Question: Last August I noticed that my left ear felt full light pressure if few days later it started to ring however it was not the ringing that i am use to hearing. This ringing was getting louder and louder. I finally went to an ENT he did not see any blockage in my ear and said my ear drum looked fine. I had no headaches. On this first visit my hearing test for my left ear were really bad. I went to get an mri done to make sure I did not have a tumor behind my ear. The Mri came back fine. I did some blood work in which my antibody level were high. He asked me to see a rheumatologist just to make sure that my own body was attacking my ear or anything else. The rheumatologist took x rays and blood work, all came back fine. Throughout this whole time I was taking valacyclovir and prednisone. I notice that at one point I would say i was almost deaf on my left ear, I experienced dizziness but not that type of dizziness that makes your head spin, just felt like I was on boat shifting around. I was on this medication for two weeks I thought it was the medication that made me dizzy. I remember a week after my medicine ran out i experienced the dizziness again but not as bad as the first time. Since then I have been taking lot of vitamins so far so good. I did have a follow up with my Ent Rheumatologist in late Septmenber and both said this was a viral ear infection and they said I should be ok in 3 months. I have another follow up with them this month. The ringing in my ear has toned down a bit but noticed that my ear rings louder when I am in bed getting ready to sleep, I wake up with ringing but then it tones down. In December I had to fly to Florida, on my way back home to NY my left ear felt clogged up. I quickly started to chew gum and moving my jaw around, started to yawn to make this pop, I took cold medicine and eventually that feeling went away. I am still concerned because sometimes I have felt like my hearing fades down a but then gets but then gets better. I am confident that my next hearing test will come out better that the first, but why is the ringing still there? Is this stress related or is it that I am off balanced when I am sleeping? Can there be some sort of artery causing this problem? Some times I hear a light ringing on my right hear but i gently massage it seems to go away or if I get this feeling while I am sleeping I move to my left side and that slight ringing on my right ear goes away, can this be related to my sleeping pattern? In the past I have not had the best sleeping patterns sleeping only 5 hrs. I have experience ringing in my ears before but it has gone away so I never thought it was serious I would always think it was because I would be at a loud social gathering but I been pretty much a homebody last year so I am not sure what is going on with me ear? Can this be stress related? How long can a viral ear infection last? If it is a viral ear infection can someone in my house catch this viral ear infection?