- May 12, 2022
- 10
- Tinnitus Since
- March or April 2022
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Noise or ear infection
Hi everyone,
I would like to share my experience with tinnitus, as when I googled my issues I came across many people in a similar situation on Tinnitus Talk, which helped me a lot. Hopefully this post can help others on here, and those who come here through Google (like me).
Around end of March I was doing an inspection at work. It is typically a noisy environment but I tend to work in the office. I was not wearing hearing protection because the area was quiet as nothing was running. Well, at some point there was a loud sound, something like compressed air being released. Luckily I wasn't near the source, it was further away. I didn't think much of it at the time, it made me turn my head but I had no symptoms. I was even with a coworker and she doesn't recall the sound when I asked her a few days later. Well basically when I was driving home that day several hours later, my ear started feeling sore. The next day it was very sore and I was very sensitive to loud noises. A couple days later the soreness was gone but my ear felt really clogged aka ear fullness. I had an audiogram done at work and it was identical to my baseline from 2 years ago, so good news is no hearing loss.
Ear fullness was strong and lasted all week so I went to my family doctor. She said to take anti histamines and prescribed Mometasone nasal steroid spray. Here is the weird thing, when I took that spray 2x in each nostril, I got crazy ringing in both ears. I pretty much stopped taking it after because it freaked me and ringing would not go away, but went down a bit after 3 days. The weird thing is I don't see why the nasal spray would cause this. I told my family doctor and she said to keep taking it, it will help, but when I took it my ears felt itchy and ringing came back, so I stopped after 3 days.
Well, ringing persisted for another week and I was freaking out. I normally protect my ears wherever I go, including concerts and fireworks shows, and always wear hearing protection (except that one stupid time). I went to the ER and the doctor said my ear looked inflamed and I had an ear infection so he prescribed a week course of antibiotics. Also said to take nasal decongestant (Pseudoephedrine). I also started taking the nasal spray again. This time using it properly - shaking well and spraying towards the Eustachian tube. I think before I didn't shake and sprayed up into my sinuses. Perhaps I doused my sinuses with a really high concentration of the nasal spray? Now when I take it I am fine with no spike in tinnitus.
Interesting point is the family doctor said ear looked normal. There's really 3 things that could have happened - 1) I used a Neti pot the day prior out of desperation, perhaps some water got into my ear, which caused the infection? 2) The doctor missed it, it also happened to my mother in law with the same doctor whose ears were a lot worse, even bleeding out. She went to the ER a week later at they said she had an infection... 3) Fluid in my ear from the noise/barotrauma at work could have then lead to development of an infection.
The tinnitus was pretty loud during this time, I couldn't even watch TV without hearing it. Couldn't sit in a quiet room, I needed to have music playing pretty loudly. Nights were bad, often kept me up until 3 am every day. I got really depressed because I value silence and now I felt like I will never hear silence again. My work suffered as I spent all day googling about tinnitus, and I would plug my ears hundreds of times a day to see where the sound is coming from or if it is all in my head.
The tinnitus is interesting, it sound like air escaping/hissing. Felt it more in my head than in my ears (I have had ringing in my ears recently very briefly due to pressure changes in the atmosphere, which were very obviously coming from the ear - my wife gets this too). Mostly more noticeable from the right side (bad side), but sometimes I felt like it was coming from the left as well. The funny thing that kept me from losing my sanity is it is a sound I have always had, just much more amplified. When I had a cold, when I was lightheaded, when ears pop on the plane, when I'd press my hands hard against my ears, I would temporarily have a hissing sound, but would not notice it during day to day. Most people I spoke to seem to have a very low level sound when it is quiet. Not sure if many people have low level tinnitus, or if it is due to our brains doing something funny. I have come across some interesting posts where people discuss this sound.
After the antibiotics I went to see my doctor and she said to continue the nasal spray and take antihistamines (the pseudo can raise blood pressure so she said best to avoid, although I found it helped me a lot during the infection). She also said to go see an audiologist to do another hearing test and tympanogram. Ear was feeling much less full at this time, but when I do Valsalva, my bad ear doesn't move as much as my good ear.
Hearing test was normal. Tympanogram was almost normal - good ear was perfect, bad ear had a slight curve instead of a straight point. Audiologist said this means there is likely a little bit of fluid left inside the inner ear, and just needs time to drain it out. She said this fluid can amplify any noises we already had by much larger. She said good news is because this is not a new sound, but something I have experienced before, it is not a cause for concern. Also unlikely the noise itself caused nerve damage since hearing is fine, but the fluid in the ears causing pressure and amplifying existing sounds.
So, that is my story for the past 6 weeks, how am I doing now? This week is the first week where I feel much better! For the past few days I have not noticed the tinnitus at all when not in a quiet room, like at work or when outside doing yardwork. When I am in a quiet space, most of the time it is not bothering me, I am able to ignore it - no longer need to play music when eating dinner. Only when I remember about it, I may focus on it, but then I forget about it pretty quick. When it first started, it was about an 8/10. Then it lingered at around a 4/10, which was still loud enough to give me anxiety. Now I would put it around a 0.5/10. The only annoying part is I still can't wear headphones to listen to podcasts - my bad ear feels a little "off" and the tinnitus is more noticeable probably due to all external sound being cut off.
If your tinnitus is from a blocked Eustachian tube, I have had several professionals tell me - it takes a lot of time. It can take a few months for the fluid to fully drain and the inflammation to go away. My bad ear still does not feel perfect - as I mentioned when I do Valsalva, my good ear's eardrum moves freely, but my bad ear's eardrum moves a little bit. It also can feel a tiny bit sore sometimes. However, the ear fullness has gone down significantly, as has the tinnitus, so I am confident I will go back to normal, even if it takes a couple more months.
Here is what I found helps a lot:
I would like to share my experience with tinnitus, as when I googled my issues I came across many people in a similar situation on Tinnitus Talk, which helped me a lot. Hopefully this post can help others on here, and those who come here through Google (like me).
Around end of March I was doing an inspection at work. It is typically a noisy environment but I tend to work in the office. I was not wearing hearing protection because the area was quiet as nothing was running. Well, at some point there was a loud sound, something like compressed air being released. Luckily I wasn't near the source, it was further away. I didn't think much of it at the time, it made me turn my head but I had no symptoms. I was even with a coworker and she doesn't recall the sound when I asked her a few days later. Well basically when I was driving home that day several hours later, my ear started feeling sore. The next day it was very sore and I was very sensitive to loud noises. A couple days later the soreness was gone but my ear felt really clogged aka ear fullness. I had an audiogram done at work and it was identical to my baseline from 2 years ago, so good news is no hearing loss.
Ear fullness was strong and lasted all week so I went to my family doctor. She said to take anti histamines and prescribed Mometasone nasal steroid spray. Here is the weird thing, when I took that spray 2x in each nostril, I got crazy ringing in both ears. I pretty much stopped taking it after because it freaked me and ringing would not go away, but went down a bit after 3 days. The weird thing is I don't see why the nasal spray would cause this. I told my family doctor and she said to keep taking it, it will help, but when I took it my ears felt itchy and ringing came back, so I stopped after 3 days.
Well, ringing persisted for another week and I was freaking out. I normally protect my ears wherever I go, including concerts and fireworks shows, and always wear hearing protection (except that one stupid time). I went to the ER and the doctor said my ear looked inflamed and I had an ear infection so he prescribed a week course of antibiotics. Also said to take nasal decongestant (Pseudoephedrine). I also started taking the nasal spray again. This time using it properly - shaking well and spraying towards the Eustachian tube. I think before I didn't shake and sprayed up into my sinuses. Perhaps I doused my sinuses with a really high concentration of the nasal spray? Now when I take it I am fine with no spike in tinnitus.
Interesting point is the family doctor said ear looked normal. There's really 3 things that could have happened - 1) I used a Neti pot the day prior out of desperation, perhaps some water got into my ear, which caused the infection? 2) The doctor missed it, it also happened to my mother in law with the same doctor whose ears were a lot worse, even bleeding out. She went to the ER a week later at they said she had an infection... 3) Fluid in my ear from the noise/barotrauma at work could have then lead to development of an infection.
The tinnitus was pretty loud during this time, I couldn't even watch TV without hearing it. Couldn't sit in a quiet room, I needed to have music playing pretty loudly. Nights were bad, often kept me up until 3 am every day. I got really depressed because I value silence and now I felt like I will never hear silence again. My work suffered as I spent all day googling about tinnitus, and I would plug my ears hundreds of times a day to see where the sound is coming from or if it is all in my head.
The tinnitus is interesting, it sound like air escaping/hissing. Felt it more in my head than in my ears (I have had ringing in my ears recently very briefly due to pressure changes in the atmosphere, which were very obviously coming from the ear - my wife gets this too). Mostly more noticeable from the right side (bad side), but sometimes I felt like it was coming from the left as well. The funny thing that kept me from losing my sanity is it is a sound I have always had, just much more amplified. When I had a cold, when I was lightheaded, when ears pop on the plane, when I'd press my hands hard against my ears, I would temporarily have a hissing sound, but would not notice it during day to day. Most people I spoke to seem to have a very low level sound when it is quiet. Not sure if many people have low level tinnitus, or if it is due to our brains doing something funny. I have come across some interesting posts where people discuss this sound.
After the antibiotics I went to see my doctor and she said to continue the nasal spray and take antihistamines (the pseudo can raise blood pressure so she said best to avoid, although I found it helped me a lot during the infection). She also said to go see an audiologist to do another hearing test and tympanogram. Ear was feeling much less full at this time, but when I do Valsalva, my bad ear doesn't move as much as my good ear.
Hearing test was normal. Tympanogram was almost normal - good ear was perfect, bad ear had a slight curve instead of a straight point. Audiologist said this means there is likely a little bit of fluid left inside the inner ear, and just needs time to drain it out. She said this fluid can amplify any noises we already had by much larger. She said good news is because this is not a new sound, but something I have experienced before, it is not a cause for concern. Also unlikely the noise itself caused nerve damage since hearing is fine, but the fluid in the ears causing pressure and amplifying existing sounds.
So, that is my story for the past 6 weeks, how am I doing now? This week is the first week where I feel much better! For the past few days I have not noticed the tinnitus at all when not in a quiet room, like at work or when outside doing yardwork. When I am in a quiet space, most of the time it is not bothering me, I am able to ignore it - no longer need to play music when eating dinner. Only when I remember about it, I may focus on it, but then I forget about it pretty quick. When it first started, it was about an 8/10. Then it lingered at around a 4/10, which was still loud enough to give me anxiety. Now I would put it around a 0.5/10. The only annoying part is I still can't wear headphones to listen to podcasts - my bad ear feels a little "off" and the tinnitus is more noticeable probably due to all external sound being cut off.
If your tinnitus is from a blocked Eustachian tube, I have had several professionals tell me - it takes a lot of time. It can take a few months for the fluid to fully drain and the inflammation to go away. My bad ear still does not feel perfect - as I mentioned when I do Valsalva, my good ear's eardrum moves freely, but my bad ear's eardrum moves a little bit. It also can feel a tiny bit sore sometimes. However, the ear fullness has gone down significantly, as has the tinnitus, so I am confident I will go back to normal, even if it takes a couple more months.
Here is what I found helps a lot:
- Nasal steroid spray - do it properly! If it spikes your tinnitus you may have sprayed your sinuses and not towards the Eustachian tube. Need to spray perpendicular and towards Eustachian tube, not upwards.
- Antihistamine or nasal decongestant to help reduce inflammation and drain Eustachian tube.
- Steam inhalation - boil some water, pour into a big bowl, put face over it an drape towel to trap steam, inhale through nose exhale through mouth. Don't be too close to burn yourself. I used to do it 3x a day, I stopped now but I should probably do it at least 1x per day. It helps drain the gunk in your nose.
- Do some heavy exercise that make you sweat, which just like the above helps move crap out of your sinuses. I have a crap knee but there are tons of low impact HIIT exercises you can do for 20 minutes that get your sweating.
- Focus on the improvements in your situation rather than persistence of noise. If you feel depressed/anxious, speak to your loved ones. I feel closer to my family now because I spoke to my mother on the phone everyday for a whole month, before would talk once a week. I also spoke to my wife whenever I felt hopeless and it helped too.
- Practice good sleep hygiene - the days I couldn't sleep, my body was really hot and my perception of my tinnitus was much greater. You need to ensure your body is cooled down which helps get you into sleeping mode. I avoid hot baths not right before bed, I will take lukewarm showers. Also, white noise machine on the bedside helps a lot.
