Something happened to me just under two years ago. I don't know what caused it, but one morning I woke up to this weird... whirring.... in one ear (can't remember which one anymore, but I think it was my left). It was like I was in an airplane and hearing everything through the noise of taking off the runway. I also discovered that when I heard voices (people talking) I would hear overtones over the inflections, but only very high overtones, and the interval always changed. Furthermore, I later realized that everything I heard in that ear sounded half a step flat from my other ear (which was having no symptoms whatsoever). Our class bell, for example, normally rings at B4, and in one ear I heard it as B4, but in the other (the one with the weird symptoms) I heard it as Bb4. (I have perfect pitch.)

These symptoms came and went intermittently for about a week. They didn't inhibit my daily function or anything, but it was very strange. I talked to my band director about it and he suggested it might be a wax buildup. I cleaned my ears with some Q-tips and it didn't seem to help. The day I went to see an ENT about it was the day it disappeared completely. The only thing they could come up with that was something about ear pressure being on the low edge of normal, which seems to happen a lot to me anyway, and since it was still in "normal" range they regarded it as nothing to worry about.

Any ideas on what could have caused this? It hasn't happened again; I'm just curious.