Thanks
@Damocles - sorry to hear about your ETD.
Thanks
@DeanD. But as I said, it's the least of my problems. Still live in hope that one day it will be the worst of them.
I have Olbas oil en route from Amazon today, so will try steaming when it arrives.
Good job. You won't regret it (ask my mate
@ZFire).
I've self-diagnosed the ETD based on symptoms of crackling in both ears when swallowing after a small noise trauma a week ago (hit my hand on plastic indoors clothes line).
The noise wasn't even that loud really, even by my phonophobic standards, but the crackling happened almost straight away (within 15 minutes) - all the tones of my tinnitus increased in pitch, and sound more 'tinny', along with the crackling.
Crackling (esp. when swallowing) usually hints at fluid trapped behind the eardrum, which yes, is a subsequent result of ETD and the tubes not draining efficiently.
I suppose it's not inconceivable to think perhaps the noise event had some knock on effect which caused both effusion and constriction of the Eustachian Tubes, at the same time.
That or alternatively, the crackling is some form of TTS which was triggered by the noise event (sometimes it can be a straw that breaks the camel's back, after multiple cumulative noise traumas over time).
In any case, there would be no harm in addressing the problem as if it were standard ETD to begin with, and then approaching it as if it were TTS or acoustic trauma later.
In both the latter and former's cases, treat it (like with the steaming) and/or avoid further complications (read: noise traumas), and the issue will likely resolve itself eventually.
Does this sound similar to your ETD symptoms?
No. For me I only experience crackling post-ear infection or cold/flu, as I mentioned.
My day-to-day experience of ETD is simple equalisation issues. I wake up every morning with air trapped behind my left eardrum, making sounds sound far-away, and the tinnitus a lot higher in volume. It can get stuck that way for a couple of hours, but will eventually correct itself by me swallowing or being exposed to some sound that makes the eardrum contract.
Not sure where the disagreement is.
It sounds like you have chronic ETD which you're managing to alleviate via a daily routine.
Chronic ETD is chronic ETD and the likelihood is that your symptoms will resume as soon as you stop what you're doing to remedy them. For all intents and purposes, I could steam every day to assuage my ETD problems, but who has time for that? It's not making that big an impact on my life anyway.
The day my ETD stops being chronic is the day a resolution for the damage an ear infection from 13 years ago has done, can be undone. If your ETD has lasted 4 years without fixing itself, then for you too, I imagine it's going to take more than a nasal rinse to cure.
I started using a nasal rinse 3 times a day as mine is due to chronic sinusitis and instead of using my nasal spray in the morning, I used it at night to allow it to properly sit in my nose without disturbance. I changed from spraying it up my nasal cavity to placing the bottle perpendicular to my face and then pointing my face directly down so the bottle was upright, you can actually feel it go right to the Eustachian tube when you hit it right. Once sprayed, do the Valsalva manoeuvre 2-3 times to get the spray inside the tube.
Playing with fire doing the Valsalva manoeuvre btw. Same goes for nasal rinses and Neti pots. Wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.
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