Ear problem



Kolur

New Member
Apr 4, 2006
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0
Hello,
I have an ear problem that is driving me nuts. For the past 7 months I hear my own breath in my right ear all the time and I hear little else than my breath in that ear. I also have frequent pains in this ear, I can't stand noise anymore and recently I've started feeling my pulse in this ear too. I've already seen a doctor, who couldn't see any signs of an infection or anything abnormal in my ear.

Do you have any idea what could cause this problem? Has anyone here experienced the same?

Any information would be very much appreciated. :)
 
I suggest you see a different doctor or get him to refer you to a specialist,

In the case of a ruptured eardrum (hole in the eardrum) you would experience the symptoms for a while, but without further aggravation the drum, heals over the course of time. But not as long as 7 months, this to would have been visible to the doctor.

If your middle ear is affected by infection or injury then you could be hearing strange sounds, (see tinitus) this needs to be addressed by a specialist or you could experience permanent hearing loss.

 
I've been to ear specialists at a local hospital. They didn't see anything abnormal about the eardrum or anything else in the ear and they ruled out tinnitus.

They referred me to a neurologist to check if I have a damaged hearing nerve, since I also have a problem hearing what people say even though my hearing turned out to be normal when measured, but they really didn't seem to have a clue why I hear my own breath or where the pain comes from.

I have to wait for a while until my appointment with the neurologist and in the meantime I want to try to find information about this, because the doctors didn't seem familiar with this problem, maybe it's a rare one. I hope the neurologist can see what the problem is, but I want to try to find further information in case he won't so it won't take me ages to know what to do next, I would really like to be rid of this problem as soon as possible, or to at least know what it is and whether there is anything that can be done about it.
 
Wow, looks like you've covered all the bases.

I feel for you, I’ve ruptured my eardrums three times. Twice while diving and once sneezing, while healing i experienced pain, hearing loss, strange noises and at times disorientation.

My ears are sensitive to noise, cold draughts and water, now and on occasion i have mild tinnitus.

Ear problems can be maddning, hope you recover soon.

 
Kolur...my heart goes out to you. I have some inner ear issues caused by Meniere's Disease. Not the same issues as you describe, but I definitely understand the issues of trying to get properly diagnosed. I have had to learn the hard way that it can take many tries before you find somebody who can help you. I have also learned how to do a lot of my own research. While I am not a doctor, I have learned a hell of a lot about how to find information on my condition.

So I took the same approach with the information that you have supplied. I wonder if you have looked into the following:

http://www.emedicine.com/ent/topic208.htm

Keep in mind though that it is never a good idea to self diagnose. In fact it can be pretty amazing how wrong a layman can be when reading (and reading into) this kind of stuff. My thought at including this is that perhaps you can do some further research on this specific condition and talk to the specialists in your area about it if you think that would help.

The other thing that worked really well for me...and pretty much made all the difference...was to be working with a bunch of phsycians (in my case at a big research and teaching hospital) who specialized in Otolaryngology. I found them by going to a really good ear, nose and throat guy, but what he did for me was only a shade of what I learned from them.

Hang in there. Hope this helps.
 
Thank you for that link. Patulous eustachian tube sounds a lot like what I'm having and it would make sense too, because I lost rather much weight very fast around the time this problem started. When I saw a throat, nose and ear doctor for the first time she mentioned that this sometimes happened when people lose weight fast and that it usually gets back to normal soon. When the problem persisted and I started having pain in my ear as well I went back to her and she then seemed to rule out that this could be the problem. I didn't get much information about this condition from the doctor though, so it was good to read about it. I'll see if I can find some more information about it now that I have the name of the condition. Maybe it would be good to consult another ear specialist and ask if this could be what I'm having, because it seriously sounds like this is it.

The pain might come from something else. I found out yesterday about other possible causes of the pain, so maybe it's two separate problems and just seem to be connected because they're both in the same ear.

I'll see what the specialists say, I'll ask them about this. Thank you very much for the information, it's very useful. :)

I know that it's often a struggle to get diagnosed, I've had several other mysterious problems in the past that took a long time and many doctors to get diagnosed and treated.