Ear Fear. Scared I have a tumour.
Posted , 5 users are following.
My problem is in my left ear only, It stared in January with a whoosing sound that came from nowhere but was really loud and scary. Nurse said it was ETD and it would go and it did. I tmight be worth mentioning that I slept with ear plugs for about 30 years, I've stopped now. Fast forward to March and I woke up one moning, took out the ear plug and had a dry itchy ear so I scratched it, must have been a bit over zealous cos it felt like my nail hit something and it hurt for a few minutes. From that day I have had dullness, fullness, and crackly noises in my ear. I have huge anxiety about health matters and I am terrifed of being ill but I forced myself to go to my GP. I have been 5 times now. Esch timea I have been told that it's ETD and it will go. I have had nasal sparys and antibiotics etc. Lat week the pulsating came backand I finally got an ENT referal.I saw the consultant yesterday and had a hearing test.My good ear was fine and my bad ear was slighty down but she said she would describe my hearing as normal. She looked in my ears by putting a camera in my nose and said all looked ok. I explained that it's driving me mad and the pulsating noise is so loud and the more worried I get the louder it gets and so on. She said that I should try CBT for the pulsating and perscribed a steroid nasal spart for three months. I was ok with all this, sort of, but then the killer. She said that it may be a tumour, acoustic neuroma and that she would send an appt for an MRI scan. I heard nothing past the word tumour although I have spent the last 24 on the internet and it seems pretty certain that's what it is and I am terrified. I have all of the symptoms and at 49 I am the right age. I also heard last night that my Uncle has a brain tumour so that didn't help.
?Does anyone have any experience of this tumour and treatment?
1 like, 24 replies
ENTdoc maria33079
Posted
There are two types of glomus tumors: glomus tympanicum, which is located in the middle ear and is usually visible on microscopic otoscopy (looking at the eardrum with a binocular microscope), and glomus jugulare, which when small are only visible on imaging studies but when large are visible within the oral cavity or oropharynx (tonsil and palate region).
I believe you indicated earlier in this thread that your tinnitus is intermittent. The tinnitus of glomus tumors does not come and go. The tumor is always there, so the tinnitus is always there. The appropriate imaging study for glomus tumors is an MRA (magnetic resonance angiogram), a type of MRI study in which a contrast dye is injected into a vein while an MRI is being done. It lights up the blood vessels in your head and neck. Glomus tumors are made up of a bundle of blood vessels that are growing very slowly. If you had a glomus tympanicum tumor, assuming the ENT doc examined your ear under the microscope (not otoscope), he would have seen it. If your pulsatile tinnitus is not constant, you don't need an MRI or an MRA.
Glomus tumors are not common. I would place NO CREDENCE in what your GP tells you about glomus tumors, either about how they are diagnosed or how they are treated.
Still need audiometry results.
maria33079
Posted
Finally got MRI appointment, Thursday 10th Aug. I'm terrified of the scan, I have not had any kind of medical procedure before and worried about what it will find but need to know. I have been reading far too much stuff on the internet and Dr Google points to SCD which sounds awful.
Poochiesmoochie maria33079
Posted
Hi maria, I've had pulsating tinnitus over a year now, from allergic rhinitis swelling my eustachian-tube. Ice packs and meds calmed it all down.
ENTdoc would a medrol dose pack bring down swelling of allergic rhinitis?