Bad tinnitus after bilaterla otitis media and grommets

I probably will not help much but I am so sorry for you.

I have infection in my left ear and now it is second series of antibiotics.I do not have pain in my ear ,just half blocked and this horrible hissing.

The nurse will see me next Monday and she said that I probably will need to go to hospital to do micro sucksion and maybe that will help.

I am also fed up and hissing in my ear drives me mad.

I have read that post where people say that they had tinnitius for moths or just forever.

I can not imagine that.

 

Oh my goodness, you do sound in a bad way.  I suffered just the same as you several years ago,

it resulted in me contracting Bacterial Meningits, through Otis Media.  The bacteria crossed the

blood/brain barrier and it got me....losing the sight in my left eye and hearing loss in right ear.

Thank goodness you've been protected having been given antibiotics.  You need to see your

doctor and ask for Prenisolone now....make sure it's a long enough course to get rid of all

the inflammation in your eustachians tubes, that's preventing drainage.

Alarm bells should always ring with doctors when a patient suffers vomiting due to Otis Media.

Ask for a 20 day reducing course of the steroid Prednisolone, anything less won't help.

I consider myself pretty experienced with anything to do with problem ears, particularly

when they are blocked.

Tinnitus is also related to blocked ears.  Get yourself on 300 mg of Magnesium tablets,

they do help.

Let me know how you get on and really hope you feel better soon. Don't apologise for the

long post, you needed to explain how you're feeling.  I felt just like you feeling, so sympathise.

And I'm still suffering with ETD all these years later.  But have managed to use a medication,

that sadly, I think is only available in England.  I now only have to use it when my ears block

and within minutes they've cleared....approx every 5 days this happens.  Mine is due to

sinusitis and allegies.

Kind regards

Anne

 

Sorry for the spelling mistakes, I've typed too quickly without checking.

Anne

So by the sounds of it, they started you off on the Ibuprofen to help with the pain and it also contains an Antihistamine to bring any swelling down, second visit he decides it is a Bacterial infection and gives you antibiotics, which fail. At this point you must have had a swab, if not right at the beginning? Then giving you highly addictive/potent and can give you side affects such as you mentioned. Eventually having to go to Hospital to have an IV. This so far is typical of a very nasty infection, changing your equilibrium , which is very disorientating and can be scary at Times. When infection has set in, it starts to damage any surrounding tissue, which is probably what is the main cause of your Tinnitus. The Medication that they administered via IV is also very normal, but as an inpatient it's usually 6-12hrs, 48hrs is along time but they may have also re-hydrated you is you have been very ill.. The thing with a bacterial infection is that you have to get it all or it just comes back. Which brings us to here. They have killed the infection, drained your Ears and put grommets in to help keep them drained. Have they said anything about any permanent acoustical damage or perforation? There is no infection now so tissue starts to repair itself, one thing you possibly have come and go is the vascular tinnitus (The Sound of your own Heart Beat) again this is normal along with tinnitus. It is hard to say how much your hearing will improve and how long the Tinnitus will last without knowing how much damage was done, but I am sure that you will definitely start to feel better and will find things getting easier. The Mri is going to tell you exactly what is going on, and you could be a candidate for surgery. I have had Tinnitus for over 30 Years and whilst you get good and bad days, you sort of lean to "Zone it out", but you could try white noise machines, relaxing music or nature sounds to sleep to. The last thing you need to be doing is sitting there with Tinnitus, thinking about it only makes it worse Does the Woosh sound like it is coming from inside your head, or does it sound like it's noise via your Ear? Hope you start feeling better soon. AL  

Thank you for your replies. To answer the questions, the whooshing sounds like it's in my ear and so does the low sounds and this is more on my left side. Whereas the high pitched screaming seems like it's at the back of my head towards the right. When I went back to see the ENT last week I didn't get any reassurance, just a leaflet on tinnitus and to wait for the MRI scan appointment to come through. From all the forums I've been on, it seems that the grommets have caused these noises rather than the infection itself? Although it could be an accumulation of both. Since I had the surgery 2 weeks ago I have also noticed my sinuses throbbing which I didn't have before. I must point out, all this is completely new to me. I had the occasional throat and outer ear infection as a child but nothing that required more than a short course of antibiotics. I am very glad to be out of the pain I was in and I am gaining strength again, but I feel like my life is on hold waiting for things to get better. I haven't been back to work since all this started a month ago and I'm worried to go back as I'm not sure I'll cope with how my hearing is. I wish the surgeon had told me there was a risk of this afterwards and I may have been more reluctant to get the grommets. Should I just have left it to see if the fluid drained on its own?! I can't live like this long term. There's no escape from it.

I am in England Anne. I feel so misinformed. This is like torture. Would have the grommets out aggravate things more or help things settle down? I just feel so trapped.

Not sure if it helps but I’ve had grommets in one ear only to help Eustachian tube dysfunction.  The first one was a short term one which came out after about 8 months but the fluid returned and now I have a t-tube which is supposed to be longer lasting.  Both times the ear took about 6 weeks to settle down with various rumblings, clicking and pulsating noises, all quite distressing.  After around 6 weeks I found it got much better although I do still get bouts of rumbling and tinnitus from time to time and listen to the the radio to get to sleep if it’s bothering me at night.  As I understand it the grommets are not meant to drain the ear but to enable air to get into the middle ear so that the fluid does not build up.  My experience only but everybody reacts differently and mine was not a result of cold/flu or infection. Hope you get some relief soon.