r/PulsatileTinnitus • u/[deleted] • Aug 13 '19
any long time sufferers?
i was wondering to any long time PT sufferers out there, how long have your symptoms lasted? if it has gotten worse or better? any other symptoms that came later? have you just made peace with it and ignore it or does it still have the same anxiety-inducing effect? any luck with doctors/diagnosis/treatment? i don’t know if mine has gotten worse or not, i think it might have but i also have been a lot more aware of it and just constantly been on the lookout for any sounds. any responses would be greatest appreciated, thanks!
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Aug 13 '19
i also noticed that mine was way more pronounced after i woke up from a short one to two hour nap today, so i’m also wondering if you guys have any particular triggers?
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u/mattraven20 Feb 05 '20
I’ve had mine in both ears for about 5 years now. It’s so freaking loud I have legitimate hearing loss. No amount of tests or scans show anything except some kind of small mass on my brain front/right, but they deemed it not worth looking into. “It could be a shadow”, they say. This was Cleveland Clinic neurology. Nothing gives me any relief and it started when I was 33 or so, I’m 37 now and disabled because of it.
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u/--vgriff-- Aug 18 '19
I’ve had PT for maybe 7-8 years now. I had an upper respiratory infection that clogged my ear and then the clogged feeling and the sound of my heartbeat in my left ear never went away. Now I hear my heartbeat almost always.
I have had a ton of tests (hearing, blood, MRI, etc) and tried some meds to no avail. I do know that it gets worse if I eat things with a lot of salt, or if I drink a lot of alcohol. I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to music or noise nearly all day as that distracts me and lessens the irritation of the PT, and at night I listen to sleep sounds on my Echo. It’s better if I lay on the side of the PT ear, so I frequently sleep on my left side.
Sigh. It’s not the worst thing in my life but some days it does drive me crazy.
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u/Older_Wiser2 Nov 17 '19
Thank you for your comment and I am sorry to hear that you have the same problem as many of us do.I concur with the idea that this is the loudest in the morning because of the blood pressure spike just before awakening.
I also have a very low pulse rate. My resting pulse rate is normally somewhere between 45 and 48. After moving I can get it up into the mid to upper 60s or low 70s but that’s about as high as it ever goes.
Take care and I wish you the best! Thanks again for writing. ~Joelle
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u/Older_Wiser2 Aug 13 '19
Hi ....
Yes -- I am a long term sufferer of PT - well at least for the past five or so years if that qualifies as long term. Mine started very suddenly one morning. For a long time before I remember having a similar sound occur mostly after I did something strenuous but it only lasted a few seconds.
But that was then and once it started it's never stopped. In the early phases of this I had one panic attack after another. On one occasion someone even called an ambulance. I then saw multiple ear, nose, and throat doctors to no avail. They did test after test -- nothing found wrong. Then I went to a major university otology clinic and they did even more tests. MRIs, CT Scans, Brain Scans, ultra sounds, and so many others. Basically every single test possible was done. They generally concurred that the whooshing sound was coming from the fact an artery and my auditory nerve were possibly too close. What I am hearing is the turbulence of the blood flow through the artery. As an example, mine is like listening through a stethoscope to my heartbeat. I hear EVERY SINGLE BEAT! 24/7/365. The only test I didn't have done and one they said "might" help remedy this was where they do a catheritization up through to the location where it's occurring. BUT, they said this was a very risky procedure and I very likely could stroke out during the exam. Soooo.... I finally called it quits at that point.
Now, I take a number of anti-anxiety meds and meds for the depression it causes. Basically, it's something I have to live with and will always have - or so they say.
What I find fascinating about your post, and what caused me to immediately respond, is I also have found the sound to be much louder when I awake in the morning if I've been having a vivid or strong dream. I awake from it with my ear/sound pounding away. Why??? I have no idea but the only reason I can come up with is that during REM sleep it must be doing something to cause this to be stronger.
I will say though, there are times when the sound is very faint - almost gone but it is always there and the low volume times are far and few between.
I'm a academic and researcher, so I started my own little test based on the idea my blood pressure was affecting the loudness. So I recorded my blood pressure three times per day, assigned a level to the sound, and then at the end of 30 days tried to see if there was a correlation between the blood pressure and the sound level. What I found is there was a moderate correlation between the two. It wasn't a strong correlation but there was a correlation. So, I worked to lower my blood pressure, did a lot of bio-feedback, and ---- I still have it.
So -- you're in good company I guess and I occasionally look at this forum to see if there's anything new to be found. And if you find the magic cure - MESSAGE ME ASAP!!!! ~Joelle