Allergies, eustachian tubes, neti pot

allergy season always affects my hearing. I can’t use chlortrimoton or sudafed to open my eustachian tubes. As a result, my hearing suffers. More: I seem to get the dreaded fluid trapped behind the eardrum problem, which is agonizingly slow to resolve. Anyway, I use a squeeze bottle style “neti pot”–HOWEVER, while the pressure from this will temporarily open my E tubes, it most often makes things worse for my hearing. I would think that anatomically a neti pot could not effect my hearing; but it very often does. A mystery. I also wonder if using steroid nasal spray likewise could be contributing to the accumulation of fluid behind my ear drums, it this is what’s happening. Again, I don’t see how, but since giving up using this nasal spray, my ears seem to be slowly doing better.

I play guitar and allergies can profoundly effect how strings sound. (yes I have a music program). Again, I think that it’s fluid behind my ear drums that is the cause. It’s wildly variable.