justpancho

okay .. about 2 months ago i had a cold and flew in a plane. the fluid just seemed to get sucked up in my ears. For two weeks i battled the infection with steriods and antibiotics. the whole time tho my speech slowly began to change... by 'speech change' i mean .. my voice no longer sounds like my own. Certain vowels sounds i have a hard time pronouncing. my mother says i sound like i'm a little deaf girl.

after a month the ear infection cleared up... and the doctors have said there is no more fluid in my ears and they look clear. BUT i can still hear fluid moving in there. they still pop ALL the time. every time i swallow they pop.

the last visit to my doctor was 2 weeks ago. i told him of the problem and during the visit i kept touching the side of my face right in front of my ear. finally he stopped me from talking and said 'why are you doing that?' and i replied 'it relieves the pressure/pain that i have there'. he then asked me to open my jaw all the way and it popped really loud. he asked me if i grit my teeth at night and i said 'no' but i chew all day. he said that he thinks i have tmj. he's put me on muscle relaxers which seem to help the pain a bit, but they make me sleepy so i don't take them much.

is this possible? to have tmj from an ear infection? my jaw has always popped but i never had any problems like this before. i went to a hearing clinic and have mild to moderate hearing loss in both my ears (six months ago i had perfect hearing). i still feel the fluid when i move my head and i still get a bit of pressure at times built up. i do not have any allergy or sinus problems. my ears do not hurt at all, just the part of my face in front of my ears has this dull ache all the time. i hate chewing food now and opt usually for some soup or something soft but this is annoying as i have gerd and my choices of food are extremely limiting anyways.

AND to top off all of this, my job requires me to do voice overs, but i am unable to do them as i still can't pronounce certain vowel sounds.

has anyone else had this speech problem? if i am thinking about it and try to correct the speech, then i sound a bit better but still not normal. when i'm angry and not thinking about it at all, then it's so much worse.

any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.