Ear and Body Symptoms - Brain & Nervous System Disorders Message Board

RingItOn · 06-05-2006, 10:32 PM

Hi I am new to the board!
I am in my 50's and this is what's been going on with me.

This all began about 3 months ago with a strange black out incident. I just sat down at my computer to download my email when I experienced a blacking out of my vision, profuse cold sweating, and then losing consciousness for about 30 seconds. I stayed seated in my chair the entire time. After that my legs felt very weak. That weakness lasted about 2 months. It was kind of like wobbly legs or like how jello wiggles. Then I started having dizziness. I was so dizzy I couldn't drive at times. Luckily I don't have to drive far to go shopping. At the same time I starting having tinnitus in my left ear. It would be intermittent and high pitched.

Actually there are two symptoms I had before what I wrote above. They were an dull aching occipital headache on my right side and ear pain on my left. It wasn't an earache as in an infection rather a pain. Sometimes my earlobe would feel as if someone was pinching it. That would be followed by a sensation of fullness as if something was inside my ear. With the fullness was a pain inside my ear similar to throbbing. I had my ear checked by my doctor and there is nothing in there except my ear.

Anyway these two symptoms have continued. The ear pain, fullness, and throbbing is nearly constant now and is sometimes quite painful too and is usually followed by nausea if there is pain.

The next symptom was a fine tremor right above the area where I am having the occipital ache on my right side. The symptom is brought on my one thing only. When my computer's fans vibrate next to my sore ear. I don't understand why but that is what happens. Very strange.

Then almost exactly 1 month later after the blackout episode, I had the worst headache in my life. I was literally awakened by it. I don't normally get headaches even when I have stress. I am just not that type of person. The headache was incapacitating and I stayed in bed the entire day. Tylenol would not even touch it. I just had to suffer through it. I had nausea with that too. And of course dizziness, ear pain, ear fullness and tinnitus.

After the headache I had trouble remembering what words were for certain objects. My thinking and writing processes went down the tubes for about two weeks and then recovered. I only had this once before with an brain injury from an auto accident. That was over 20 years ago. I recovered fully from that.

I have blurry vision at times too. This comes and goes without rhyme or reason.

My sense of smell and taste are intermittment. Someday things taste okay and other days I can't even taste them. I had a episode while at the computer where I was trying to swallow plain water. I couldn't. That lasted about 10 minutes and was quite scary.

Last month I had extensive blood tests and a CT Scan. The blood tests and CT Scan were normal, thank goodness!

My eyes were also thoroughly examined last month. Everything was fine as in no disease was found. However I was told that my vision had changed - worsened. For a while I was told my vision was better. I went from nearsighted to perfect vision. Now I am back to nearsighted with blurry vision. Since I had all the other symptoms my eye doctor thought for sure it was diabetes causing my vision change. My blood sugar was fine. My eye on my left side (same side as problematic ear) is more blurry and dry.

Even the doctor thought my thryoid medication might be too high. So she prematurely lowered the dose.

The test said it was right on. The reason she thought this was because I got extremely weak during the blood draw. I almost passed out. I never do that. My legs had that jello feeling again. The doctor took my blood pressure thinking it would be low. It wasn't. Perfectly normal.

I was spending a lot of time on my computer so my doctor told me to back off and cut down. She thinks it is computer vision syndrome or even psychological. I sure wish it was in my head and not in my physiology.

She even suggested I see a psychologist who will be at the clinic this month.

I wonder how you can fake hearing loss, fainting, ear pain, nausea, etc.

I stayed off my computer and even though I did more symptoms have appeared.

I now have what is called Pusatile Tinnitus or PT. It sounds like my heartbeat in my ear. It started about 1 month ago on and off and now it is constant as of two days ago.

With high pitched sounds or women with high voices I get ear pain and fullness. Then nausea hits me like a freight train. I have to lie down and try to breathe through it.

Also now when I sit down at my computer the fans cause the headache, head tremor, nausea, ear pain, throbbing and fullness and blurry vision every time. Twice this month I had severe nausea, cold and profuse sweating and diarrhea along with the symptoms above. Now the minute I start feeling the symptoms coming on I get away from the sound. I have adjusted my computer set up so that the computer is away from my ear. That seems to have helped somewhat however I can only use that computer 1 to 2 hours at a time without having the symptoms come on full blast. I think that sound vibration from the computer is doing something to my ear - what I have no idea.

I am getting concerned about all these symptoms. They just keep coming and coming so today I asked my primary doctor for a referral to an ENT. I have that appointment coming in the middle of this month.

And lastly I believe I have hearing loss in my left ear, the one which has been having the most problems. This first appeared 3 years ago - at least that is when I first noticed it. I was at church in the foyer where people were gathered for coffee and tea. I couldn't hear the ladies trying to talk to me and kept cupping my left ear. That didn't seem to help. I didn't think anything of that at the time. Also I do believe I had some tinnitus at that time however it was very intermittent and for short periods of time.

I also assumed all references to hearing loss meant complete hearing loss. I don't know why. I just did.

Duh!

Anyone have anything like this or similar?

Oh and thanks for reading this long post!

cat1119 · 06-18-2006, 12:11 AM

I have the same symptoms. Anything helps? [removed]

srmny · 06-29-2006, 08:53 AM

Hi,

I noticed your post. It sounds like you might have an acoustic neuroma. It is a benign brain tumor that predominatedly affects people over 50.

One day I realized that I was deaf in one ear - you can test yourself by alternating ears when you are on the phone. I saw an ENT the next day and had an MRI the same day. Apparently doctors are taught in Med school that if a patient presents with deafness in one ear only they should be sent in for an immediate MRI. He assured me the chances were very small that I had a acoustic neuroma (AN) but of course I did have an AN. I was treated with a type of beam radiation in 2001 and have slowly recovered. I too had many crazy symptoms with smells, etc. A neuroma is usually pressing on the 5th to the 9th cranial nerves which affect your hearing, balance, facial muscles, etc.

You need to get this checked. If you had one and left it untreated it could become life threatening. However, you do not need to panic as they grow very slowly - usually 10 to 15 years before they are even noticed. Also, they are somewhat rare so most doctors will not think of the diagnosis. Once again, it is up to you to take care of you.

Call an ear, nose and throat doctor and request a hearing test.

Best of luck,
srmny

Brad53 · 07-08-2006, 01:39 PM

Your hearing problem/pain/wierd symptoms sounds like a condition that I have. It is known as Hyperacusis. The leading cause is head injury. Certain frequencies at a high volume start it for me. It happens when the sound or voice is directly aimed at my ear. I am hard of hearing, so people tend to do that (my wife). Once it is started, it will run it's course for a few hours. Usually around 3. My ear starts to burn, I get a bad headache and I become ill.

I cannot stand the frequency of the female voice or small children at times. Also I have hearing loss and cannot hear these same people. My ears ring 24/7 and have for years. Some things tend to make it worse, but I do not limit anything. Caffeine increases it, but I enjoy coffee.

I have small vessel disease (SVD) in my brain that is damaging my white matter. It has caused me to have white matter disease.

I like to use a small piece of tissue rolled up and inserted into my ear to prevent it from happening and when it has started, I have to have something in my ear to lower all sound.

It is very strange and hard for people to understand. I also have chemical sensitivities that folks do not understand.

Good luck and see your doctor about all the other symptoms you are having. Your body/mind is trying to tell you that something is not right. You could have blockages within your brain that could cause a stroke. Make sure you know what a transient ischemic attack (TIA) is.

ArtsyAthlete · 07-09-2006, 01:53 PM

Hi,

You might want to get tested for Orthostatic Intolerance. I noted that the onset of many of your symptoms occurs when you are in an upright position (except for the headache that woke you). I would encourage you to do an Internet search on Orthostatic Intolerance and see if anything seems to "ring a bell."

Quick question -- do you ever have episodes of Postural Hypotension? This is when you rise from a squatting, sitting, or lying down position to a stand position and feel like you are going to faint? (Dizziness, darkening/graying of vision, tingling/numbness of face, extremities, rapid heartbeat, etc...)

Most of my symptoms also onset after a period of standing or sitting, making it impossible for me to function at work. I'm currently on short-term disability and the next round of tests I am undergoing are for Orthostatic Intolerance. No, I don't want to have this or any other disease, but I know that this is NOT normal. I DO want a diagnosis so that I can learn to manage and minimize these symptoms and live a normal (whatever normal is), productive life.

Also, I agree that there is a possibility of an acoustic neuroma, and not to scare you, but maybe even an aneurysm. It sounds like there could be a small growth of something putting pressure on some of your cranial nerves. All of your symptoms could be attributed to something like this -- including Orthostatic Intolerance.

PLEASE get a second or even third opinion on your head CT. If you are able, get your hands on your films and take them to a very experienced physician, radiologist, or neurologist who specializes in reading CTs and MRIs of the brain.

I had an MRI and the first physician to review the films totally missed something that was obvious to me when I looked at them myself. I showed it to my GP and he was concerned -- he doesn't know what it is but is having the films re-reviewed by another pair of doctors (I don't know anything yet). This mass is located in an area of my brain where a bunch of cranial nerves live and may be putting pressure on those nerves, causing my symptoms.

Masses and disorders in the area of the brain that cause your kind of symptoms (and mine) are very rare... so rare that some docs may have never seen one on CT and will dismiss anything in that area as a normal variant of normal anatomy (such as asymmetries between your inner ear structures).

In addition to a second or third opinion, you might also want to ask for an MRI and/or MRA of your brain, as they will show a lot more detail than a CT will.

You are NOT crazy... you just don't have a diagnosis yet.

Hang in there! {{{HUGZ}}}

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention, if you have Orthostatic Intolerance, it is HIGHLY likely that your BP readings in the doctor's office will look normal, even if you are symptomatic... but this doesn't mean the blood pressure in your brain is normal! Just because your BP in the doctor's office is OK doesn't mean you don't have it... you have to undergo the tests (tilt table, etc) to be sure.

YET ANOTHER EDIT: I also have thyroid disease. That's awful that your GP jacked with your dose!!!!!! Yikes! Question about your thyroid disease? How long ago did your thyroid symptoms appear? How long ago were you diagnosed? I am curious because our symptoms are similar and I too have thyroid disease... maybe we can help each other here.