Progressive Onset

[TheFrenchman]

In 2008 I received Chemo and radiotherapy for cancer. Soon after I started hearing a low steady droning in my ears, over the years it progressed into a pulsing throbbing sound, which strangely only really affected me much when I lay in bed on my right side trying to get to sleep.

Then after a year or two more it spread to my left ear too.

The volume wasn't such that it was impossible to get to sleep but I always switched on the radio to mask what I could hear.

This year in January I had a virus which lasted a couple of weeks,since then the volume has ramped up so that it seems my heart is beating in my head.

I had a yearly appointment for my check-up today with my ENT specialist and discussed it with him.

I pointed out that if I put my fingers in both ears the volume drops by 90% and also pinching my nose while blowing has the same effect,so thought there may be a "mechanical cause".

He examined my ears then gave me a prescription which my pharmacist tells me is a more expensive version of Ginkgo.

Has anybody else experience similar symptoms or ways of getting relief?

Don't fancy the idea of spending the rest of my life with my fingers stuffed in my ears

 

[Tommi_boi]

Hi ,

I think I'm literally in the first stage of your journey .

I've had this heart beating thing before and it's always gone away so to speak, although this time seems to be the longest streak I've had with this pulsating.

It's really quite debilitating, as you can't habituate to it !

Although as of last Sunday, it started to properly woosh atnight (for the loudest it's ever been!).

It kind of got me a little panicky / worked up, so I published my post not too long ago here (you can probably find it from about three days ago ).

I do remember reading that if you put in an ear plug into your ear the sound might go away and to my amazement it has blocked a lot of my pulsating ... Amazing !

I only tried this for a few minutes though.

So tonight I'm going to try sleep with the pillow firmly pressed against my ear to see if I can get a good night's sleep.

Like you though , I don't really fancy having to manually block this pulsating by inserting objects into my ear!

As for this Ginkgo I read on wiki

"
Ginkgo may have undesirable effects, especially for individuals with blood circulation disorders and those taking anticoagulants such as aspirin or warfarin, although recent studies have found ginkgo has little or no effect on the anticoagulant properties or pharmacodynamics of warfarin in healthy subjects.[32][33"

I have read a lot of talk about this medication on this forum so seems to be endorsed by some people !

That's my two cents.