Several months ago I was on the Introduce Yourself page, saying hi and describing my problem. I was originally diagnosed with palatal myoclonus by two different ENTs. I did not agree with that dx, mainly because there were no palatal spasms to be seen by either doctor. One did say that it was remotely possible that they were so small and in such a hidden area that she could not see them, but it looked to me as if this might be a case of tunnel vision.
I went to a third ENT, this time one who had experience in neurotology and was in a specialized practice. The diagnosis was tempor tympani and stapedial myoclonus. The treatment was surgery to cut the tensor tendon and stapedial muscle. This update is to tell you how the surgery went.
In short, it was uneventful. I opted for general anesthesia, though it can be done with the patient in "twilight sleep". I went home the same day. I had zero pain, no nausea, no dizziness and no metallic taste in my mouth. There was a great deal of packing in there that was removed one week after the surgery. It felt good to get that out of there, but I still have all the gelfoam packing in there, which has to dissolve and be absorbed on it's own timetable. Anytime there is fluid behind the eardrum there is irritation to the nerve cells, so with that comes tinnitus. Just not the constant knocking and clicking that I had. As the swelling goes down and the foam absorbs, the ringing decreases. It can be quite high-pitched and annoying, if I focus too much on it. At other times i don't hear it all. It is worse when I am tired or at night or there is alot of ambient noise. I don't notice it at that time, but afterwards it seems worse. Perhaps that is due to the hours that have passed and it is nighttime again and I'm tired. I don't know. I have read and am following the advice of all the people here who have "classic" tinnitus, as opposed to this type that is caused by stuff in the ear. I don't describe the quality of it, if I talk about it I say how I feel about it. I try to avoid very quiet areas when it is loudly "singing". I run a small fan all night, right in my face. I don't dwell on it too much. I am confident that I can habituate to it as I did to the knocking, but hopeful that I won't have to. There is a small portion of the population that never lose the ringing, but since there are times when it just stops, albeit briefly, I am thinking I won't be in that percentage of patients. Nevertheless, it has made me far more empathetic to tinnitus sufferers here and understanding of what my late mother went through with hers.
Sometimes I just want to tell everyone around me to "STOP TALKING". Yikes, the chatter!
I would encourage anyone with the same diagnosis to go to a neurotologist and not take any old ENTs word of what it is or what can be done about it. For me, the surgery was seamless.
I went to a third ENT, this time one who had experience in neurotology and was in a specialized practice. The diagnosis was tempor tympani and stapedial myoclonus. The treatment was surgery to cut the tensor tendon and stapedial muscle. This update is to tell you how the surgery went.
In short, it was uneventful. I opted for general anesthesia, though it can be done with the patient in "twilight sleep". I went home the same day. I had zero pain, no nausea, no dizziness and no metallic taste in my mouth. There was a great deal of packing in there that was removed one week after the surgery. It felt good to get that out of there, but I still have all the gelfoam packing in there, which has to dissolve and be absorbed on it's own timetable. Anytime there is fluid behind the eardrum there is irritation to the nerve cells, so with that comes tinnitus. Just not the constant knocking and clicking that I had. As the swelling goes down and the foam absorbs, the ringing decreases. It can be quite high-pitched and annoying, if I focus too much on it. At other times i don't hear it all. It is worse when I am tired or at night or there is alot of ambient noise. I don't notice it at that time, but afterwards it seems worse. Perhaps that is due to the hours that have passed and it is nighttime again and I'm tired. I don't know. I have read and am following the advice of all the people here who have "classic" tinnitus, as opposed to this type that is caused by stuff in the ear. I don't describe the quality of it, if I talk about it I say how I feel about it. I try to avoid very quiet areas when it is loudly "singing". I run a small fan all night, right in my face. I don't dwell on it too much. I am confident that I can habituate to it as I did to the knocking, but hopeful that I won't have to. There is a small portion of the population that never lose the ringing, but since there are times when it just stops, albeit briefly, I am thinking I won't be in that percentage of patients. Nevertheless, it has made me far more empathetic to tinnitus sufferers here and understanding of what my late mother went through with hers.
Sometimes I just want to tell everyone around me to "STOP TALKING". Yikes, the chatter!
I would encourage anyone with the same diagnosis to go to a neurotologist and not take any old ENTs word of what it is or what can be done about it. For me, the surgery was seamless.
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