Initially Going Crazy But Now Getting Used to It...

Hi everyone, I'm grateful to have found this forum. Feel free to read as little or as much as you want. I've never had an ear problem in my life until a few months ago, so I've been reading and learning as much as I can.

Through October and November of last year, my right ear was such a mess that I thought I was going deaf. Initially, I ignored symptoms for several weeks, thinking it was something viral that would run its course. The fall/cold season had set in in my part of the U.S., and everyone in my family was sick.

At its worst, I experienced:
-increasing ear fullness
-inability to clear my Eustachian tube when swallowing
-talking and speaking sounding far away - to almost no hearing at times
-hollow tapping sound when tapping the skull around my ear
-loud high-pitched tinnitus
-exhaustion
-occasional low-pitch tinnitus when I turn my head (low organ pedal/amplifier sound)
-diziness (from the unsteadiness of being in just one ear, I think).

When it didn't go away, I got so dizzy that I ended up going to the ER. They prescribed an antibiotic and steroid for what they thought might be an inner ear infection and urged me to follow-up with an ENT.

Everything went away! I followed-up with the ENT who did extensive hearing tests ($$) that showed that my hearing was actually great. So what is all of this, and why did I get it? He said that sometimes, a viral infection comes and goes but leaves the ear in a bad state, long after it's blown through. The antibiotic may have been of minimal help, but the steroid decreases all the inflammation and helps restore order.

Awesome, I thought! The only weird thing was that my jaw started clicking on Day 2 of the prednisone...

Everything was great until the jaw clicking continued and all the symptoms came back 2 weeks later. Why was my right jaw socket clicking? The ENT then questioned whether I may have TMD joint disorder but would need to direct me to a dentist for that (bruxism? jaw issues?). I realized that in late September, my toddler had been sitting on my lap and jumped up and knocked my jaw. It "went out of socket" and right back in, and I actually didn't even think to ice it because it happened so fast and just felt a little hot at the time. Now I'm thinking that was the start of everything. Anyways, at this point, I went on a soft foods diet for 2 weeks, and all the inflammation in my jaw came down. The hearing symptoms went away again. I did facial massage on myself and my jaw muscles for the 2 weeks to bring blood flow to the jaw muscles. Good good good - jaw clicking gone, and I could eat normal foods. Except then I got a cold. And I coughed and coughed and coughed.

This irritated my jaw. Again.

This irritated my ear. Again.

Everything I had gotten under control was spinning out of control again. I was diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed a different antibiotic and steroid. The drugs helped the bronchitis, but boy, did it seem to send my tinnitus through the roof - BOTH EARS NOW.

2 weeks later, I woke up with a migraine and vomited all day; my jaw just can't catch a break. Now the Low-level tinnitus has stayed. So I have 2 pitches in my right ear and one (high) in my left.

I no longer have symptoms other than the tinnitus.

I'm going to start a slew of dietary changes re: salt and water retention in the body. I think lowering my overall inflammation from the inside out and shedding some pounds will help this. I haven't seen a dentist yet, but I'm convinced that the solution resides somewhere in the ENT-chiropractic-dentist triangle. The high T is only obvious to me at night, in the silence. It masks very well during the day. But I can almost FEEL the Low pitch T and its vibration, so it's very disturbing without background noise. I just don't get why it goes on/off when I move my head. The vibration of the Low pitch T is helped by putting a cottonball just on the outside of my ear canal, but I still hear the tone.

If I step outside of myself for a moment, it's pretty entertaining given my music background. But that doesn't help much

Anyways, I hope any of this information can be helpful. I am grateful that my symptoms do not disrupt my daily life, and - from when the symptoms were AWFUL - I can really empathize with anyone who goes through it on a continual basis.

Please share if anything has worked well for you.

 

Welcome to the forum. The above description of our T may suggest your T is somatic type. If you live anywhere near University of Michigan, they are having a trial test of a treatment that they say will work better if some thing like that can help or change to intensity of T. It is being discussed now on TT in the treatment section.

 

Thank you for this info! I used to live in Ohio (closer), but now I live in NJ. I hadn't thought of there being treatment trials for this - again, new to this - but I'm sure there are some here. Thanks for the advice. I'll check out the treatment section, too. The T seems to come on-and-off. I often wake up without it, and it gets worse as the day goes. I think this points to a muscular/use issue. I don't know if I should REST my jaw completely (soft foods again etc) or try to make it do WORK in the correct alignment. >_<

 

That can indicate muscle issue or circulation issue such as blood pressure changes etc.