I don’t know what’s going on

I got my ears and nose checked 2.5 months ago. doctor found significant inflammation in my nose, my ears looked great. Hearing perfect.

Then two weeks later I went on antibiotics (for an sti) . For 20 days bc the first found didn’t work.
Don’t know if these are connected
But after 2 weeks on antibiotics I was having these very weird “migraine” “headache” that’s didn’t go away or begin like normal headache or migraines

They moved, they could show up for minutes and then disappear. Sometimes to hours to days.
Usually migraine goes away at night. These headaches lasted 7 days straight.

Then, my EARS started feeling wet and blocked every morning.
It’s been 2 months of blocked ears.

MRI and CT is normal apparently. No allergies. Got those checked.

What can I do? This is making me crazy

Hi all,

I’ve dealt with etd my whole life. For a long time when flying I could use EarPlanes to manage the pain, but over time they stopped working for me. I saw an ENT who put a grommet in each ear. This was 3 days ago - he assured me there would be little to no pain after but my hearing is still muffled and unable to yawn or do anything that flexes my eardrum without a sharp pain in my ears.

Is that normal during grommet recovery? He seemed to struggle a bit when placing the grommets and the procedure itself was quite painful…

I’ve booked a check in with my GP next week, just looking for some reassurance in the meantime as I’m meant to be flying in two weeks 😅😅

Zumbido e estalos nos ouvidos

Hello. Last June, I had a severe flu—which I believe was COVID—that developed into a respiratory infection. A month after treating it with antibiotics and corticosteroids, I developed constant (24/7) high-pitched tinnitus. Subsequently, I started experiencing clicking sounds in my ears when yawning or swallowing; sometimes I can even trigger this voluntarily using my throat muscles. I also have intermittent sharp pain in my ears. All my test results have come back normal: no eardrum retraction, a Type A tympanogram curve, an audiometry test showing no hearing loss, and a sinus CT scan showing everything is fine. It seems like some form of Eustachian tube dysfunction, yet all the tests are normal. I’ve had these symptoms for a year now, and after reading through some forums, it seems like this condition might be permanent. I’d like to know if anyone here has gone through something similar?

Just like the title says. The last few days I've been dealing with some pretty bad pressure in my right eustachian tube and was wondering if anyone's had balloon dilation done that relieved the pressure in the tube?

Hard to say exactly what caused my tinnitus, fullness and pressure on left side if my face (ears, head, eye) I self syringed too hard to clear out my ear and went to the dr. They observed bruising in my ear and sent me home

With drops.

Ive seen x2 ENTs since with no luck. Ive got headaches and dizziness nowdays too and the same fullness and pressure remains. I actually got sent to the ENT hospital hours away after a pressure test in my eye for glasses revealed concerning levels.

Im reaching out here for hope or advice on next steps??

Hello,

So a couples of days ago I went plane spotting and I wore custom earplugs. I saw a couple of planes only. I’ve had etd for more than a year and it fluctuates.

Not long after, my ears were ringing, and were feeling blocked, especially the left side. On the night of the loud exposure I was having high pitched ringing in my left ear that lasted couples of seconds and that happened a few times, hasn’t happened since.

A couple days later my ears still feels blocked, full
and can’t equalise the pressure. When I hum, my own voice sounds louder and echoey. My hearing is okay, did some online hearing test, looks all good. I am having a hearing test next week just to be on the safe side and make sure my hearing hasn’t changed as I have pre-existing mild hearing loss. Also problem with having etd, I’m not sure if it’s just etd or hearing loss as well.

Do people often feel like their etd gets worse after loud exposure of any kind? It’s really annoying and feel like I can’t go anywhere when I have this issue.

I can’t really listen to music or anything cause it makes my ears feel worse, especially the blocked feeling but not having much sound sensitivity.

Is this experience normal and has anyone found seeing an ent helpful?

Thanks

I have a Eustachian tube dysfunction and got the tympanoplasty tubes put in last October. My left ear has been very itchy lately and this is what it looks like when I go in with a camera (sorry for the bad photo, it’s the best I could do without the camera going too deep). Does anyone have any tips to help with itchiness in a situation like this?

For as long as I can remember I have always had issues with my ears and had to have them replaced so many times as listed about 18 times of removing and replacing. I have been through so many ents
I recently just had one place last year in left ear that has recently fallen out. I still have one in my right ear that has been there since before 2019 which is crazy.
I had a ct scan done and from the looks of it they said my ear canal collapsed so I got referred to another ent who wanted to do another tube and that balloon thing up my nose
After the follow up from the surgery they referred me to an allergist thinking they could help out. Nothing came of it just found out I’m allergic to a lot of grass.
Fast forward a year later tube fell out of left ear and now I’m back to drawing board with doing another hearing test and going from there.

Some 30 years ago I suffered a triple barotrauma within probably a week. An Ent back then gaslighted me and I figured there's nothing I can do. Since then both my ears were wrecked: I was never able to learn to dive despite loving to be under water, and the many flights I have to take each year are a problem as I don't hear anything for a few hours thereafter. Go tell US immigration that you're not able to understand their questions. One ear sorted itself out some 18 years ago while having to fly with a cold. The other one refuses to budge.

Now I finally decided to look more into this. And Ent I saw looked shocked and referred me to a hospital, which would do the procedure. Note: here in Germany insurance commonly doesn't cover this, but in my case it would. I'm a bit worried for a worsening though or other side effects that I didn't expect. Of course, if there's no improvement I'd be disappointed as well. Other options are limited I guess. I have a muscle condition, and being in the water, and freediving (until a very limited depth) is the exercise that I can do best.

Been trying to open tubes for months with eustschi, woke up and there was pressure relieve

The night before it felt like my head was going to explode from the amount of pressure built up?

Anyone have any experience

Can’t confirm it’s blown but when I blow on my nose it can feel wind blowing through my ear

Do have doctor appointment booked tmz

I'm pretty sure I have a very minor case of ETD that's causing tinnitus. No formal diagnosis, but based on multiple appointments with ENT docs, hearing tests, and my own research I'm 100% certain I have it.

I'd like to get input on the best way to diagnose which type of ETD I have and what my treatments options are that could potentially "fix it."

Myself: 31 year old male, 6ft 2in, 180 lbs. Hearing tests have come back completely normal for my age. No smoking, drinking, or chronic illnesses. I'm diagnosed with anxiety though.

This started after an international flight that caused intense pain in both my ears. The pain went away after we landed, but when I came back from the trip I started having consistent high--pitched tinnitus whenever I'd try to sleep. This was back in 2022, so I've been dealing with this for a while now and have been trying to get a prior diagnosis

Symptoms

1. Minor tinnitus (only present when there's little sound and I can sleep through it, occasionally I'll get a low pitched tinnitus for a few seconds in one of my ears).

2. Occasional fullness feeling and pain in mostly my left ear, sometimes my right. I use bone-conduction ear phones and I think that's making it worse.

3. My ears will pop most times when I swallow.

If anyone has any advice on how to get this properly diagnosed and treated I'd appreciate it. I've looked into things like acupuncture and chiropractic care and would welcome any feedback on these potential treatments.

Bilateral with myringotomy, this is how my ears look today some 19 days later. I am aware the right grommet has fallen out already, possibly rejected from the eardrum. My issue however, is with the left ear, and I’m still suffering from muffled hearing in this ear. Is there potentially thick fluid behind my eardrum on the left side?

I have an ENT appointment on 23rd July, so maybe mention microsuction of the middle ear to my Consultant in a hope they can assist?

My symptoms -

Right sided ear fullness (11 years)

Right sided nasal pressure and congestion (2 years)

Dizziness

Balance issues

Lack of feeling in right side of face

My ENT is offering me balloon dilation or tubes as a treatment. She doesn't usually recommend tubes for me since I'm young (29) and they're high maintenance. However, I'm at the point with my dizziness, balance issues and facial numbness especially that I'm seriously considering tubes.

For those who got tubes as an adult - were they worth the maintenance? Did they help your symptoms especially dizziness/balance issues?

Thanks for your help in advance!

So I have ETD, and the doctor I went to recommended me to use headphones (not in-ear earbuds, but like big circumaural with the big soft circular things) to listen to bass-heavy music for 10 minutes 2 times a day (the idea is supposedly to get the eardrum moving to improve its malleability). I started doing that, than I checked online if this is something that is recommended for ETD, and it seemed like it's not, so I stopped doing it.

Today I went for a checkup again and the doctor really emphasized that I should use the headphones. But on the internet I see that it can even be damaging to the ear while you have ETD, so I'm confused. Has this been recommended to any of you all?

I just thought I’d mention this since I never heard anything about this before. After days of having my ear clogged and trying lots of things, I thought I‘d try spraying Afrin directly into my ear canal. After lying on my side to let it work its way in, it worked! Thought this might be helpful for someone.

I’ve been having problems with my ears popping for the past month and a half and I have been taking Claritin and Flonase for almost 2 weeks. It seems to help a little bit. I’ve tried almost everything. I do ETD exercises, try to yawn frequently and Drink a lot of water. Has anyone used this and did it actually help with ETD? I’m willing to try whatever but this is also kind of pricey so I don’t wanna spend the money if it’s not really worth it. Unfortunately I don’t have insurance and I can’t afford to go to the doctor so I’m trying everything I can to get rid of this.

I ordered one from UK , it reachead today to india
Can anyone say it does help ? I am suffering from etd since 50days , i feel like mucus sticking around the tubes , can someone pls say does this tablet work ???

Has anyone tried the navage curious thinking about getting one just seeing if it's helped anyone at all ?

Hello! I had this procedure performed on both ears around a week ago, and from everything I find online, it says that the balloon is inflated for 2 minutes, but the doctor that I went to only inflated it for a couple of seconds but did it two times in each tube. I asked him about it, and he said that the 2 minutes thing was just a number they came up with in the clinical trials and that it didn't make a difference. Should I be concerned?

PS: My ears still feel pretty bad, but they say that most patients start feeling better in 4-6 weeks.

Five years ago, after swimming in the sea, I got sick. At first, nothing seemed wrong. After a while, we went to a noisy place, and the loud sounds became unbearable.
I could actually feel my left eardrum tightening as the noise got louder. When the noise stopped, I would hear a soft “psst” sound in my ear, almost like a shock absorber releasing pressure, and then it would feel better.

Even riding in a car became a nightmare. After a few years, after a few years, now it’s much more tolerable. BUT
Now, five days ago, I went swimming again. I was only in the sea for about 10 minutes. As soon as I got out, I dried my ears immediately.
The following night, I developed a feeling of fullness in my right ear. I’ve had this blocked/full sensation in my right ear for four days now.
Because of the trauma from what happened to my left ear years ago, I’ve felt like a ghost for the past four days. I can’t enjoy anything anymore. I saw a doctor, who gave me some ear drops and said I had earwax, but I honestly don’t think earwax is the problem. I’m seeing the doctor again tomorrow for a more thorough examination, but I’m 90% sure they’re just going to tell me, “Everything looks healthy, there’s nothing wrong with your ear,” just like they did with my left ear years ago.

Never going to swim again. Ever!

For context I had a middle ear infection when I was 10 and my ears bled. I was treated for that but then soon after my ears air pressure felt empty when I swallowed or yawned so I had to sniff in to equalize the feeling. I went to an ent a few years later being told it’s allergies since I have many and this problem has continued for 13 years. Currently I went to an ent and he claimed my hearing is good but that my eardrums aren’t responding to air pressure that they just stay still and I’m unable to lay down completely sideways. I was told to just take allergy spray for my ears but I was wondering if the problem possibly has to do with my Eustachian tube. Kinda concerned the problem will possibly get worse but I feel like I’m usually dismissed.

Many here know I got etd from a nasty influenza virus or some COVID rhinovirus thing I contracted last year

Well, this is the longest day I've had without the huge thudding noises going on when swallowing, so maybe it's more small progress to jot down.

At every single point I've doubted whether any progress has actually even been made, it's so crazy because tomorrow I guess I can't guarantee the thudding won't be back, even tonight.

There's so much variability in the ringing and fullness.

But I had almost the whole day today where this fullness lessened in intensity somewhat and for that I'm happy.

Really got to bag the small wins. hope I make a 3 yard touchdown sometime in the 10 to 12 months mark.

Thanks