RobPNW
Contributor
Been having ongoing issues with an ear for about a year now after I suffered sudden hearing loss. I've got the typical hearing loss trio of symptoms- lower volume, poor sound clarity and my favorite friend tinnitus. But I have several additional symptoms that are quite maddening.
Internal sound feedback- relentless autophony. I hear my own voice and any other internally generated sounds inside my skull. For example, if I am eating anything crunchy, I can't hear anything in the room. If I adjust my neck, and it "cracks", it literally sounds like a steel rod is breaking in half inside my skull. I have always been able to FEEL when my ears equalize but now I HEAR my ears equalizing. Popping, crackling and crunching all day whenever I swallow, move my jaw much etc.
Heavy pressure/fullness/clogged feeling- with hearing loss, people often feel a sense of pressure in the ear but what I feel basically reaches the level of pain IMO. Not acute pain, probably about a 3 out of 10, that comes and goes during the day with no apparent pattern of behavior that I have noticed. When it gets that way, the only thing that provides any relief is equalizing my ear, and the relief is instant. Unfortunately, it only last a couple minutes and then the pressure comes back.
Anyway, the ENT folks' current theory is some kind of Patulous Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, which from what I read, appears to be a tube that has issues closing properly. The symptoms seems to align with the condition and they did some pressure testing that pointed in that direction. The only issue I have is that my experience when diving and equalizing doesn't make sense to me if that diagnoses is accurate. A few months ago, I went on a dive trip and was able to equalize the ear, but it took a non trivial amount of force using a Valsalva. The other ear opened just fine but the impacted ear took about 2-3 times the force. To me it seems counterintuitive, if I have a condition where the tube isn't CLOSING well, why would it be difficult to OPEN it at depth to relieve pressure? If it was basically stuck open, wouldn't it be equalizing with no effort?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Internal sound feedback- relentless autophony. I hear my own voice and any other internally generated sounds inside my skull. For example, if I am eating anything crunchy, I can't hear anything in the room. If I adjust my neck, and it "cracks", it literally sounds like a steel rod is breaking in half inside my skull. I have always been able to FEEL when my ears equalize but now I HEAR my ears equalizing. Popping, crackling and crunching all day whenever I swallow, move my jaw much etc.
Heavy pressure/fullness/clogged feeling- with hearing loss, people often feel a sense of pressure in the ear but what I feel basically reaches the level of pain IMO. Not acute pain, probably about a 3 out of 10, that comes and goes during the day with no apparent pattern of behavior that I have noticed. When it gets that way, the only thing that provides any relief is equalizing my ear, and the relief is instant. Unfortunately, it only last a couple minutes and then the pressure comes back.
Anyway, the ENT folks' current theory is some kind of Patulous Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, which from what I read, appears to be a tube that has issues closing properly. The symptoms seems to align with the condition and they did some pressure testing that pointed in that direction. The only issue I have is that my experience when diving and equalizing doesn't make sense to me if that diagnoses is accurate. A few months ago, I went on a dive trip and was able to equalize the ear, but it took a non trivial amount of force using a Valsalva. The other ear opened just fine but the impacted ear took about 2-3 times the force. To me it seems counterintuitive, if I have a condition where the tube isn't CLOSING well, why would it be difficult to OPEN it at depth to relieve pressure? If it was basically stuck open, wouldn't it be equalizing with no effort?
Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
