fasteddie911

Hi,
I have been having tinnitus in my left ear for ~6 weeks now, and I wanted to get some opinions on it. I just woke up one day with the ringing in my left ear after a night of heavy drinking(not sure if this may be significant), in addition to the ringing my, ear felt plugged up and muffled and it was difficult to hear. I went swimming that day(maybe not the best activity to have done) but the ringing and muffled feeling persisted for a few more days until I took some nasonex, which seemed to clear up the plugged/muffled hearing problem, but the ringing persisted. Some days the ringing has been worse than others, but usually its pretty consistent in volume, and of course it is less noticeable with background noise available. I finally went to see an ENT last week and tested my hearing and noted some hearing loss as compared to my other ear, he put me on some prednisone and I've been going back to get my hearing checked every few days. The first return yielded some improvement(though i'm skeptical of the improvement since I don't feel I tried to test well the first time), but it seems to have leveled off since. It seems I don't hear the lower frequencies as well as the higher frequences. I went out drinking/dancing the other night and woke up the next morning with loud ringing in my left ear which tapered off thru the day, but I'm not sure if that was caused by the alcohol or music(since my other ear was ok). The ENT thinks it was caused by a virus, but he is obsessed with the hearing loss, but he says the ringing will always be there, and he treats them as mutually exclusive, but I'm thinking wouldn't the hearing loss be there as long as there is ringing since the ringing is masking certain noises? Or would it be possible to have perfect hearing with tinnitus? The ringing is higher pitched, but I am wondering why it is harder for me to hear the softer low frequencies? I was thinking that if the ringing stopped, I would be able to hear better and test better. Any help is appreciated, thanks!