Ear Pain, Tinnitus, TMJ for 10months with no answer - Sport injury

I received a blow on my left ear on the 18/02/2020 as I was training (boxing), leaving me instantaneously with a blocked ear feeling but no pain at that time. I decided to go back home and sleep and visited the Emergency department on the next day to get checked as I

felt no overnight improvement.

Please note that, although I had no pain at that time, I was very concerned as I had a mastoid surgery and cholesteatoma removal 20 years ago at age 10.

The ENT doctor who saw me on the 19/02/20 at the hospital saw no obvious trauma nor blood (No CT Scan was provided on that day even though I requested for it, being very concerned) and discharged me on the same day and told me to see my GP if no improvement.

As there was no improvement and the pain started to build, I saw my GP the next week who referred me to an ENT Specialist.

Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, I was only able to do a CT Scan on May 20, which revealed no

obvious injury and I was then referred to do a MRI in Jun20 which did not

reveal any obvious injury either.

I contacted the ENT doctor who provided the Mastoid & Cholesteatoma surgery

to me back home in France to ask for her opinion in May20, after the Scan, as she followed me for 20+ years before I moved to New

Zealand, and she recommended me to take Prednisone to help with my injury.

My local NZ ENT specialist prescribed the prednisone to me, but I had to stop after 3 days

as it did not change anything and not sure if it is related but the tinnitus

started at that time and never left me since then.

My local ENT suspected worsened eustachian tube function, possibly due to a Hemotympanum

and proceeded to a left grommet insertion in July 20.

I was only able to feel an improvement on the

ear blockage feeling only a month later, after removing a blood clot that was

blocking the grommet but I continued to have constant pain and a very

inconvenient tinnitus, making my life very very hard.

The local ENT stated that my ear was assessed

and that there was nothing more he could do and referred me back to my GP to

assess the chronic pain I was still feeling.

I am not able to exercise at all as any

"explosive" movement like jumping or even running triggers a deep

pain in my ear and sleeping is a struggle every night as the tinnitus and pain

are really disturbing and it takes me a lot of time to find the less painful

position every night.

I have tried numerous or alternative

treatments like acupuncture, physiotherapy and Chiropractor with no

improvement.

I saw my GP this again this morning as the symptoms

are increasing and the pain is spreading giving me now bad TMJ symptoms

(painful jaw, cracking) and my neck is also painful

My GP had a look at my ear and saw a new

blood clot covering the grommet. He prescribed me some Amoxicillin and asked to

see me again in a week as the blood clot should “go away by itself”.

I am looking for another opinion and would

really like to find a solution to find a way out of this chronic ear pain or a

concrete diagnosis to my injury as it makes my life really hard.

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