Has anyone had a CT scan of their ears??

catface34

Hello there, I'm a 26 year old female, new to the board, although I've been reading for quite some time. I have been feeling wrong for a year now and I think I'm finally getting to the bottom of my diagnosis. It all happened to me around this time last year. It was the day after I had been on two flights and I was sitting in a cafe, having a cup of coffee. Three weeks previous, I had taken an anti-biotic (keflex) for cellulitis in my foot, and I had had some kind of anaphylactic reaction to the ibuprofen I was taking with the anti-biotic. Anyway, when I was having a coffee, all of a sudden I started to have what felt like a panic attack and my heart rate went up and I started feeling like I needed to get out of there. When I got home, I started having shakes and a bit of a fever. I had a few of these attacks in the following days, but I slowly realised that they would come on me when I began to feel stressed.

I know people reading this will immediately think 'she has an anxiety disorder'. I have wondered this many times myself but I know that it isn't. Before this, I had never had anxiety/panic attacks etc in the slightest. My symptoms are these - I have never gotten the rotational vertigo, but I do feel slightly dizzy, however, it really isn't something I'd complain about. My major complaint is my vision - I find flourescent lighting just doesn't look the way it used to, neither does any kind of lighting. It's as though there is less power going to my eyes, or that they are compromised in some way. That is the infuriating part - there is something subtly wrong with my vision, and trying to explain it is a nightmare. I worry that if I ever do return to normal - will I recognize it? I also feel confusion and brain fog - I'll have great difficulty trying to remember something I did 2 hours ago. I can remember what I did, but it takes great mental effort to pull that data from memory!! Also, a few months after this all started, I developed eustachian tube dysfunction.

I have had an mri, ct scan of sinuses, bloods, seen an ENT etc. I have been diagnosed with everything from persistent migraine aura to an anxiety disorder. My ENT thinks it's an inner ear problem, and I had suspected that for a long time too.

My question to you all is - the most obvious conclusion to jump to would be vestibular neuritis, right? However, a few things about this don't add up for me. Firstly, even though a huge amount of people do not get vertigo at the onset, I do not feel I was ever dizzy enough for VN to be a correct diagnosis. Also, if it were a less severe form of VN, how likely is it that I wouldn't compensate fully, given that I was job-searching, apartment hunting and basically being active (but not incredibly so) the entire time? I had moved to Canada at the time this all started, and it began the day after I landed. I also started work two weeks after. I feel it has gotten worse since I moved home.

My second question is this - did any of you ever have CT scans of your ears? I'm trying to get a referral for one, the reason being that otosclerosis runs in my family (my Aunt and grandmother, and several of her sisters). Otosclerosis is mainly characterised by hearing loss, although there are some sufferers who have had only vestibular symptoms. For some reason, I just don't think I had/have VN. Any thoughts? Thanks for reading this - I know it's been a long winding post!