Steroids and ETD?

[emily813]

I'm 21 and have had tinnitus in my left ear for about three weeks now, starting roughly with the onset of a sinus infection. The tinnitus is a hiss sound, ranging in frequency from cicadas to radio static.

Urgent care prescribed me an antibiotic after saying my eardrum was bulging - this cleared up my sinus pressure but I still had fullness in the ear.

The ENT said I had ETD and prescribed me a Medrol dose pack (I also took a hearing test which came back normal). I am going into day 3 of the Medrol and it has helped my ear pressure but not the tinnitus.

Is it normal for the tinnitus to lag behind the ear pressure? The ENT also said to come back the week after Thanksgiving if things had not improved and that he'd try something else.

If that's the case, what treatments am I looking at? Steroid injections? Ear tubes? Thanks so much.

 

[emily813]

For those of you who are looking in the future for help with your ETD - I was prescribed Astelin to take with Flonase every day, which seemed to get rid of most of the tinnitus (there may be some remaining but it is so quiet to be almost unnoticeable). The steroids eventually got rid of 80% of the inflammation, and the nasal sprays/time did the rest - My recovery on the oral steroids was highly nonlinear (nothing happened until day 3, got much worse days 5-7) so don't panic if your recovery is not immediate. I would also try a neti pot every day - it seemed very helpful for my sinuses.