sound sensitivity

[Brian459]

I am a 47 year male with ETD and slightly retracted eardrums.  My ENT doesn't think it's too much to worry about since the retraction is "minimal".  However, I've had either popping in both ears when I swallow or a feeling of fullness or congestion for over two months now.  All the advice I get is to be patient and it will resolve itself, but now I am sensitive to everyday sounds.  Water faucets, showers, bus doors seem very loud and make the feeling of congestion worse.  Is this normal or is there something else going on?  How long do I wait for these conditions to resolve themselves?  Also, a few weeks ago I took a nap on the sofa, when I woke up everything seemed back to normal except for an increase in my tinnitus.  But when I awakened the next day everything seemed congested again.  Is this part of the recovery process?  What is going on?  Please help.

[dboots]

Your lucky if it is only happening a few times an hour   I have to suffer through it happpening a minimum 1500 times an hour of my ears popping/clicking
  It starts the moment I wake up and keeps going until I finally am able to fall asleep
  Mine keeps getting worse to where it is creating a balance disorder

[Brian459]

It's the worst early in the morning, just after I get up.  They pop maybe every other time I swallow for about an hour, the fades to a couple of times an hour by the end of the day.  OHNS2010 says it has something to do with lying down for an extended period of time.  I will ask my ENT at my next appointment in August.  It's not as bad now as when it first started, but they still pop.

[dboots]

When you say been there, what do you mean?  How often an hour are your ears
popping?

[Brian459]

Been there.  Mine started as popping every time I swallowed or moved my jaw - then this feeling of congestion took over.  At my next ENT appointment he said I had slightly retracted ears, like I was on an airplane, but they feel way worse than that.

[dboots]

No I have the popping  Well it use to be only popping but now it has become a
clicking that happens on average about 1500 times an hour, every waking hour

[Brian459]

You have retracted eardrums and the tubes didn't help?   That is depressing.

[bsmsl]

I have had ETD for 9 1/2 months.  My suggestion is to ask you ENT to try a tube in one ear.  My ENT wouldn't make that decission for a long time because the pressure had appeared to normalize, but I was stil very symptomatic, similar to yours.  He finally did suggest doing just one ear as a compromise when it got to the point that the pain was waking me up.  It has been wonderful.

ENTs are more hesitant to put tubes in adult's ears because they end up taking about 50% of them out according to my ENT.  There are a lot of risks with the procedure like loss of hearing and noises.  

I have loved my one tube and would have the other one done, but the most annoying of my symptoms cleared soon after I got the first tube.  I am waiting to see what happens this fall.  

Hopefully that helps.