What Do You Think the Cause of My Tinnitus Could Be?

[Erin1997]

Hey all,
I haven't been here in awhile but so far I am still overall okay with tinnitus. I have had some freak outs and nervous feelings, but I can go to sleep no problem and don't even hear the tinnitus half the time. I found out that my grandfather has tinnitus as well. Which honestly made me feel so much better because I have known him 20 years (my whole life) and he has never made a peep about it. Because it does not matter to him and does not bother him. He has had it 50 years due to being a musician.
Anyways, I was wondering what do you think the cause could be of my tinnitus, because there are developments on my case.

So in early October 2017, I had a new onset of tinnitus (before this I already had an onset of tinnitus since June 2017, I believe to medication that I was taking for acne and it is only in my right ear). This new onset, is more of a fuzzy static/buzzing kind of thing and changes from ear to ear, and with volumes, and with how it sounds sometimes too. I got it after a really bad congested cold. The cold was truly bad. But it went away, and the tinnitus stayed. Now it has been two months since this cold, and since then my ears have had a tolerable sound, but they have had some random tickling/pains and something just feels off. Like now my throat has been sore on the right side for a few days, as my ear is a bit sore. I might add that I have a lot of back drip.

Do you think that perhaps my tinnitus could be due to residual head congestion? or perhaps an infection to the Eustachian tube (thus making them inflamed and thus causing tinnitus?)

Any help is a help to me. I am going to the doctor about the sore throat because that is abnormal... I hope the tinnitus is tied to the sore throat

 

[illegalmonkey77]

Do you think that perhaps my tinnitus could be due to residual head congestion?

It's a good bet it's related. I had developed fluid in both my ears back in October which is when my T began also. The fluid went away thanks to Flonase but the T stuck around. My T is much quieter than it was though. When I had a hearing test recently the audiologist felt that the T was brought on by the fluid in my ears and then it just stuck around because I keep noticing it too much. She suggested listening to other sounds to help habituate to it.

I'm hoping it just goes away or gets to a level I can barely hear it. I had a couple days like that after Thanksgiving and it was great. More recently it's been louder(for about a week). This coincided with me starting to drink coffee again. A lot of people, and research, will say it doesn't matter but as with most things I believe it just depends on the person. I stopped drinking coffee and after about a day my T was a lot quieter, so that's my proof. For me anyways. I'll try having coffee again some time and see if the same thing happens.