mymy

hello everyone! i'd like to share my experience with you hoping we'd be able to enlighten each other.

i'm 33 yrs old. it was around 1999 when i noticed this swooshing sound in my right ear. it started very faintly, the type you would hear only when it's too quiet. when i took on a new job july 2000, it became worse! it's like hearing my pulse in my ear. thought that it might be that i was so stressed and pressured with my new job. i went to an ENT and bottomline, was told that i just have to live with it...he gave me Duxaril, brain oxygenator. I did take it for a day or two but no effect so i stopped. The only times i would notice the sound "quieting" were when i would take deep breaths, or turn my neck extremely to the right, or when i get to press a part of my neck. at that time, i figured, it was still tolerable.
by august 2000, i had my share of vertigo attacks. i remember i was taking the afternoon nap on a weekend when suddenly the world was really spinning, i opened my eyes and had to shut them immediately because it felt like my eyeballs were moving round and round with the spinning that i see. my mom and sis sent me to the ER immediately. An ENT worked me up and explained about vertigo. he gave me some exercises to manage my vertigo attacks and i was able to do so for some months. he also recommended me for CT scan of the right ear with contrast to rule out glomus tumor. i took a wait and see attitude on the scan, and passed on it when i didnt have vertigo attacks anymore.
by february 2002, i had this strange lightheaded feeling when i walk..as if losing my balance....and though it could be different from vertigo because it didnt attack when i am lying down (i had positional vertigo). After a week, I decided to get the CT scan. The results were not good. They detected an erosion of my right temporal bone, and the scan couldnt show if that was caused by glomus tumor, or schwannoma or what-have-you...it just really hit me that something was wrong! they recommended a conventional angiogram or MRI. after too much debating, i took on the MRI, as it is less invasive. when the results came out, my ENT said that there's no tumor on the right side. However, they noticed that aside from having 3 large veins/arteries(?) in my head which they can't say if aneurysmal...they also saw this tumor on my skull but on the left side. they would like me to see a neuro-surgeon for this.
i consulted with the three top neurosurgeons in this part of Asia. first, i would like them to comment on the aneurysmal nature of the prominent veins in my head. while 2 said it's not aneurysm, another said that only an angiogram will give a clearer picture. next clarification, the tumor they spotted on the left side of my skull, can i leave it untouched considering that i remember having this lump on my head since the beginning of the world for me? they explained that it could have been a cell accident, when i was being formed in the womb of my mom, it could have been the mesodermal cell of a strand of hair caught in between my inner and outer skull, or those of my teeth that didnt grow out. given that, i told them that maybe i need not take it out. but they told me that tumors have unpredictable behavior of growth. the MRI plate showed that the tumor eats more on the inner skull than the outer, hence no change in the shape of the lump in my head. they asked, shall i wait for the time when it invades my dura (the protective covering of the brain) when it would be more tedious for them to take it out. 2 out of 3 neuros suggested a cranioplasty, surgery that entails them opening me up, taking out that part of my skull with the tumor, and replacing it with some sort of a cement or resin.
after getting married sept 2003, i decide to undergo cranioplasty last feb 2003. the surgery took 3 hours. i was out of the hospital after 5 days. the tumor was disgnosed benign. exact term was paget's disease of the cranial bone.
now, i still have the swooshing sound in my right ear. and it really is so annoying because it has grown so loud, that even if i'm in the middle of a crowd, i can still hear it. i am scheduled to see another ENT next week and bombard him with questions. i didnt have illusions that after the cranioplasty, i would not have tinnitus anymore. the fact is, i'm not even sure they are connected in any way. but why did the swooshing sound became louder?

will keep you guys posted.