I also have ringing in my right ear now thanks to the flu shot causing me a severe allergic reaction which caused an ear infection that led to ringing. It is literally life altering. The same exact thing happened to me when I suddenly became allergic to penicillin in 2015. Back then, I had no idea why I had ringing in my ear for 7.5 months, but it eventually just disappeared one day. I remember it so clearly. It sounded like a suction noise then "zooowit" it quit ringing. This time, it is much worse. It has been 11 weeks now and I have discovered that phenylephrine, advil and tylenol help reduce the ringing to a "tolerable" level, eventhough it is still driving me crazy. Of course, no one wanted to believe me. I had to go to two doctors before my last visit they realized what was happening and told me I can't take another flu shot... I'm "one in a million" it seems. Apparently I am developing allergies to medications that I have always been able to take throughout my life, now that I'm over 40. Out of nowhere, these allergies are suddenly appearing, and lead directly to me having an ear infection along with ringing in the ear, and "gulping" sounds whenever I swallow. My ear rings, hisses, is loud, is quiet, sometimes seems almost gone. I track the level of sound every day 4 times a day to try to isolate what helps it. I can only take the phenylephrine 6 out of 7 days according to the box, but the day I skip usually the ringing stays "manageable". The first two months were absolutely excrutiating and everything online tells you it's permanent and that flu shots don't cause them but they say these things because these cases are extremely rare and they haven't enough observations to explain this connection. It's an allergy, like other allergies, that can cause infections in the sinuses and ears. Now, I'm hopeful that in a few more months this cursed ringing will abate, but I'm honestly terrified it won't because until it does, I won't know if I can proceed with living again. There have been many occasions when I considered death would be preferable to this high pitched squeal. I'll never take another flu shot again, and my Doctor agrees. The ringing for me is all over the place. It rings, hisses, pulses, can be steady, sometimes it has TWO tones, one underlying solid tone and one overhead high pitched pulse, and sometimes I have "chirping" tick tick tick sounds. Sometimes the pulse is timed with my heart rate, but most of the time it is very slow and disconnected from my pulse or breathing. NONE of this was happening before I got the flu vaccine, and I had several other MAJOR symptoms from the flu vaccine reaction including fainting, 2 WEEKS of difficulty breathing, 2 WEEKS of severe indigestion, and massive muscle cramps and pain shooting through my chest and lungs. Fortunately those reactions went away on their own within 2 weeks. Unfortunately, the ringing has only SLOWLY gotten better and only with medication. I had no idea I was having a major potentially fatal reaction to the flu shot for five weeks after the flu shot until I read about ear infections, allergies, and checked the CDC website.
When I tried taking pseudoephedrine as my first doctor suggested, it made the sound worse the first day while I was on the medication, but a lot better the second day. My problem is I also have anxiety, and can't take pseudoephedrine very often without causing panic attacks. Phenylephrine (Sinus Pressure and Pain medication) works just right for me. I take it once every 4 hours 3 times a day at 8am, 12 noon and 4pm. I also take an advil about 30 minutes spaced out from then, and I also take 250mg tylenol about 2 hours after the phenylephrine when the sound tries to "break through" the medication. Often, it gets louder when it is about to drain from the back of my throat, which I can taste and sometimes feel. The drainage is thick, and mucusy. Sometimes I will skip 2 days of the Phenylephrine, but I still take the advil and tylenol on those days. On those days, my ear doesn't "gulp" as much anymore, but it did for the first 8 weeks. Last week was the worst week after I was trying to pull back on the medication to 3 days off each week. It seems like by skipping so much, it was trying to release more of the fluid buildup from the ear infection, but I can't see what's going on in there myself so I don't know for sure yet until I can see an ENT. I sleep with a cricket sound wave looping on my computer, a humidifier, and a fan to help "mask" the sound, but it is still hard to overcome that sound because it is IN my ear... all other sounds have to penetrate that sound to make it to my brain, so it often is difficult to sleep. Fortunately my new doctor has referred me to an ENT so hopefully soon I will have more progress to report. If nothing else, I hope in 6 more months this terrible sound will be much less than it is now. It is worse than Ancient Chinese Torture and it feels like no one wants to believe me.
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