I am a 66-year-old female. I experienced an episode of extreme vertigo, night sickness, dizziness, and a whooshing ear one night during June, 2014. I went through the usual visits to many types of doctors, had the carotid artery Doppler, and also head MRIs. The concentration at the beginning was to get rid of the dizziness with head maneuvers by a physical therapist. Also for several weeks I suffered through a type of night sickness where I felt like I was likely to die. It was hard to distinguish the ear pulsing from the other problems for many many weeks. However, the other problems gradually began to disappear, and I began to realize I had a permanent pulsing in my left ear.
I began making trips to a well-known ear clinic out-of-state, which involved a 360 mile round trip. During this time, which was August, 2014, my husband died totally unexpectedly. I felt as if my grief and my ear pulsing were going to cause me to go mad. The specialist at this ear clinic thought I might have had the beginnings of Meniere's disease. He performed two ear perfusions, which didn't stop the pulsing. He told me at that point there was nothing else to be done, that I had pulsatile tinnitus--that they didn't really know the cause, that there was no medication for it, nor surgery for it. He advocated "white noise" whenever possible, a salt-free diet, no caffeine, and walking. I was already on Zoloft, given by my local GP, just trying to survive my extreme grief and ear-pulsing.
I have begun having problems distinguishing what people are saying now, and know I probably need to get a hearing aid. My grief over my husband is subsiding a bit, but oh, the ear whooshing is enough to cause any sane person to go off the deep end! Sometimes, it seems to wane a bit where I can barely hear it, then other times, it stays very pronounced for long periods of time. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the intensity of the pulsing.
I am new to this site so will be interested to read other blogs. And--most especially--if there is ever any research to help!!! It's overwhelming to think of living out what is to be the rest of my life with this terrible terrible condition.
I began making trips to a well-known ear clinic out-of-state, which involved a 360 mile round trip. During this time, which was August, 2014, my husband died totally unexpectedly. I felt as if my grief and my ear pulsing were going to cause me to go mad. The specialist at this ear clinic thought I might have had the beginnings of Meniere's disease. He performed two ear perfusions, which didn't stop the pulsing. He told me at that point there was nothing else to be done, that I had pulsatile tinnitus--that they didn't really know the cause, that there was no medication for it, nor surgery for it. He advocated "white noise" whenever possible, a salt-free diet, no caffeine, and walking. I was already on Zoloft, given by my local GP, just trying to survive my extreme grief and ear-pulsing.
I have begun having problems distinguishing what people are saying now, and know I probably need to get a hearing aid. My grief over my husband is subsiding a bit, but oh, the ear whooshing is enough to cause any sane person to go off the deep end! Sometimes, it seems to wane a bit where I can barely hear it, then other times, it stays very pronounced for long periods of time. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the intensity of the pulsing.
I am new to this site so will be interested to read other blogs. And--most especially--if there is ever any research to help!!! It's overwhelming to think of living out what is to be the rest of my life with this terrible terrible condition.
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