Right ear suddenly muffled with ringing
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hi everyone,
I'm writing from the U.S. I've been having a myriad of problems for the last couple of months, and the process of figuring things out is LONG. I wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing this... Occasionally, my right ear will go suddenly muffled and start a high pitched ringing. It comes on with no warning, and it only lasts for less than 30 seconds. Afterwards, my hearing goes back to normal and the ringing stops. I also get ringing in my left ear sometimes, but no muffled sensation. This has been happening to me randomly for 1-2 years now, but I've never given it much thought until I began feeling dizzy and as if I'm floating for the last 5 weeks. I'm part of a Ménière's disease forum, but the prognosis is incredibly bleak for it, so I wanted to join a different discussion and get different opinions. I've seen my GP several times and I have an ENT appointment in a couple weeks. I'm desperate for it to not be Ménière's but I'm losing hope. The dizziness is what is really getting me down and depressed. I feel like I can't leave the house for fear of something terrible happening.
0 likes, 3 replies
glenn06752 marissa492
Posted
Hi Marissa - My problems mirror yours in many ways.. The muffled sound, the ringing.. It comes and goes, althernating with dizziness and or vertigo. It's a miserable situation.
I have visited 3 different ENT's and 1 neurotologist, besides my own personal, PCP, The views and opinion are wide and varied and like you, I give up hope at times but realize Menieres can just disappear and never come back. Mind you, I have not been diagnosed with Menieres. I am self diagnosing because out of 5 different professionals, they are unsure what my situation is.
The one piece of good advice I received was from a neurotologist on one of these boards. He basically explained the only way I was going to rectify this vicious cycle was to get steroid injections right in the ear drum. There's a professional term he used which I cannot remember.
My tinnitus gets so miserably loud and high pitched at times, I can barely handle it but just try to get to tomorrow. I also try to control caffeine intake, use ear plugs when showering and try to stay away from very loud environments.
It is my understanding that the new drug that is being tested has shown some hope for tinnitus and menieres.. I believe it's A-101, or that's the study name. You can look it up on the internet.
Never give up hope.. You don't mention how old you are, but I'm sure I'm older than you and have suffered with this misery going way back. In fact, I don't ever remember my ears not hissing and carrying on. The vertigo/dizziness, higher pitch and garbled, distorted sounds came in the last 6 months or so. I would think my condition is progressive but I don't give up. I have also found ENT's by and large, are a different breed of specialists and know very little about the inner ear. One ENT told me unless he cracked my skull open, he couldn't give me an accurate diagnosis.
Hang in there and keep us posted. I wish you the best of luck..
Glenn
marissa492 glenn06752
Posted
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to hear you are also dealing with a similar condition. I'm almost 25 years old. I had issues with my ears when I was a kid - frequent ear infections and I was always have to get wax cleaned out of my ears. Not until late middle school or early high school did the wax buildup finally subside. I still deal with itchy ears daily, though. My maternal grandmother was diagnosed with Meniere's (I'm not sure how many years back) and my mother mentioned that she will get briefly dizzy if she turns her head too quickly sometimes. The ear issues are something I can deal with, but the constant dizziness and floating sensations are knocking me down, mentally. I'm so terrified that this issue I'm suddenly having is only going to get worse over the years to the point where I'm having debilitating vertigo and am terribly sick. I have a hard time not dwelling on how I feel and pushing past it. I tend to worry myself crazy. I just want to know this is something that can be easily treated, whatever it may be.
glenn06752 marissa492
Posted
another similarity - problem ears as a child. I had absessed ears as a kid and can remember my mother putting me on a bus to get shots of penicillin from the doctor almost on a weekly basis.
I think at this point, you need to find an ENT that you trust and follow his advice. You are very young and it's my hope all this passes. If you have a neutorlogist in your area, you might want to get a series of testis, which would include hearing. The biggest problem with this issue is there's no clear cut answer and what works for one, doesnt necessarily work for the other.
Keep me posted.. Again, I wish you the best. Hopefully, there will be a clear cut cure for us in the near future. It's so unfair we have to suffer and our anxiety level gets heightened by the uknown.