Tinnitus after using IEMs for the first time

Recently got my first IEMs - the Kiwi Ears Cadenza. Love it. First time I listened to it, I was tweaking around to see which volume suits me the best, so I had it at a higher volume at first, which is 11 clicks (same volume level I had on when I was using my older Samsung Galaxy Buds+) on the iPhone volume slider, where it takes 16 clicks to go from 0 to 100.

And then eventually after a few hours I decreased it to 50% volume (8 clicks) and would keep increasing it to 11 clicks and back to 50% every time I felt curious what the track would sound at a louder volume.

2 nights after the first time of me using it, I started a ringing noise in my ears, which was pretty subtle at first and would be noticeable only when I’m in my bedroom. And the next night it got a little worse (as in a little louder) after there was a truck outside my building making hissing noises out of a water hose which was so loud that me and my mom thought it was coming from inside the house. And the next night the ringing got a little louder out of nowhere and then 2 days later I had to go to the doctor, an ENT one.

After telling me I’ve got tinnitus, he cleaned my ears as a precaution, said the cause of tinnitus can’t be pinpointed to a specific reason why and to visit him again in a week if the ringing persists and shall do a hearing test and audiogram. Later I asked him what are things I’m not supposed to do at the moment and he said not to use headphones for longer hours and keep the usage minimal.

Next day I was out with a friend at a library and decided to use my IEMs as I got bored and decided to listen to some music for 20 to 30 mins at 50% volume.

And that was the last time I used my IEMs or my headphones or earbuds and it’s been 3 days ever since. The ringing’s got noticeably louder now and I keep hearing it even if I’m not paying much attention to it.

Shit scared right now thinking I might have hearing damage or slowly going deaf or something 😭 so if any of y’all out there who’s faced this problem, please do comment what you did to overcome it, how did you treat it, how’s your hearing ever since you experienced it for the first time, etc. Any comment that could help me in my situation would be much appreciated 🙏🏾 thanks ☺️