Tinnitus After Stuffed Ear/Sinusitis

[mike jones]

I was perfectly fine, standing upright, then all of a sudden I heard a "whooshing" sound going from left to right and my left ear was stuffed with intense tinnitus. Over the next couple of hours the tinnitus lessened and ear felt unstuffed. However, a day or two later I got the flu (or something like it) for a week which led to sinusitis. I now have constant tinnitus in my left ear. It seems to get worse temporarily when laying down. Also ears get easily stuffed when blowing my nose. Saw an ENT and ear looks normal from the outside. Any thoughts on what could be going on? It has been 3 weeks now.

 

[Zeneth]

I have bad allergies and T, just try and pop you're ears when you can, because if pressure builds up from sinus problems, it could damage you cochlea and make the T worse

 

[wanda evans]

This happened to me 2 months ago. I have a low level hiss all the time anyway in my left ear but I was left with the emergency broadcast system sound after a mild sinus cold. Two things have happened since then - the sound has reduced considerably (but not back to the original level) - and I've got to the point where it's out of the forefront of my mind. I used Flonase for a few weeks and I think that helped. I think you will get better with time.

 

[mike jones]

How do you pop your ears without damaging anything?

 

[mike jones]

interesting. one physician suggested flonase while another physician said to go with afrin... i can't quite see how afrin would help if my nose isn't stuffed but could see if there inflammation in there. did you pop your ears also?

 

[Zeneth]

If your ears really need to pop, just move your jaw around and you'll here a pop/click sound

 

[mike jones]

ok sounds good i'll try the jaw thing. should i be heating my ears/face in the hopes of getting whatever is in there to open up and drain or is that not a good idea?

 

[wanda evans]

interesting. one physician suggested flonase while another physician said to go with afrin... i can't quite see how afrin would help if my nose isn't stuffed but could see if there inflammation in there. did you pop your ears also?

If you take it more than 3 or 4 days in a row Afrin causes a rebound effect where your sinuses are worse off after 12 hours. I had a sample prescription spray at first but I don't remember the name, only took it a few days, then Flonase for a few weeks. I followed someone's instructions here for getting the medication into the eustachian tubes. Bend over for the spray (following the instructions) and then every hour hold your nose and do like a mild nose blow. Also got some fresh ginger and chewed a small slice several times a day. I think the Flonase - and time - did the most to help, though.

 

[mike jones]

my only concern with the flonase is if there is still some sort of infection in there, will the flonase make my immune system less able to fight it?