Very New to Tinnitus

Hello all,
I joined up for hopefully a little help. Ive never had issues with my hearing, but I've always had problems with blocked ears. Ive been getting my ears irrigated twice a year for at the last 3-4 years. Around 4 days ago I went for a swim, and after wards my ear blocked right up (hearing was perfect before the swim). After 3 days of wax softener I went to the doctors for irrigation. My left ear turned out fine, my right ear however remained feeling blocked, and I've had a constant ringing for the last 24 hours and sounds have remained muffled (just through the right ear). I went back to the doctor and she wrote me a referral to an ENT.
Has anyone been in this situation before?
Any help wold be greatly appreciated, naturally Im a little anxious.
In addition Ive been having horrible hay fever this season, if this could have anything to do with it?

 

Nicholai-

Your T is very new. I'm sure the best advice you'll get on this forum is 1) Stay calm (it can be hard... ESPECIALLY on a website like this) and 2) get to an ENT ASAP because they might either find a cause or want to prescribe steroids, which are most effective as close to onset as possible. Best of luck!

 

Thankyou lloyd, the soonest I could get into the ENT is in 3 weeks, but in the meantime I'll try get into an audiologist

 

Welcome to TT. It is perfectly normal to be anxious about such an alien sensation as tinnitus. It is a scream on our ears we never had before. The brain will tend to react nervously. If our reaction is overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, then the brain can react with panic when it seems to sense no way out. The limbic nerves will take over and you react in fight or flight mode, making T worse. Stress and anxiety are toxic and can aggravate T. So it is best to do something to help calm the nerves, such as getting masking asap, doing some relaxing activities such as leisure walk or jog, anything interesting & stimulating to the brain will help.

Hay fever can cause block nose and swollen/infected sinuses. These in turn can also aggravate T. Some people can also react to the antihistamine taken for hay fever. It is not an exact science to pin down the cause of T. May be a combination of events which trigger the onset of T. The best is not to worry about this too much and be ready for some time of unpredictable and unsettling T. It can morph and change ears etc. After a while and getting some treatment, people usually find T settle down a bit. Take care & God bless.