Hi Everyone,
I just want to vent a little bit and ask everyone what their opinions are on this..It's a bit of a long story, so please sit tight :)
First of all, I am 25 year old woman, and I do have a history of inner ear problems. When I was a child I had the eustacian tubes, had my adnoids and tonsils removed. I also have a history of seasonal allergies...
My story starts about 5 months ago. I was having horrible pain in my right ear, stuffiness, dizziness, pressure, the whole nine yards. (also my tongue was covered with a yellow coating)I went to my doc and she said it was an ear infection and I was put on an antibiotic. WHen I was done with the antibiotic my ear was still in pain and the pressure and dizziness was the same. About a week went by and I went back to my doctor. We tried another antibiotic and she refered me to an ENT..
When I was describing my symptoms to the ENT, he only focused on the dizziness I was having and not the pain or other symptoms. He had my lay back in a chair in some funky position until the dizziness went away. After about 5 minutes I got tired of being in that position and just told him it was gone, even though it wasn't but it wasn't that bad that day and not bothering me. He told me I had BPPV, which I was told I had by my other doctor. The ENT also said "Well I don't think it's a brain tumor" and I left the office. I was sooo frusterated and pissed off by his lack of help. I felt so rushed when I was talking to him and I felt like he simply did not care.
So...I go back to my doctor and again she gives me another antibiotic and I get an MRI. The MRI showed nothing was in my brain but there was stuff in my sinus's. I have no idea what all that meant. My docs office called me with the results and I didn't really have time to think of anything to ask..
Well after that, I ended up going back to my docs office about the pain, 2 more times and was given more antibiotics. She was determined to treat an ear infection.
LASt week the pain was sooo bad and my ears were so terribly congested and fluidy, I went to the walk in clinic at my doctors office and saw a different doctor. She set up another referal for me with a different ENT and gave me another antibiotic. My ear still hurts!!
The pain is deep inside my ear, sometimes it's sharp, sometimes it's a dull ache, that makes the entire side of my head hurt. It's awful. My appointment with the ENT is in a week and I am hoping to finally get some help, relief, or answers from her. It's been 5 months already and I really would hate for my ear to continue on like this...GRRRRRRRRRR sooo frusterating...
I am wondering, does anyone have any ideas as to what is causing this pain??
Any feedback would be great..thank you soo much!
Miriam

Miriam

I wish you luck the Dr thing is irritating. Does not sound like BPPV. Not sure what it could be, maybe do a search on Eustacian Tube Dysfunction.

Jade

thanks, I was thinking it could be that also...I guess I just have to wait and see what the doc says

Hi Everyone,
I just want to vent a little bit and ask everyone what their opinions are on this..It's a bit of a long story, so please sit tight :)
First of all, I am 25 year old woman, and I do have a history of inner ear problems. When I was a child I had the eustacian tubes, had my adnoids and tonsils removed. I also have a history of seasonal allergies...
My story starts about 5 months ago. I was having horrible pain in my right ear, stuffiness, dizziness, pressure, the whole nine yards. (also my tongue was covered with a yellow coating)I went to my doc and she said it was an ear infection and I was put on an antibiotic. WHen I was done with the antibiotic my ear was still in pain and the pressure and dizziness was the same. About a week went by and I went back to my doctor. We tried another antibiotic and she refered me to an ENT..
When I was describing my symptoms to the ENT, he only focused on the dizziness I was having and not the pain or other symptoms. He had my lay back in a chair in some funky position until the dizziness went away. After about 5 minutes I got tired of being in that position and just told him it was gone, even though it wasn't but it wasn't that bad that day and not bothering me. He told me I had BPPV, which I was told I had by my other doctor. The ENT also said "Well I don't think it's a brain tumor" and I left the office. I was sooo frusterated and pissed off by his lack of help. I felt so rushed when I was talking to him and I felt like he simply did not care.
So...I go back to my doctor and again she gives me another antibiotic and I get an MRI. The MRI showed nothing was in my brain but there was stuff in my sinus's. I have no idea what all that meant. My docs office called me with the results and I didn't really have time to think of anything to ask..
Well after that, I ended up going back to my docs office about the pain, 2 more times and was given more antibiotics. She was determined to treat an ear infection.
LASt week the pain was sooo bad and my ears were so terribly congested and fluidy, I went to the walk in clinic at my doctors office and saw a different doctor. She set up another referal for me with a different ENT and gave me another antibiotic. My ear still hurts!!
The pain is deep inside my ear, sometimes it's sharp, sometimes it's a dull ache, that makes the entire side of my head hurt. It's awful. My appointment with the ENT is in a week and I am hoping to finally get some help, relief, or answers from her. It's been 5 months already and I really would hate for my ear to continue on like this...GRRRRRRRRRR sooo frusterating...
I am wondering, does anyone have any ideas as to what is causing this pain??
Any feedback would be great..thank you soo much!
Miriam

Hi,

I'm not sure, but did you ever get an MRI of the inner ears?
The brain MRI is different from the inner ear MRI's... there's something called acoustic neuroma... I hope that's not what you have but... it's something you should check out... because I know someone that was diagnosed with bppv but then her inner ear MRI showed that she had acoustic neuroma...
I hope that you get help and feel better soon...

maryanne-k

Thanks maryann, that was something my doctor was looking for on the MRI. I wish I asked more questions about the MRI b/c all my doctor told me afterwards, was everything was fine and the only abnormality was in my sinus's. I don't even know what all the MRI was going to show.
But thankfully I am seeing an ENT on Monday, so I am praying for some answers.

What a terrible ordeal you are going through! Do you have bad allergies? Could it be a persistent sinus/ear infection coupled with an eustasion tube that isn't draining? Also have you had your teeth checked? Sometimes something going on in the mouth feels like it is in the ears. Maybe they can do something to flush out the sinuses and then treat the infection. Good luck with the ENT doctor!

Hey Changingwoman, thanks for your response and sympathy:) I actually do have allergies and what you said about it being teamed up with eustacian tube makes sense. I hope that's all it is. I never knew that about the mouth, but now that I think about it, it makes sense.

So I had my ENT appointment a few days ago. I was expecting to have a lot of fluid and blocked eustacian tubes or something..but as it turns out, I had no fluid and my tubes were fine, after her exam she told me I had dry ears..Has anyone heard of this?? It means that I don't have ear wax, and she said people without earwax can get inflammation in the ear canal easier then people with it. So now I am putting eardrops in my ears every night when I go to sleep. I am hoping that will make the pain go away and clear up whatever problem I have going on. My doctor did say that if the pain is still there after a week, to give her a call.
Has anyone else heard of "dry ears"???

So I am no longer frusterated, just pissed off. I had another appointment with my ENT today the ear drops that she prescribed for my ear pain did nothing other then make me dizzier then I usually am. My right ear has been in pain for over 6 months now and I am really wanting some relieve or at least an answer as to what is causing the pain. So now she wants me to take a water pill, that I told her I am already taking for high blood pressure, so she doubles my dosage and now my regular doctor wants me to have blood work done in 3 weeks to make sure the water pill isn't doing any damage since it is double then what I usually take. I have been in pain, had dizziness, loss of balance, 2 sinus infections and about 4 ear infections in the past 6 months and still I have no relieve from whatever is causing all this torture. Today I came to the conclusion that all the doctors around me are owned by the pharmacitical compaines, that is the only explanation as to why I only am able to get another pill to take instead of any cure or relieve. GRRRRRRRRR..so pissed about the situation. Does it normally take this long for inner ear problems to get diagnosed? I had inner ear problems when I was a child and the doctors know this, but still they have yet to do any actual testing or investigating on me.
ALso I have to go back to my ENT in a month to see if the medicine is working, which I have a sneaking suspision it will not work since nothing else has. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent...does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?? OR has anyone else been thru this??
Thanks, Miriam

just wondering if anybody has any ideas??

I have been to 2 ENT's and I get the "I don't think it's __________" treatment. The first did and exam, the second did very little exam. A total waste of money. I had ENG test and caloric test today, I definitely have inner ear problem. So I am trying to get into see a specialist and no more general ENTS.

I also had adenoids, tonsils, and tubes in ears. The ENT's say there is not relationship, I simply don't believe it. To place the tubes in your ears they cut little slits in the ear drums. These have to heal (scarring) and can cause problems later on in life. What part of scarring of a delicate tissue like the ear drum is not a problem?

I think general ENT's can diagnose if your phlem is green or yellow and that's about it. Every one offers the same treatment. Steroids, Anti-histamines, and decongestants. It's almost like Chiropractic where such a high percentage of the people get well on their own that their ineptness as diagnostic physicians doesn't matter. For those of us who do not self-resolve we continue to suffer and seek real competent help from specialists (if such help exists). I hope you self resolve.

Hi Miriam. :wave:

Your story is very similiar to mine.

About 2 or 3 years ago I had stuffy ears, went to general doctor and was told I had ear infection. It was treated with antibiotics but never really went away. I have 2 kids, job where I travel, house, dog, etc ... so I lived with it hoping it would go away.

Well, duh, it didn't go away (stupid me for ignoring it! :nono: ) and then I started getting the dizzies, lost my sense of balance, had some facial numbness, oscillopsia, memory problems, trouble speaking, etc.

I went back to the doc, got more antibiotics which did nothing. At that point she was getting annoyed with my complaints. I tried another GP who gave me steroids and diuretics also. They did not help.

I was referred to an ENT who said I've never had an ear infection. (Don't you love the way you get different stories?). I had tests (ENG, Caloric, etc) and MRI and CT scans of ear. Every time I had an appt with him he had a new diagnosis for me - Meniers, Multiple Sclerosis, blah blah. He was not a nice man: gruff, dismissed my symptoms, never even made eye contact. No bedside manner at all. From talking to folks in my town I found out he's a real jerk.

All the tests showed nothing out of ordinary except for cholesterol cyst on temporal bone which I was told was normal.

I went back to the GP who referred me to an infectious disease doctor who told me I was healthy as a horse. Then I was referred to a neurologist who said that I had dementia. I was at the end of my rope. Then I was referred to a balance physical therapist who tested me and said that she couldn't help me but recommended I get tested for Lyme disease.

Lo and behold I tested positive and I've been on mega doses of antobiotics for a year now but they haven't helped.

Last week I got pain in my right ear. Boy did it hurt; I couldn't sleep a wink and it hurt even when I walked! I made an appt with a new ear doctor but its not for 2 weeks.

In the meantime I used Wally's Ear Oil to ease the symptoms and take away the pain. I bought it in a health food store.

Hope I wasn't too long winded. :) Hang in there!