Weird Tinnitus Noises After Possible Failed Valsalva Maneuver?

Slimepat

Member
Author
Dec 18, 2021
1
Tinnitus Since
11/2021
Cause of Tinnitus
Unknown
Hello guys. I'm 29 and unfortunately on this forum now due to a recent tinnitus development. My Tinnitus started about a month-ish ago. It started from pressure behind my ears that wouldn't clear. It felt like I couldn't pop my ears and eventually led to a slight ringing developing one day. I got a pretty quick ENT appointment within a week of this due to a cancellation and was looking for some answers. I took a couple tests and he said I had no significant hearing loss and diagnosed me with "Dynamic Eustachian Tubes" (a condition I could find no recollection of online). He told me to take Flonase/Sudafed and it should clear up.

For the next couple of days I took Flonase/Sufafed and it seemed to clear up most of the ringing (I'd say like almost no ringing while the drugs were in effect). I was at work and the ringing started to come back and being pretty early on into this thing, it was giving me extreme anxiety so I looked up some Eustachian Tube exercise videos for perhaps temporary relief. One of them had a Valsalva Technique and I did this a little too forcefully trying to make my right ear pop. I didn't notice any immediate pain or dizziness, but later that night I remember a little bit of pain in that ear and noticing that Sudafed didn't totally silence my ringing like it had. I went to an urgent care the next day and she didn't notice an eardrum perforation, but she gave me a shot of Methylprednisone and sent me off.

I guess it's been about a month since then and I noticed the right ear is still acting weird where it's residually ringing compared to my left which I can get to be quiet with Flonase and Sudafed. I scheduled another ENT appointment after calling around to some offices within my area and found an opening that I went to a couple days ago. My audio gram showed all normal hearing up to 8000 Hz being above the 20 dB range except for a slight dip to 25 dB around 1000 Hz. I mentioned the failed Valsalva to my ENT and she dismissed me saying it's impossible to cause tinnitus with that and printed off a packet of info and sent me off.

I still believe I could have given myself some inner or middle ear barotrauma with that Valsalva technique. The ringing itself isn't too noticeable during the day unless I'm in a quiet environment after taking Flonase and sometimes Sudafed. It also spikes immediately in my right ear if I lie down and adds additional tones, these tones clear up within seconds when I stand up and goes back to a faint ringing. I notice a clear fluid discharge in my right ear pretty much daily as well.

Does anyone on here have any experience like this? I feel really stupid about doing that Valsalva still and try not to beat myself up over it too much mentally :/
 
Welcome to the forum.

Maybe the ENT means ETD (Eustachian Tube Dysfunction). Yes, never heard of dynamic ET. If there are no one responding to your post on Valsava maneuver and it's a possibility òf causing your tinnitus, you can search the forum on that as there should be many discussions on that. You can also post in the main support forum.

Anyway try to mask the tinnitus if it bothers you. Read up the success stories to help you be more hopeful of recovery. Avoid getting too much stress and anxiety as that can aggravate tinnitus.

All the best. God bless.
 

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