Did I Get a Good Enough First Exam?

[gmcmanus66]

I was very happy to hear my ENT say he knew about PT, and that my symptoms didn't warrant any further tests. That my high-pitched PT (a hum, a buzz?), he thought it was a combination of my high frequency hearing loss producing the high pitched whine, and then interacting with my pulse due to my good low frequency hearing. Does that sound reasonable to you?

He listened for bruits but didn't hear anything sinister. It varies in intensity with some periods where it's silent (but I can usually go find it if I listen hard), mostly in my left ear but occasionally goes to the right and even seemingly both or middle. He did say to come back if it got loud 24/7 or in just one ear 24/7. He said if it was something like a growth in the jugular or things like fistulas, they wouldn't go away occasionally like mine does.

I'm just 7 weeks into this but I have intense health anxiety (I've diagnosed myself with at least 10 different cancers!) and a deathly fear of tests. Maybe I settled for his explanation because it was what I wanted to hear? I do see a psychologist and she went through our exercises I've learned..."what are the chances it's something really bad, what symptoms are you experiencing that your anxiety could be creating, etc.). She told me to wait at least a couple of months to go to the ENT so I did jump the gun a bit on her advice.

Ugh. It is wonderful when it goes silent (or mostly silent I guess).

 

[DirM]

If your hearing test shows high pitch hearing loss, then that is a reasonable diagnosis. It is when you have "perfect" hearing (like mine), but still have tinnitus that they start looking for somatic reasons. They should also look if you have any other symptoms or causes: dizziness, vertigo, sensitivity to noise, work history (construction or war vet), car crashes (whiplash), etc. My ENT sat down and went through questions for 30 minutes.

If you do a search on the forum there is actually a flow chart of diagnoses that is pretty educational.