Sudden ringing in my left ear along with a slight full feeling and pitch change

I have the same issue too. But this time I think it was caused by loud music at one pub i went with a friend.

Hi James - I am part of this unfortunate 'club' and it is strangely comforting to find that my symptoms are anything but unique!  You post was ages ago, but wondering if things cleared up for you? Hopeful the answer maybe a yes because....

Five weeks ago I woke up and was 'staggering' around - inner ear infection which I have had once before (and very scary the first time).  However on the previous occasion the doctor gave me a 'jab' of stematil to stop the nausea and told me it would all go away, which it did within a couple of days. This time, however, the inner ear thing became a painful middle ear infection. Two courses of antibiotics worked in terms of the pain, but this constant, nagging high pitched ringing has remained in my left ear.  Two further GP visits and then to an ENT who gave me a referral for an MRI (which I'm not doing - my sister had an acoustic neuroma and I know I don't have a brain tumour).  

I have heard that an injection of either cortisone into the ear, or a particular antibiotic (will find out the name) injected directly into the ear can help. I work in regulating health practitioners and am not the personality to just take 'wait and see' as an answer for something so debilitating and unexplained.  Will report back.  By the way I had some Valium prescribed and never taken ages ago and the GP said with a concerned look, 'yes take them, it can affect people very badly'.  Don't particularly want to get addicted to Schedule 4 drugs!

My doctor recommended Allegra or Zyrtec antihistamines.  I got a store brand equivalent to Allegra and it seems to be workinging.

Nobody ever comes back to say if it went away or not.

Hi James,

I am having the same problems with almost all the same symptoms.  My hearing is distorted in the good ear.  The pitch is off and sound vibration does not sound right and is really disturbing to say the least.  My other ear has a loud buzzing sound in it 24/7 and it is all so horrible.  I had this 14 years ago and it took 5 months to go away.I saw numerous doctor and had numerous tests and scans.  Doctor says it is Ménière's disease syndrome without the dizziness.  I have never been dizzy.  My last hearing test 2 weeks ago show low frequency hearing loss.  I was on steroids and nasenex for two weeks and the distortion is slightly better but loud buzzing continues.  When it first started I just woke up with it. No cold or sickness.  My head was vibrating.  I felt like there was a gong going off every time I heard sound.  I can also describe it as being in the driving a car and the two back windows are half open.  Like a wind tunnel. It was hell.  The buzzing really bothers me but the distortion of sound can give me an anxiety attack.  I was prescribe Diazepam to help calm my nerves and it did help.  I was also recommended an antidepresent but I am not on board with that as many antidepressents can cause tinnitus.  I have this since Dec 10th. Today marks a month.  The holidays never came for me.  I went to a doctor who studies the ear and the brain in New York City last week at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.  He prescribe a low salt diet and gave me a prescription for triamterene-HCTZ. I was already on blood pressure meds but this is stronger and gets rid of excess fluid.

I will start taking it tomorrow as I need to clear it with my GP. My only hope is that it did go away when I had it 14 years ago but it took a real toll on me. Five months and lost 18 pounds and I am not a big person.  I just could not eat and had so much aniexity with all those crazy symptoms going on in my head and ears.  I was actually wearing sound protectors on my ears because the distortion was so bad. Motors, air condition in stores were driving me crazy. I couldn't go anywhere with a problem. The first time I had it I was prescribe a drug called pavabid. It helps circulate the blood to the inner ear.  I tried many things. It gradually went away after 5 torturous months. I think we need to be hopeful that this will go away.  I was told it could have been a virus that attack the inner ear as well. I also have problems with my Eustachian tube.  I flew with a cold over 30 years agao and have not gotten on a plane since.  I think that may contribute to all these problems.  Hang in there. I keep telling myself this as well. 

Donna

Hi James, I know what its like i have had tinnitus now for almost 6 months and it is horrible, over the last 2 days it feels like my ears get bunged up for no reason and the loudest sound imaginable, luckily it lasts for 10 seconds. I just fear that in another 6 months i will have chronic tinnitus, i have been able to block it out a lot by talking to people about other things going on in life. I have read up on lots of things we can do and they are getting closer to finding a cure. Keep positive, i know i have

Antibiotics+Steroids within 72 hours can help. +Hot bath+exercises and get blood circulation better.

I also have the same problem. And one of the reasons I suspect is that my pillow is too flat and letting my head lie too low while sleeping. the flat position causes my neck to stretch tight, not allowing blood to go to my head and ear easily.

How is sudden deafness treated?

The most common treatment for sudden deafness, especially in cases where the cause is unknown, is corticosteroids. Steroids are used to treat many different disorders and usually work by reducing inflammation, decreasing swelling, and helping the body fight illness. Steroids are usually prescribed in pill form. In recent years, direct injection of steroids behind the eardrum into the middle ear (from here the steroids travel into the inner ear), called intratympanic corticosteroid therapy, has grown in popularity. In 2011, aclinical trial supported by the NIDCD showed that intratympanic steroids were no less effective than oral steroids, but were less comfortable overall for patients. They remain an option for people who can’t take oral steroids.

Additional treatments may be needed if your doctor discovers an actual underlying cause of SSHL. For example, if your SSHL is caused by an infection, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics. If you’re taking drugs known to be toxic to the ear, your doctor may tell you to stop or switch to another drug. If you have an autoimmune condition that causes your immune system to attack the inner ear, you may need to take drugs to suppress your immune system.

Hello James. Found your plea on here while searching for the same assistance. Your symptoms are the closest to mine. Arrived in ROME yesterday and want to explore, but suddenly this hit and has me very distracted.

Sudden fullness of ear like there is water in it, feels like it wants to pop, ringing, no pain but annoying.

What happened in your case? Did you find a fix/cure? Any help wild be great!

Been a while, should probably update this as people still seem to be coming to my post for help.

Now, the ear issues haven't really gone as such. Comparing my current condition with my original post I can say that the ringing is nowhere near as bad as it was. It was basically a case of me waking up one morning and noticing it had reduced a lot. 

I never found a solution to my problem and do still have issues with my eustachian tube, infact just last week I had my left ear close up on me, followed by the right a couple of days ago. This is something that seems to happen frequently and always sends me into some worry spiral of doom, but honestly things could be much worse.

My left ear which closed up last week has basically gone back to normal, my right closed up on Tuesday, then eased off a bit and then closed back up again on Wednesday, its not 100% yet and I have all the usual signs (slight full feeling, dull ache, and a slight ringing) but I expect everything to clear up eventually. Just trying to keep on top of decongestants and anti-histamines (I think its allergy related).

Manually popping my ears still doesn't give me any relief, just seems to make things worse as it opens to let air in and closes back up again leaving the high pressure in there. If it does feel very full I find a bowl of water from the kettle with some menthol crystals in helps.

There is also the possability that its related to my jaw, sticking my jaw out and moving it around changes the volume and pitch of the ringing in both ears, buts its not something I've looked into to be honest.

I’ve got very a similar though not identical problem to may on this tread. (I’m from Hampshire in the UK), on the 16th of May 2016, suddenly out of the blue my left ear when bunged up/pressure/feeling full and starting to ring. There was some distortion of certain sounds but that has gone way now. I went to the doctors on Saturday (21st of May). I had a lot of wax at the time in that ear and she said I had to get it out before she could say what it was. I have since has it syringed and the ringing is still going on though it might be a shade quiter than it was to start with. I saw an ENT expert, today (13th of July) and he could provide no explanation to what it was, but has arranged for me to have a hearing test. When I pushed him for answers, he said what I described was consistent with sudden reduction/loss of hearing. I found this unlikely because I don’t think I have any reduction in hearing and it means the ear being full of wax was completely coincidental. They also insist that I haven’t got an ear infection but I had some puss and blood in that ear before this happened and the ear still feels itchy and weird. Now I will have to wait for this hearing test. The saga goes on!

James , did your symptoms ever go away? If so was it because of some intervention or did they just go away just as they came?  I too suffer from same type of ear issues. If I had anything to say that would be helpful I would be glad to share but that is not the case.  Hope you have had better luck than me.

Dude, i am sorry to tell you but you may have Tinnitus, a ringing that is permanent, it is caused by loud noise, ear infections or other things like high blood preasure, even vertigo, i suggest you see a audiologist and a ENT, but there 8s no cure, just habituation and that comes in time, i have it pretty loud but i gotten used to it.

Dont panic, you will be ok, i can just tell you to save you some money, doctor will tell you what you dont want to hear"learn to live with it" s8nce they usually dont know what it is or what caused it, trust me, you will be ok.