What's Hurting My Son? Severe Hyperacusis, Constant Pressure in Ears, Acute Pain, and More...

I have a 16 year old son who is in terrible pain & unable to live a normal life. Doctors can't figure out why.

• He had normal ears until 10 months ago. He has never liked extreme noise but had no problem hearing occasional loud music at a party, a fireworks display, etc. In other words, he enjoyed life & sounds just like anyone else.

• In late December 2020, he complained about his hearing feeling slightly muffled. His pediatrician screened his hearing & it was normal.

• He still felt muffled & also pressure by mid-January, so I took him to my otologist (I have tinnitus & mild hyperacusis, so already had a good otologist). The otologist said everything looked normal, hearing test was great, & gave him a Medrol dose-pak to help with the pressure.

• Later that week, he underwent extreme pain, even crying, which I hadn't seen from him for years. I rushed him to pediatrician who diagnosed an ear infection & prescribed Amoxicillin. He took the full course & his severe pain abated. Was still left with the pressure & muffled hearing.

• From that time on, his ears have gotten progressively worse, with constant pressure, occasional flare-ups of acute pain, ever-worsening hyperacusis that is now extremely severe, occasional tinnitus, occasional myoclonus spasms, a few episodes of dizziness, and fluctuating quality of hearing that is notable on hearing exams.

• He tried joining the Cross Country team in August, and that was a disaster. The very first run caused him to feel like footballs were going back and forth in his ears, and he became dizzy for the rest of the day. He felt hearing loss after that, and a hearing test confirmed a 10 decibel loss. Otologist did a series of steroid injections into the eardrum that restored most of the hearing, but any provocation can now cause muffled hearing for him. He also produces lots of earwax now, which he never did before.

• He has had a CT scan, MRI, and tympanogram that were all ruled normal, although imo the tympanogram looked a bit off, with one side (for each ear) being jagged rather than smooth.

• He has twice trialed an anti-hypertensive medication (in case it was Meniere's) with no effect at all.

• An ENT, two otologists & his neurologist have not been able to figure out the problem.

Does anyone have a clue about what could be happening to my son, and what I should do? He's had to leave his school & transfer to an online school, due to this. He can barely leave the house. It's a nightmare. Please help.

 

You should not give up on finding a doctor who will help your child to have a better quality of life.

Everyone on this forum has a problem or more that they can't solve.

The only thing we can do here is provide moral support and that time can heal.

Unfortunately, we are not scientists or doctors who can give you a magic formula to solve your child's problem, so I insist that you seek medical help until something works for your child.

 

1 - There is one thing missing on your list, which could be the most important thing. What happened immediately before all this started (the same day and the previous days)? Was there any obvious trigger, meaning loud noise exposure, even if it was brief?

2 - And also, in a more general scope, was your son anxious about anything, did he have any personal problem, any source of stress, anxiety, etc when all this started?

 

I guess if the ENT did not find any obvious causes, the only thing one can do is use a lot of hearing protection, avoid all activities which worsens the symptoms, supplement with Magnesium & Potassium and hope that things improve.

I would also be careful with further tests (MRI, tympanogram) as they can be dangerous for fragile hyperacusis ears. You can read it in the threads here.

 

Did he have any acoustic trauma recently? Was he a big headphone user? It's really important to know if this event coincided with significant noise exposure.

 

There was no noise exposure incident, no. My son has also never worn headphones.

Right now, the tentative diagnoses are patulous Eustachian tube, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

 

Any TMJ issues? It's a long shot, but I read @HeavyMantra say someone he knew had pretty bad hyperacusis stemming from TMJ and treating it made it go away completely.

 

@teacher34, patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction.

Hugs.

 

Perhaps a dissidence developed post infection? The fact he responded to antibiotics says alot, if it did seem like night and day for the pain/pressure.

 

Was your son vaccinated against COVID-19 around this time?

 

Hi @teacher34 -- Sorry to hear how difficult things are for your 16-year old son.

His experience with running really caught my attention. Did he by any chance have any kind of fall or accident around the time his problems started? Cranial instability can lead to a variety of chronic issues, including ear problems of all kinds. -- Whether or not your son did have some kind of accident, you may want to check out the following 13-min. video. I have it started where he talks about symptoms, and he mentions tinnitus right away:

Diagnosing Cranial Instability -- (Be sure to check out these comments in the video)

On the topic of structural issues, I also made a POST[/B] on this forum in which I posted links to several YouTube videos where people shared how their tinnitus improved after getting a AtlasPROfilax treatment. I had this done myself, and it was a major turning point in my health history.