Hello everyone, 1-year tinnitus sufferer with a question about ear hygiene. I'm in a bit of a worried place right now.
I've been told my doctors that I have very narrow eustachian tubes, and I occasionally have ear buildups/clogs that I can't get rid of even with Debroxy (over the counter earwax solution). My local doc usually used a water pick on my ears, which worked fine my whole life until last March when I ended up with tinnitus.
I'm not 100% sure if it was the water picking that did the tinnitus, I also felt sick after using Debroxy and was prescribed antibiotics because my ear looked 'a little irritated'. But suffice to say the idea of having my ears syringed again by a doctor makes me instantly nervous that my tinnitus would get worse.
Fast forward to this week. My tinnitus has spiked significantly and on a few occasions one of my ears has sealed up, leading me to believe I'm developing a wax impaction. I tried debroxy but the ringing didn't go down, in fact it went up a little. I'm now feeling mildly feverish like I did when my tinnitus first developed and am paranoid about putting anything else into my ears.
How do you fellow tinnitus sufferers deal with keeping your ears free of wax impactions? If you do get an impaction, what do you think is my best bet for removing it without worsening my tinnitus? My hope is that Spring Allergies are shrinking my eustachian tubes and just giving it a little bit of time and some Flonase will clear out my sinuses and get me back to baseline. Do you find that allergy/congestion season spikes you as well?
Sorry for the disorganized first post. It's a very stressful situation, knowing I need to clean my ears out but also being afraid that any option for cleaning them out could worsen my condition.
I've been told my doctors that I have very narrow eustachian tubes, and I occasionally have ear buildups/clogs that I can't get rid of even with Debroxy (over the counter earwax solution). My local doc usually used a water pick on my ears, which worked fine my whole life until last March when I ended up with tinnitus.
I'm not 100% sure if it was the water picking that did the tinnitus, I also felt sick after using Debroxy and was prescribed antibiotics because my ear looked 'a little irritated'. But suffice to say the idea of having my ears syringed again by a doctor makes me instantly nervous that my tinnitus would get worse.
Fast forward to this week. My tinnitus has spiked significantly and on a few occasions one of my ears has sealed up, leading me to believe I'm developing a wax impaction. I tried debroxy but the ringing didn't go down, in fact it went up a little. I'm now feeling mildly feverish like I did when my tinnitus first developed and am paranoid about putting anything else into my ears.
How do you fellow tinnitus sufferers deal with keeping your ears free of wax impactions? If you do get an impaction, what do you think is my best bet for removing it without worsening my tinnitus? My hope is that Spring Allergies are shrinking my eustachian tubes and just giving it a little bit of time and some Flonase will clear out my sinuses and get me back to baseline. Do you find that allergy/congestion season spikes you as well?
Sorry for the disorganized first post. It's a very stressful situation, knowing I need to clean my ears out but also being afraid that any option for cleaning them out could worsen my condition.
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