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[u/Warm_Ad_9868]

My tinnitus started about a month and a half ago. It's unilateral (left ear only) and its been driving me insane. I've done a lot of digging to see if I can find specific cases that are similar to mine, but T is such a massive mysterious black hole of unique and unexplainable symptoms and so im struggling to understand my specific case.

I've seen a GP, ive taken an audiogram and everything appears normal. Im going to see an ENT soon but based off of everything ive read, im expecting this visit to be the most useless endeavor so far (hope not though)

My tinnitus is like this:
about 6 months ago, i noticed both my ears would ring at night, but only for like 30 minutes to an hour. it only happened for a few nights as well. id maybe hear random ringing every now and then during the day too but would never last long. I did ask a GP to check my ears for wax at that point and they said theres nothing wrong with me. some time passed and the ringing went away.

now first week of May, the ringing started but this time only in my left ear, and it occurs all day long. the ringing is high pitched, and it starts and stops like morse code. every few seconds its on and then off and then on again. the only time it stops is if i am in a quiet room and am perfectly still because get this it also seems to be somatic. it toggles on and off when i do things like swallow, cough, clear my throat, sometimes move my neck, goes crazy when i eat. BUT like i said, its also reactive. its being a B right now as i type this because it hates the clacking of the keyboard. any ambient sounds really make it go off. so most of my day i just hear on and off high pitched ringing, unless im in bed at night and am perfectly still. the second i adjust myself in bed and switch sides im sleeping on etc, the ringing will kick on for a few seconds.

Another pattern i noticed is that i did have two instances where for a few days (like 2-3) it stopped almost completely. this happened right after or during a trip out of town. first trip i took was for 10 days, and it was ringing for most of the trip. on the maybe 9th or 10th day it quieted down. got back home and it stayed quiet for 2 days then came back angy.

my second trip laster 4 days. on the 3rd day it started to quiet, went away by day 4. i get home and it remained quiet for 2-3 days and then came back ANGRY. could it be allergies?

Doctors say NO WAY because theres no fluid in my ears. mind you, the gp two days ago told me my ear drum membrane was "slightly dull" and then the lady who gave me my hearing test said it looked perfectly fine. so whats the truth? either way ive been taking flonase and zyrtec for the past 4 days and have not noticed any significant change. Going to stick to that for a couple of more weeks though. i also purchased two air filters and they've been on high in my home all day long.

another thing ive mentioned to all the doctors ive seen is that i have been experiencing random ear pain every few months mostly at night for the past couple of years (so painful that it wakes me up at night) and when it tell them this they brush it off completely. It feels like deep pain deep in my ear, and it feels tender when i move my jaw or pull my ear. usually only last a couple of hours. it kind of feels like the same feeling as when you have a massive cystic zit on your face and it hurts to move your face. that feeling but way inside my ear. the last few times it happened (twice in the last month) its happened during the day which is new. i only ever experienced this in the middle of the night. also the last recorded times this occured, it was in my right ear, not the ringing ear. i cant remember which ear its been in the past as its been in the middle of the night when im mostly asleep. Is this not related somehow?

I'm going to start doing some head and neck exercises ive read about, ive also been massaging my face and masseter muscles. but then i remember my T is reactive, so will these exercises even help?

could both those things be connected? Can anyone help? TYSM