About to Go Completely Crazy!

[Alina]

Hi everyone, I found this forum while searching for causes for my pulsatile tinnitus.

I'm a 26 year old female, a medical student studying for my board exams so I can apply for residency soon.

It started in my right ear,around October/Novemeber last year, in 2015.

Initially I didn't know what it was and confused it with simple ringing(since I never experienced anything even remotely similar before). I saw a General physician and he said everything seems normal and maybe I just have an idiopathic tinnitus.

A month after, I experienced ear fullness in that same ear along with pain and a clicking sensation while opening my mouth wide, I was sure that I definitely have an ear infection that is causing all of this but again the doctor checked my ear and said everything looks okay, told me I might have mild tmj dysfunction so should just take ibuprofen for it.

Did that and the pain/clicking resolved but tinnitus stayed. At this time I finally recognized the definite wooshing nature of my tinnitus, varied with my heartbeat, disappeared with pressing on the carotid and on turning my head to extreme right. Would increase a lot when I would turn my head left.

It's been more than 6 months now and i hear it 24/7 compared to how it was before, on and off. I saw an ENT doc and he suggested that I get an MRI done which I did and it came back normal. I have a follow up appointment with the doc next week.

Sorry for the extremely long post but I just had to mention everything related to it so someone can advise me how should I proceed. I can't study properly or focus on anything since past few weeks, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind.

Please help me in finding a cause for this because it definitely is related to my blood flow.

Few simple things that I'm thinking maybe be causing this, correct me if I'm wrong:

-Anemia(few years back my hb came back low on a blood report, took iron tabs for a while but then stopped so not sure if it's better)
-Stiffening of my neck/shoulder muscles due to continuous sitting in a place almost all day everyday since many months,since I have been studying for my exams.I hardly get to exercise and maybe if I start running, stretching regularly it'll improve? Please help!

I feel much better writing here, feels like this is the only place that can connect to!

 

[Karen]

Hi, Alina,

I have pulsatile tinnitus, too, and am still searching for answers, but I can make a few suggestions.

Have you tried going to a TMJ specialist or a good dentist, to be checked out for TMJ? It might be worthwhile to do that, if only to rule it out as a possible cause.

Another question: When you had the MRI, did your doctor suggest also having an MRA and MRV at the same time? These are tests that screen the arteries (MRA) and veins (MRV), and can be done at the same time. Perhaps you could ask your doctor about having these tests as well?

When you go to your doctor, he may suggest a CT scan of the temporal bone (to rule out fistulas) or a CT scan with contrast, to check the veins and arteries. You could consider having these tests.

It is possible there is a connection with the anemia, but it's hard to say.

My pulsating started right after I took a blood pressure drug for the first time, then abruptly stopped taking it. It was right after that that I first noticed my pulsating. I was just thinking that yours could have started after you stopped taking the iron pills (?). That is only a suggestion.

Has your doctor checked your neck to be sure there are no other problems than stiffness? It might be worth going to an orthopedic specialist to be checked out, just in case.

I'll be interested to hear what your doctor has to say, and whether he feels more tests are warranted.

Good luck, and please do keep us posted.

Best wishes (and sympathetic hugs),
Karen

 

[Dr. Ancill]

Alina:

Almost all tinnitus patients will have a pulsatile element at times even with so-called non-pulsatile tinnitus - especially at night and when lying down. The MRI was negative but it might be worth doing a CT Angiogram just to further exclude any vascular pathology.

Spontaneous tinnitus in a young person unrelated to loud noise trauma is uncommon so it is important to make sure your medical specialists keep looking.

The problems you may also have is that you have become sensitized to the tinnitus and it has a greater emotional impact. Assuming that no treatable cause is found, I can assure you that your brain will habituate and the tinnitus will be attenuated. Whenever, mine bothers me (mine is age-related), I remind myself that for the vast majority of the time, my brain has ignored it and will do so again. Remember, if no significant pathology is found, it is only tinnitus !!

 

[volsung37]

I had sudden onset pulsatile tinnitus from October 2014 to around July 2015. I never thought it would go away. I found that taking a holiday finalised the break with PT. So it can disappear by itself as suddenly as it came.

 

[JasonP]

Hi everyone, I found this forum while searching for causes for my pulsatile tinnitus.

I'm a 26 year old female, a medical student studying for my board exams so I can apply for residency soon.

It started in my right ear,around October/Novemeber last year, in 2015.

Initially I didn't know what it was and confused it with simple ringing(since I never experienced anything even remotely similar before). I saw a General physician and he said everything seems normal and maybe I just have an idiopathic tinnitus.

A month after, I experienced ear fullness in that same ear along with pain and a clicking sensation while opening my mouth wide, I was sure that I definitely have an ear infection that is causing all of this but again the doctor checked my ear and said everything looks okay, told me I might have mild tmj dysfunction so should just take ibuprofen for it.

Did that and the pain/clicking resolved but tinnitus stayed. At this time I finally recognized the definite wooshing nature of my tinnitus, varied with my heartbeat, disappeared with pressing on the carotid and on turning my head to extreme right. Would increase a lot when I would turn my head left.

It's been more than 6 months now and i hear it 24/7 compared to how it was before, on and off. I saw an ENT doc and he suggested that I get an MRI done which I did and it came back normal. I have a follow up appointment with the doc next week.

Sorry for the extremely long post but I just had to mention everything related to it so someone can advise me how should I proceed. I can't study properly or focus on anything since past few weeks, I feel like I'm going to lose my mind.

Please help me in finding a cause for this because it definitely is related to my blood flow.

Few simple things that I'm thinking maybe be causing this, correct me if I'm wrong:

-Anemia(few years back my hb came back low on a blood report, took iron tabs for a while but then stopped so not sure if it's better)
-Stiffening of my neck/shoulder muscles due to continuous sitting in a place almost all day everyday since many months,since I have been studying for my exams.I hardly get to exercise and maybe if I start running, stretching regularly it'll improve? Please help!

I feel much better writing here, feels like this is the only place that can connect to!

This may sound weird but does it get better if you sit at a 45 degree angle?

 

[Dana]

@bill 112
Read Dr Ancil's post above, first phrase. You were on the chat box the other day worried that you got pulsatile tinnitus too.

 

[The Red Viper]

It's amazing that even doctors themselves (well in this case a med student) are troubled when this happens to them...

FYI a little tidbit. Did you know the Boeing 747 went from the drawing board to commercial flight in 5 years? That's right FIVE YEARS!! The current state of medicine, while "promising" (I've come to hate that word) is unacceptable when compared to the other achievements mankind has made. Kind of sad when you think about it.

 

[Alue]

FYI a little tidbit. Did you know the Boeing 747 went from the drawing board to commercial flight in 5 years? That's right FIVE YEARS!! The current state of medicine, while "promising" (I've come to hate that word) is unacceptable when compared to the other achievements mankind has made. Kind of sad when you think about it.

Agreed, but when they design new commercial planes, they make very few structural changes, because if the plane is not a success it will pretty much bankrupt the company. This is not true for military aircraft.

That gets me on another tangent, but I wish we (the US) would curb some of our defense spending and instead put it towards medical research.

 

[ErShel4]

I also have relief when turning my head and pressing on the artery in my neck. Also mine started with clicking as well.

 

[Alina]

Hi everyone! I recently had MRI with contrast as well and they didn't find anything wrong with my blood vessels. The ENT doc who saw me recommended I see a tinnitus specialist who can help me deal with my pusatile t since there isn't anything wrong with me apparently that they can fix surgically! Now my tinnitus is just getting worse, I hear it almost all the time except when im outside or when there is a lot of background noise. It increases with my heartbeat and decreases when I try and calm myself down. I read someone's post about a possibility of benign intracranial htn and also about bone erosion. Maybe I should tell my doc to look into that! I'm guessing for bone erosion they'll have to order a CT. Anything else that you all can suggest?

 

[Karen]

For benign intracranial hypertension, from what I've heard, I believe they can detect it from an eye exam.
A CT scan of the temporal bones will check for bone erosion.

The other suggestion I have would be to send your scans to another specialist for a second opinion, just to be sure nothing gets missed. Then, if you still don't have any answers, you will be able to decide what to do from there.

 

[Laurie1961]

benign intracranial hypertension...hmmm. After looking this up on wikipedia--I'm amazed by the coincidence of symptoms that go with this--