I'm Scared — Not Sure If I Have Meniere’s Disease; Tests Came Back Normal?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been dealing with tinnitus for the last two months. After an ear cleaning in August (one ear only), I experienced my first "vertigo" attack. I don't think the room was spinning, nor did I feel nauseous, I just felt extremely off when I woke up in the middle of the night. However, when trying to get out of bed my mom had to help me walk because my legs felt so weak. That subsided but then I had a feeling of aural fullness in my ear for an entire month. I sought an ENT after 3 days because I thought I had a sudden hearing loss in my left ear but it was just muffled due to the fullness. I have had 4 audiograms done in the last 3 months and all have shown no hearing loss.

The aural fullness in my ear doesn't go away, it fluctuates in terms of intensity, though, and sometimes sends me into panic mode.

Yesterday, I had a follow up with my ENT to discuss my VNG results as I was getting tested for vertigo. The tests came back completely normal meaning I don't have vertigo at all! I was so happy because it meant my vertigo/dizziness wasn't being caused by my inner ear, so we decided I need physical therapy to see if maybe my neck or my jaw are causing these problems (I have a misaligned bite and my left jaw hinge doesn't open and close the way it should - vertically. It more or so goes to the side before opening).

As I was driving home I started to think about the dizziness I get from time to time, and it sent me into a bit of a frenzy (I have really bad anxiety). As I got home I sat down to eat with my boyfriend and after a sudden movement of my head, I started to feel dizzy again - this stuff doesn't make sense as my tests had legit just come back normal. I tried to disregard the fact that I wad a bit dizzy and kept on with my activities. It was only when I started to worry and stare at the floor that I noticed the floor was moving a tiny bit; again, I suffer from anxiety and have been worried sick about having meniere's so this very much could be my imagination messing with me. Shortly after I convinced myself to get some rest. I fell asleep but the dizziness was still slightly there when I woke up.

Out of nowhere my left ear plugged up and the aural fullness was full force; I had muffled hearing in my left ear again and I started to cry because I didn't understand what was happening! I applied heat to my ear and the fullness slowly started to decrease and now I am back at my usual state of aural fullness after 2 days (muffled hearing is now at a very reduced level). The dizziness also subsided after 2 days, but its weird because I got all sorts of symptoms on top of the dizziness. While I wouldn't say this was vertigo (I was able to walk just fine I just felt super dizzy in my head), I was experiencing these other symptoms as well:

- Headache (the tension type, it radiated to the back of my neck)
- Jaw and facial soreness (left side only where the aural fullness is)
- Spaciness (not sure how to describe this but it felt as if I wasn't all there)
- Stomach pain (to be fair I suffer from GERD and this could have been from anxiety)
- Increased pain and soreness when I chewed or clenched my teeth on both sides (is this TMJ?)
- Fatigue (The stress and dizziness and my panicking/pain made me tired but I didn't feel like I had to sleep).

I wanted to note that I have a low sounding (the pitch is slightly lower than my other ear but it's definitely not a hum or anything, its just not as loud) tinnitus in the ear with the aural fullness but this has been there since my ear cleaning and gets louder if I put ear drops in the ear (sometimes I get spikes and the pitch becomes high, it goes away after a few minutes). I also have a high-pitched tinnitus in my right ear following a mild concussion but now believe it was noise-induced.

Anyone have any idea what could be happening? It's odd because my ENT said VNG usually with a hearing test is the best for Meniere's diagnosing; My hearing tests and VNG came back normal, which is great, but then why am I having these random events happen? Could this be TMJ related? I don't know how my jaw could have caused this though, I don't believe the jaw could randomly tense up your ear and make it full so suddenly?

I also read that aural fullness is usually the first symptom followed by vertigo when it comes to meneire's attacks and mine was quite the opposite? I'm at a loss here, just wishing I had the answers. While I'm praying this isn't meniere's, I just want these things to stop.

PS I took a Meclizine for dizziness and vertigo and it did nothing for me, another reason why I believe my dizziness isn't so much vertigo.

 

Hi, I notice you got your tinnitus on the same day as I did and our symptoms seem very similar based on your post here.

I’ve been having episodes of dizziness for about a month or so where my legs feel very heavy and weak and I feel as though I am moving when I’m stationary or sitting down. Often it feels like waves of disorientation that seem to radiate from my spine or back, ever experienced anything like that?

Your dizziness and jaw/facial pain could absolutely be TMJ related and this can have an impact on your tinnitus as well. Like you, I have a misaligned bite and jaw and I’m going to be following this up soon with my dentist, I’d advise you to do the same.

I’ll also be investigating if there are any problems in my neck, as all my issues seem to have started after a mistake when training. I don’t know how relevant it is to your case, but neck problems can cause both tinnitus and vertigo among other symptoms and jaw or dental problems can add to this. Might be worth checking out at any rate, especially if you have any posture issues, stiff neck etc.

Above all else, have hope! We’re still very early into this problem and it can certainly go away for both of us. There are plenty of success stories on this forum where people’s tinnitus faded and even disappeared after a few months, you should have read through them when you feel like you need comforting, I know it helped me.

 

You're so nice thanks so much for the encouragement but do you also experience fluctuating aural fullness in your ears at all?

 

I absolutely did, near consistently for the first month. Though admittedly I haven't noticed any aural fullness for about a week or so. In general it seems most of my symptoms are slowly fading on their own.

 

I had labyrinthitis for over a month about 4-5 years ago with constant vertigo.

From you experience if it was vertigo you’d know it!

I had constant ear fullness and pains around my jaw for the first few months from onset of tinnitus (March this year) but these have both now settled.

I had some dizziness etc as well which I attribute more to anxiety than anything else.

I’m not intending to recommend you specific medication but maybe beta blockers or similar for a few days may help?

 

Thank you so much for replying! Did your ear randomly get full out of nowhere from time to time?

 

I had a constant sense of fullness. Unfortunately don’t particularly recall whether it would get worse from time to time sorry.