First Spike

[James Foley]

I've had T for a while and nobody was really able to tell me what the cause was. All I really know is I had a pretty bad cold and some stuffy ears, and then I woke up one morning with a pretty nasty ring in my left ear. This has been with me for a couple of years now and has gone from a 9/10 to a 2/10 and only really noticeable on bad days / nights. It went through several stages but had improved enough for it not to bother me anymore.

Now, a couple of weeks ago I was happily sitting watching some TV when I noticed my left ear close up again and along with it was a very high pitched ring / white noise. It seems to also get worse if I'm tired or having a bad day, but it sits on top of all sounds, so unless I'm listening to music or driving, I can hear it all the time. It also sounds like it bounces around my head, sometimes loud in the left ear, other times the right, and also equally as loud / quiet in both. I can seemingly modulate the volume by clenching and stretching my jaw, but after reading about it sounds like its not related.

Could this be my first spike? I'm just slightly worried as it has been with me for two weeks now, and its frustrating that his happens after all the effort I went through to protect my ears from any further damage.

 

[Gosia]

Sounds like your Eustachian tube might be swallen. Have you tried using some decongestant ? Sometimes they gt swallen even if we think they are perfectly fine ( I can tell from my experience.) Either way I'd look for a physical cause rather than your brain just tuning up the volume . Maybe you have some liquid behind the eradrum ?

 

[James Foley]

Sounds like your Eustachian tube might be swallen. Have you tried using some decongestant ? Sometimes they gt swallen even if we think they are perfectly fine ( I can tell from my experience.) Either way I'd look for a physical cause rather than your brain just tuning up the volume . Maybe you have some liquid behind the eradrum ?

ET issues was the first thing that came to mind as it was the suspected reason behind my original issues. I'm currently using Beconase with a daily antihistamine to see if I can get anything to shift. I saw my doctor yesterday who took a look in my ears and couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, but he has referred me to the tinnitus clinic at my local hospital.

I've tried decongestants like Sudafed to see if they'd help but they don't seem to do anything and I'd rather not keep taking them if they're not helping. I know I can try and open my eustachian tubes by holding my nose and blowing, but that has just made things much worse in the past so I'm trying my best to avoid that.

 

[Gosia]

In that case I can only advice you patience..of course, no use using Sudafed if not needed. Valsava manoeuvre is to be done very gently . I hope for you it calms down. Don't forget to keep us posted if it does.