taken five so far (with the dosage instructions of 3 for 3 days, tapering to 2 for 2 days, though I may take 3 for 4 and 2 for 2, tapering to 1 for one).

I've noticed a sort of slightly wet/full feeling in my ears, and slight discomfort in my nasal passages (though this could be caused by me popping my ears in an attempt to alleviate the pressure/T). The doctor didn't notice any inflammation/clogging in my outer ear, and she didn't say anything about my eardrum. I'm reserving an appointment with an ENT ASAP (none open on the weekends), but I've done some research on the forums and prescriptions of prednisone seem to give optimistic results.

I don't know what caused the T, exactly. Recently, I've been under some pretty, pretty heavy stress (depression/anxiety/new job), I like to listen to my music very loud (though I don't listen to extreme loud volumes for more than 45-80 seconds at a time), and I do remember having taken approx. 600 mg of ibuprofen from a coworker to help with aches and pains in my legs, though I've actually been cutting back on NSAIDs lately (funnily, for stomach health reasons, not T worries), so it was probably the only dose of NSAID I'd taken in about a week.

The T didn't start after removing headphones after loud music (that I noticed) like I've noticed a lot of people described, only becoming noticable the next day. I know you guys aren't medical professionals, but based on what I've said here, does my prognosis seem good for total T remission? It's at approximately the same volume as it was 2 days ago, and I've read that if it's caused by middle ear fluid/pressure, the symptoms could take a few weeks to subside, prednisone or no.

The prednisone is also making it almost impossible for me to sleep, but I'm willing to cope with that if it means I can keep the peace of my ears mostly intact.

 

Oh, forgot to mention, I'm a 21 y/o male. I smoke marijuana on occasion but I don't smoke cigarettes at all, drink heavily, or take any other drugs regularly besides the occasional (once a week?) dose of NSAIDs for aching at work.

 

I've also made sure to not use headphones at all besides a brief 15-20 minute lapse of judgement when I smoked some marijuana the same day that the T developed.

 

Hard to tell. If you only had it for 2 days it could easily subside within the next few days or weeks (which I do hope). But unfortunately there is of course no guarantee as you might know from this board there are many many people whose tinnitus never went away.