- Oct 17, 2017
- 10
- Tinnitus Since
- September 9, 2017
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Unknown
Hi everybody,
My name is Mike and I'm 21 years old I've been playing the drums for nearly four years. I have started to use shooting protection headphones for over a year after realizing that I don't want to get hearing loss. Little did I know, the headphones reduce sound merely by 20-25 decibels. While at times it is enough protection (I am a quieter player), other times I find myself in situations with extremely loud guitar amps and or drummers. I have stopped playing the drums and have stayed away from headphones/loud sounds ever since the onset of my symptoms. Needless to say, I am getting custom earplugs made tomorrow and will resume my hobby of music once I get those in about 3 weeks.
My pulsatile tinnitus and ear spasms:
It all started around July-August when I had very itchy ears. During this time, I was using q-tips a lot. I did not have any symptoms of tinnitus at this point. On around September 5th, I was cleaning my ears with a q tip like a normally do. About 10 minutes after I was done, I noticed this strange vibration sensation in my right ear. It was kind of like a rapid low tapping sound. It sometimes happens in bursts, or just one at a time. The vibration/spasms will occur every 5-10 seconds for the first few hours. Then 10-15 seconds in the third and fourth and so on...It kind of freaked me out but I thought nothing of it after it went away fairly quick. Come the next day, I felt the same sensation. At this point I was beyond disturbed and scared out of my mind.
I went to my family doctor and they prescribed me amoxicillin (wtf) and said there was a bit of fluid in my right ear. Much to my regret, I took it for about 5 days. On the fifth day I noticed a pulsating in my left ear. I am afriad the amoxicillin may caused this.. After noticing the PT I went in to full panic mode. I went back to the family and told them that I now have PT along with the spasms. This time around the family doctor prescribed nasal spray and ear drops. None of the two did anything. Finally, I was referred to an ENT.
I went to the ENT and the first thing he did was clean out my ears with this suctioning tubes. He said that there might be a hair on my ear drum or something causing it (this didn't help and was very loud and slightly painful) He then told me that I was using my nasal spray wrong and showed me the correct way to use it (pointed horizontally towards Eustachian tube). I tried this for about 2 more weeks while still using the ear drops. Still no change. 2 weeks later I went back to him and got muscle relaxers. They however have not exactly helped stop the vibrating. Well I guess I can't really say for sure as the length of time the vibrating lasts can vary from 1 minute to 10 hours. The flexiril doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
I went and got a CT scan and found out the cause of my PT. Here is my post related to that. https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...cause-of-my-pulsatile-tinnitus-ct-scan.24513/
I can live with the PT. It only occurs when I lay down, or if I'm out of breath from running or something. Sleeping isn't difficult at all for me at least. I just use a sound blocker or turn on a fan to mask the puslating. The ear spasms however are unbearable, end of story. When they start, I have to do my best to contain, and calm myself down. There have been a few instances where I literally had manic episodes involving uncontrollable crying and crazy thoughts I would never imagine thinking. Yes, it is that bad. The sound has driven me absolutely INSANE. While I have gotten much better at controlling and calming myself, it is still extremely difficult to cope with. I've found that a combination of stretching and drinking A LOT of water helps. I have also increased my magnesium vitamin b2 and vitamin a intakes (no supplements). I exercise almost every day and eat very healthy.
Here's some other potential causes of the spasms I ruled out:
Wisdom tooth:I had been having pain in my bottom right wisdom for the past few months and got it removed 14 days ago. My PT and spasms have not decreased/went away after this.
TMJ: My ENT doctor told me I have a healthy jaw line after looking at my CT scan pics and said I most likely don't have TMJ.
Loud Sound exposure: While this is possible, my doctor said it is very unlikely considering I have been using hearing protection for a while and because the unusual shape of the bones in my ear are congenital.
I appreciate any advice and would love to hear from anyone that has been experiencing anything similar.
Here are my other threads
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/pulsatile-tinnitus-and-ear-spasms.24390/
CT https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...cause-of-my-pulsatile-tinnitus-ct-scan.24513/
My name is Mike and I'm 21 years old I've been playing the drums for nearly four years. I have started to use shooting protection headphones for over a year after realizing that I don't want to get hearing loss. Little did I know, the headphones reduce sound merely by 20-25 decibels. While at times it is enough protection (I am a quieter player), other times I find myself in situations with extremely loud guitar amps and or drummers. I have stopped playing the drums and have stayed away from headphones/loud sounds ever since the onset of my symptoms. Needless to say, I am getting custom earplugs made tomorrow and will resume my hobby of music once I get those in about 3 weeks.
My pulsatile tinnitus and ear spasms:
It all started around July-August when I had very itchy ears. During this time, I was using q-tips a lot. I did not have any symptoms of tinnitus at this point. On around September 5th, I was cleaning my ears with a q tip like a normally do. About 10 minutes after I was done, I noticed this strange vibration sensation in my right ear. It was kind of like a rapid low tapping sound. It sometimes happens in bursts, or just one at a time. The vibration/spasms will occur every 5-10 seconds for the first few hours. Then 10-15 seconds in the third and fourth and so on...It kind of freaked me out but I thought nothing of it after it went away fairly quick. Come the next day, I felt the same sensation. At this point I was beyond disturbed and scared out of my mind.
I went to my family doctor and they prescribed me amoxicillin (wtf) and said there was a bit of fluid in my right ear. Much to my regret, I took it for about 5 days. On the fifth day I noticed a pulsating in my left ear. I am afriad the amoxicillin may caused this.. After noticing the PT I went in to full panic mode. I went back to the family and told them that I now have PT along with the spasms. This time around the family doctor prescribed nasal spray and ear drops. None of the two did anything. Finally, I was referred to an ENT.
I went to the ENT and the first thing he did was clean out my ears with this suctioning tubes. He said that there might be a hair on my ear drum or something causing it (this didn't help and was very loud and slightly painful) He then told me that I was using my nasal spray wrong and showed me the correct way to use it (pointed horizontally towards Eustachian tube). I tried this for about 2 more weeks while still using the ear drops. Still no change. 2 weeks later I went back to him and got muscle relaxers. They however have not exactly helped stop the vibrating. Well I guess I can't really say for sure as the length of time the vibrating lasts can vary from 1 minute to 10 hours. The flexiril doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
I went and got a CT scan and found out the cause of my PT. Here is my post related to that. https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...cause-of-my-pulsatile-tinnitus-ct-scan.24513/
I can live with the PT. It only occurs when I lay down, or if I'm out of breath from running or something. Sleeping isn't difficult at all for me at least. I just use a sound blocker or turn on a fan to mask the puslating. The ear spasms however are unbearable, end of story. When they start, I have to do my best to contain, and calm myself down. There have been a few instances where I literally had manic episodes involving uncontrollable crying and crazy thoughts I would never imagine thinking. Yes, it is that bad. The sound has driven me absolutely INSANE. While I have gotten much better at controlling and calming myself, it is still extremely difficult to cope with. I've found that a combination of stretching and drinking A LOT of water helps. I have also increased my magnesium vitamin b2 and vitamin a intakes (no supplements). I exercise almost every day and eat very healthy.
Here's some other potential causes of the spasms I ruled out:
Wisdom tooth:I had been having pain in my bottom right wisdom for the past few months and got it removed 14 days ago. My PT and spasms have not decreased/went away after this.
TMJ: My ENT doctor told me I have a healthy jaw line after looking at my CT scan pics and said I most likely don't have TMJ.
Loud Sound exposure: While this is possible, my doctor said it is very unlikely considering I have been using hearing protection for a while and because the unusual shape of the bones in my ear are congenital.
I appreciate any advice and would love to hear from anyone that has been experiencing anything similar.
Here are my other threads
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/pulsatile-tinnitus-and-ear-spasms.24390/
CT https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...cause-of-my-pulsatile-tinnitus-ct-scan.24513/
Member
