Hi. For the last 6 months I've been having some problems with my ears.
The left one felt like it was under water a lot, although that problem
seems to have gone. When I swallow, I hear a crackling crunch sound. If
I puff either side of my cheeks out like I was inflating a balloon,
there is major crackling and crunching in my ears. I have pressure
problems too where swallowing doesn't make them pop. They can feel like
the ear passages have shrunk. Normal sounds feel slightly muffled
sometimes. I have a sort of closed off ringing sound in my right ear
too.

I went to my GP 4 weeks ago, who stuck something in my ear to look. He
explained that it looked like there might be fluid behind the eardrum,
which he deduced from shining a light into my ear and the reflection
being distorted. Something to do with sinuses not draining properly, he
guessed. I was referred to an ENT clinic and my appointment is in 2
weeks time.

When I got home from seeing my GP, certain sounds were different. My
jeans rubbing together when I walked, running my hand through my hair,
anything that sort of rustled sounded slightly distorted and more
muffled and unreal than other sounds. Sort of higher pitched, maybe
missing some of the other frequencies that you normally hear from those
sounds. Those sounds almost appear to be heard in a different part of
the ear to the other sounds.

A couple of hours later I came down with a nasty head cold, so assumed
the strange hearing was because my sinuses were blocking and would
return to normal when it went.

After 4 or 5 days the head cold appeared to go, but the weird hearing
remained. This was just over 3 weeks ago now, and those certain sounds
are still strange. I notice that when my ears start to block more,
which they do quite a lot throughout the day, the distortion and muffle
is enhanced. These higher pitched rustling sounds did not sound like
this 4 weeks ago before the head cold.

I have a few questions I'm hoping someone might be able to answer.

Is it likely that these problems can be fixed when I visit the ENT
clinic in two weeks?

Can a head cold permanently damage your hearing like this? It seems
unlikely, especially as this more recent hearing loss appears to be in
both ears rather than one, but I don't understand why it wouldn't have
returned to normal by now.

Is it possible that the head cold moved the trapped fluid around in my
sinuses and ears, and it's now settled in a different place, causing
certain sounds to now sound more muffled than they were before the head
cold?

Otosclerosis runs in my mother's side of the family, something I'll
also be tested for at the ENT clinic; could any of my original symptoms
or my more recent ones be signs of otosclerosis?

Any answers or other comments about the problems I've described would
be very gratefully received. This is causing me great concern.