My Doctors have no clue thus far...

[johnny984]

Hello my left ear began to feel plugged about two months ago. A couple weeks ago I started having pressure within my actual eyeball on the left side as well. This week I have been getting terrible headaches from the base of my skull on the left side. i took a picture a few days ago and noticed my left eye was wondering a bit. I have done an MRI of the brain and they saw nothing, a cat scan of my sinuses and there was nothing there either. My doctor is a bit stumped and is sending me to a neurologist. Any ideas on anything I should bring up. I apologize if this is mispelled or written poorly, my head and ear are killing me and since i refuse to take meds that make me feel wierd i am stuck with low grade meds.  Also my Doctor assured me they were not tension headaches she says there is something else going on .Thank you -John

[Danitza]

I should start by apologizing for my english. I am from Peru and I am having all the things you described as PET for over three months. I have seen 4 doctors already and they keep prescribing me nasal sprays, cortizone, anthistaminic, etc. and nothing works. I am going nuts. I even had a ventilation tube put in my ear and the doctor had to remove it after three weeks because all the symptoms got worse. I feel my left ear totally clogged. I feel like I have my heart inside my ear. You said your problem went away for most part after three months. Did you do something or did it just go away by itself? Please any advise will be very helpful. At this point I don´t know what to do anymore. Thanks.

[johnny984]

I have to agree with you but my ENT Doctor didnt think is was anything bad.  He blammed it on allergies.  I kept telling him i think I have some wax build-up in my ear and he should go deep in there and look around, yet he peeked in with his scope and said nope nothing.  How lame huh. I know its not allergies  Hope next time I go in he can flush it or somthing.....and Im going to bring up the whole PET or ETD thing to him.  

Thanks

[HumanNature]

just wanted to add, that it's important, if the problem is related to the middle ear (PET or ETD), it is important to differentiate between the two. If you hear your voice, breathing, or even heart beat amplified in your ears as if you can hear all your internal workings then it's more likely that your Eustachian Tubes are open. The feeling of 'stuffed ears' might actually just be air pressure...and treating Patulous Eustachian Tubes with decongestants like Sudafed can actually make the problem worse because it dries out the mucous in the e-tubes and makes it so that they have no adhesion to close when necessary (Tubes should be closed except for when you yawn, sneeze, blow your nose).

[HumanNature]

You might want to start with where the symptoms started--> the ear.
Your eyes, ears, nose, throat are all interconnected, so pressure from your ear could be felt in the eyes as well. I would try going to an ENT (Ear Nose & Throat Specialist) or Otolaryngologist (sp?) for help.

It might be that you have some sort of chronic congestion in your Eustachian Tubes  (the tubes that connect your Ears to your Sinuses) which regulate ear pressure by balancing external and internal pressure. They can get clogged causing pressure...often after a cold, but that's not always necessary. Sometimes other factors can influence malfunction of the Eustachian Tubes. This disorder is called ETD or Eustachian Tube Dysfunction

Do you feel like your hearing is muffled, or RATHER do you feel like the sounds from inside you - your breathing, talking, heart beat are amplified in your ears? If it's the second, you might have the opposite problem - Patulous Eustachian Tubes (PET) -- this means that your E-tubes are chronically open and not regulating pressure properly. It's a benign but highly annoying problem that tends to drive people a little nuts. I had it for about 3 months constantly. My own voice boomed in my head....fortunately it went away for the most part.

Do your symptoms go away when you lie down? More likely Patulous ET
Or are they worse when you lay down? More likely Eustachian Tubes Dysfunction

Of course, your headaches could be a more serious brain or spinal cord related condition, so definitely go to a neurologist too. I wish you luck in figuring your problems out. I'm currently trying to figure a neurological/neuromuscular problem out for myself...doctors can be so frustrating sometimes.

[Londres70]

Sounds like some type of migraine you are having.