New Member — Look Forward to Help/Advice

Hello all:

I am a 57 yr old male who is a sufferer like you.

My issues seemed to start about 5 years ago when I noticed I was getting a fullness/popping feeling in head and ears. It seemed the only way to alleviate the fullness was to plug my nose and blow out through my ears which offered some relief. Back then my Tinnitus wasn't that bad and the main issue was fullness/popping (kind of like when descending in a plane).

Fast forward to present and I now have a very loud hissing noise in my head which has gotten way worse over the past year. It comes and goes, and varies in loudness, but I now seem to have it present most of the time and the only thing that seems to be a pattern is that some days I wake up without it after a good nights sleep, but it always slowly comes back sometime in the day. By the way, I do suffer from hearing loss in both ears but more in my right ear.

I have it real bad as I am typing this. It's a loud hollow hissing noise that is debilitating as all get out and makes it hard to concentrate, difficult at work, and sometimes so bad it drives me crazy enough to get depressed and feel helpless. I find myself worrying that I will have it just as bad when I wake up the next day and worry what I am going to do to be able to cope. I feel like sometimes I would rather be deaf just to have the noise turned off.

I will be looking at other posts and issues but wanted to give a quick synopsis and say hi. Like many of you, I feel so down from this issue that my quality of life has it rock bottom.

Again, thanks for listening.

Michael

 

Check out the possible cures below...

 

Hey Bill, you're a good man.

And Michael BH, I'm sorry your here and that your suffering. Read up, there's a lot of good resources here and support to help you. Stay strong, you're not alone.

Daniel

 

Eustachian tube dysfunctions and sinus, but there's are other possible reasons. I would see an ENT for your problem and to have your physical ears checked if you have not.

 

Thanks for the responses Bill, Daniel, and Greg. I am willing to look into and try almost anything to get some relief.

Greg, My first visit to ENT a few years back because of the fullness issue. The ENT pierced my ear drum to try to alleviate the pressure. It didn't seem to help that much but when I was there he also noticed that I was only getting 20% air flow out of my right nostril and the other 80% out of my left. I realized this was probably caused when I broke my nose when younger and he advised me to get procedure done that would fix that issue. I chickened out and when I decided to pursue again I found he had retired He said I also needed this done because of a deviated septum. I added this because I know I still need to get this done at a different ENT, and because of added nose issue I am currently addicted to Afrin which is making matters worse with my Eustachian tubes. I also need to get off the Afrin and know that I will go through three days of hell when I do (been there, done that). I wonder if the nose spray is further causing issues related to the loud hissing Tinnitus?

Finally went to see another ENT a few months ago. She confirmed the hearing loss, the deviated septum, and looked at my ear drums and told me they look ok. She also recommended procedure to fix nose and deviated septum. As far as Tinnitus she recommends noise masker hearing aids (which are pretty spendy (it sucks that insurance doesn't cover this at all).

Bottom line is you may be correct concerning Eustachian tube dysfunction, especially when I am getting sinus infections occasionally from the nose spray.. Looks like I am ready to go throgh the few days of hell and get away from it. It stinks because when I do I know I will have breathing issues again until I get nose procedure done again. But, if it somehow alleviates horrifying hissing issue it will be well worth it.

Thanks again,
Michael.

 

Sorry to hear you are suffering with this beast. You are not alone. I guess I can count myself fortunate to have reached the age of 65 before this meteor fell on me. You will find plenty of help and support in this forum. Stay positive if at all possible. This is by far the biggest challenge I have ever faced. We need each other.

 

Thank you John. Much appreciated and I am happy to be here.