Help Me and Describe Your Pulsatile Tinnitus for Me Please

[SadMary]

Hi, I am going mad here.

I have a PULSATILE HISSING in my head that started in May 2015 (9mths ago).

It sometimes feels like a PULSATILE HISSING PAINLESS POUNDING too at times.

It is a hissing that is always there 24hrs a day, sometimes louder and sometimes quieter but always there.

Sometimes it is made really worse with a pain at the back of my neck but the pt is still there when the neck pain goes.

I have had an mri of the brain ventricles. Also an mri of the ear for tumour. Also a ct scan of head.

All blood tests are normal.

What is it? What is wrong with me?

Please tell me what your pulsatile tinnitus is like so that I can compare please?!

Should I do the doppler of the arteries? Anything else?

Please help.
Thanks

 

[Cazb78]

Hi Mary

Sorry you are suffering. I have PT but mine is a continual whoosh whoosh in time with my heartbeat. I've had it years and thought nothing of it but when mentioned to Dr I was referred to ENT immediately as it is only one sided (right ear). MRI showed nothing wrong other than fluid in my mastoid air spaces. My PT also goes when I pop my ear and gradually returns as the Eustachian tube re-closes. I am scheduled now for grommets and a straightening of my inner nose bone which is crooked and which Dr thinks is causing tube problem and perhaps the PT.

Not sure how old u r but my consultant said mine was unlikely to be caused by vascular issues in my neck such as carotid arterial stenosis as at 37 he says I'm too young. If u are older than 50 it may be worth getting a Doppler on your neck.

Hope u get some answers soon and I'm sure there are many others on here who can give u good advice xx

 

[SadMary]

Hi Caz,
Mine is louder on the right side too but I feel it comes from the middle of the back of my head BUT its louder on the right side.
Also if I tilt my head down towards the floor, the noise ALMOST goes but like you say, it comes back after a few seconds.
I am 50 but I dont smoke and I dont drink and my cholesterol is ok.

If I press on my mastoid bone behind the ear, the noise gets louder.
Any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Karen]

Hi, Mary,

I have PT, and mine is a constant heartbeat sound (like a drumbeat). I also have a high-pitched hissing sound. Both are constant, and I cannot stop mine or relieve it by moving my head or pressing on my neck. Mine is in my right ear only. I've had the PT for over five years, and the regular tinnitus I've had for about 30 years.

Do you have any hearing loss? I do have hearing loss in the affected ear. Your hissing sound may be caused by that.

Are you going to try to get a second opinion from another doctor? Have you had a Doppler of the carotid arteries?

This pulsatile tinnitus is such a mystery, and there are no easy answers!

Best wishes,
Karen

 

[SadMary]

Hi Karen,
I will get the doppler done but I have had two gps listen to my neck with their stethoscopes and they said they dont hear any bruits?
Its awful and so stressful and the anxiety it causes is awful.

 

[Enzo312]

Hey Mary, Karen & Kazb38

I know how stressful this could be,
I also have PT in my right ear , i can clearly heart the hearbeat as it is, if i have fast heart beats i hear fast beats and etc.. I can stop it if i press on my neck, or if i do the valsava ( push air into my ear by closing my nose)
It completly disappears if i lay on my back or tilt my head, so it doesn't bother me in sleeping but it kills me when in quite locations and working or watching tv , when i exercise my heart rate goes up so i hear them perfectly boom boom boom
I did ultra sound for my neck carotid and vertibral arteries 2 days ago and result was good. The ENT said i Have patulous Eustachian tube but in a low level because my hearing exams were perfect, but i feel my ear full and sometimes keeps clikcing when i swallow so I will see another ENT, maybe do ct scan, MRI

Now what I am doing is limiting my coffee intake, being healthy, good diet, healing music, meditation, and music to mask it when needed
I wish you best of luck and I hope this subsides because i am new to it and I can't imagine living long with it

 

[Karen]

Hi, @Enzo312,

I'm sorry you're suffering with this condition, too. Yours sounds a lot like mine, and I hope you are able to find some answers. I've been to a number of doctors, had a lot of tests, but nothing specific was found. My doctors are unable to hear a bruit when they listen for mine.

You're right to limit caffeine, follow a good diet, exercise, etc. I think that really does help. When mine really bothers me, I try to do some form of exercise, and it distracts me from my T and PT for awhile.

I had that feeling of fullness, and the clicking, when mine first started. However, now, 5 1/2 years later, the fullness and clicking are gone. The T and PT remain.

Do you also have regular tinnitus? And do you have any hearing loss in your right ear?

If you decide to go to another ENT, we'll be interested to hear what he has to say.

Take care,
Karen

 

[Fungus]

SadMary, I have both hissing tinnitus and PT like Karen. The hissing is there 24/7 and is in both ears. It increases in my left ear if I flex my neck to the right.....but this is quite common.

My PT is largely in the left ear and I can hear 'whoosh, whoosh, whoosh' in time with the heartbeat. It increases when I have any inflammation in the ears or when I exercise and is usually very noticeable when I go to bed.

SadMary, as a mere strip of a girl of 50, you are very likely to have a bit of neck arthritis (spinal arthritis can start from the age of 14) and a bit of extra bone of slight kinking of the neck arteries can create noises in them even when they arteries are very healthy.

Easier said than done, but try to ignore it....count it to check your pulse rate...it won't do you any harm at all.

Fungus

 

[SadMary]

Thanks for answering everybody.

I would have responded yesterday but my son has the flu and temperatures of 39.9, so lots of sponging down like he was a baby again, bless him, 17 yrs old.
That raised the stress levels.

Fungus, its interesting you say about the neck because my hissing is alot louder when my neck hurts and my neck hurting coincides with the hissing startin, or at least thats what I can remember.

Also we were living in a very warm climate and now we are in a very wet cold damp one and all my joints hurt since moving here and we do have arthritis in the family.

Sometimes, now, when my neck hurts it almost grinds and I can hear the grinding of bones and thats when the hissing is really loud.

However last night, with the stress, I had tachycardia and it was so loud in my head, NOT a heart beat BUT LOUDER HISSING.

Mind you, my neck always hurts in the morning too.

I am so miserable with it all at the moment and life isnt what it was meant to be, so this just adds to the disaster of it all.

Never mind, on with the struggle as always.

 

[SadMary]

Fungus, my pulse in my arm is the same speed as the hissing in my head. Is that a good thing lol ?

 

[Karen]

Mary,

The fact that your pulse and the hissing are at the same rate just indicates you have pulsatile tinnitus.

I agree with Fungus -- it does sound like osteoarthritis of the neck could have started yours, or maybe made it worse.

I don't have any solutions to offer -- just to try to be as relaxed as possible, follow a healthy diet, try to get some sleep in spite of the pulsating, and live life as normally as possible. That seems to be working for me, so far. I've had this condition for over five years, have had many tests, seen many doctors, and they haven't come to any specific conclusions. So, for me, that is the best therapy I can offer.

I don't take any prescription drugs (except Synthroid for my thyroid condition), but I do take some natural supplements that could help a bit. You could try magnesium; I take magnesium chloride tablets about an hour before bedtime. Also, twice a day, I take NAC (N-acetylcistene), and while it doesn't take my tinnitus away, it does seem to protect the ears and keep it from getting any worse.

Take care, and stay in touch!!

Hugs,
Karen

 

[Enzo312]

Hi, @Enzo312,

I'm sorry you're suffering with this condition, too. Yours sounds a lot like mine, and I hope you are able to find some answers. I've been to a number of doctors, had a lot of tests, but nothing specific was found. My doctors are unable to hear a bruit when they listen for mine.

You're right to limit caffeine, follow a good diet, exercise, etc. I think that really does help. When mine really bothers me, I try to do some form of exercise, and it distracts me from my T and PT for awhile.

I had that feeling of fullness, and the clicking, when mine first started. However, now, 5 1/2 years later, the fullness and clicking are gone. The T and PT remain.

Do you also have regular tinnitus? And do you have any hearing loss in your right ear?

If you decide to go to another ENT, we'll be interested to hear what he has to say.

Take care,
Karen

Hi Karen,
The worst part maybe is when you are in the initial stages, when you were normal and no sounds and all of the sudden yo start hearing things, It takes a lot of patience to deal with it. If you tell people, they tell you yea it's fine we have it sometimes , just ignore it. Well, they don't know what it is when they say just ignore it, how can yo ignore it when it is heard and especially when it wasn't there before.
For me yes, I am anxious because I am worried if it increases. i think I can manage to live with it as it is now since it does not cause me problems sleeping but I am worried if it goes to another level. My clicking in both ears I think is because of a cold I have got 1 week ago, and I still have runny nose so it's some fluids that goes in the eustachain tube and causes it to click when when swallow.
I do consider myself as an OCD person, because I do get worried a lot when it comes to health issues and I am super alert which I don't like honestly. Maybe it's just a stressful period or phase I am passing in, I don't know and it's confusing. I am glad I found this forum at least I can talk freely about it because people here have similar problems and they understand how annoying it is.
I am trying to be a positive person again, back to meditation, sports, healthy lifestyle, early sleep, and I am scheduling another visit to the Dr I trust next month back home, he did my Nose Surgery 3 months back ( deviation and breathing issues) this may have had something to do with my PT because it seems related. He will do MRI or Scans, which as everyone is worried about and feels scared to do them, because our mind always go to the worst case scenario
So life is good anyways, we have to live it in anyway ,
Cheers,

 

[Karen]

Hi, Enzo,

I'm glad you've found a doctor that you trust, and that you are going to have some additional testing done. It does sound like your PT may be related to your other condition, but it's good to have those tests (MRI, etc.), just to be able to rule out anything else.

Don't worry about the tests; for me, the MRI wasn't too bad (I had an open MRI/MRA with and without contrast). I've also had a CT scan, which was over very quickly. I'm sure you'll be fine, and you'll be glad you had the tests.

Take care; you've got the right attitude. You will make it, and actually will be stronger for it!

Best wishes,
Karen

 

[SadMary]

Thanks everybody for replying to my post

 

[Jamclem]

My PT is in my right ear. I used to have very mild T but it changed about excessive push ups. I am able to reduce the sound of PT by pressing on the back of my head. In the hearing test to find the T frequency it was mid range and low volume but when they tried to mask it it would now work which is strange.. For this reason the T doctor assumes it is coming from the neck.

 

[Irish]

Hey Mary, Karen & Kazb38

I know how stressful this could be,
I also have PT in my right ear , i can clearly heart the hearbeat as it is, if i have fast heart beats i hear fast beats and etc.. I can stop it if i press on my neck, or if i do the valsava ( push air into my ear by closing my nose)
It completly disappears if i lay on my back or tilt my head, so it doesn't bother me in sleeping but it kills me when in quite locations and working or watching tv , when i exercise my heart rate goes up so i hear them perfectly boom boom boom
I did ultra sound for my neck carotid and vertibral arteries 2 days ago and result was good. The ENT said i Have patulous Eustachian tube but in a low level because my hearing exams were perfect, but i feel my ear full and sometimes keeps clikcing when i swallow so I will see another ENT, maybe do ct scan, MRI

Now what I am doing is limiting my coffee intake, being healthy, good diet, healing music, meditation, and music to mask it when needed
I wish you best of luck and I hope this subsides because i am new to it and I can't imagine living long with it

Hi @Enzo312, can you let me know if your PET improved from doing the activities you menioned (coffee, diet, music, etc)? Thanks