Echoey ears

[Bumperlicious]

I have a cough, probably a bit of a chest infection really, but now my ears have gone funny, all echoey like I'm listening to a shell. My ears don't hurt though. Worth going to gp? I'm loath to go as I was there on Tuesday for the kids's jabs & yesterday because HV suggested I get dd2's cough checked out, they are going to think I am a hypochondriac!

Anyone? I feel like I am picking up faint radio signals with my ears! That or it's the voices in my head...

Could be blocked Eustachian tubes:

www.patient.co.uk/health/Eustachian-Tube-Dysfunction.htm

I used to get that problem a lot, and I remember how everything sounded rather weird and echoey.

Thanks. Looks like it's just linked to my cough/cold. It's not painful, just really annoying!

I can remember the annoying bit so very well, including dealing with people who didn't understand the difference between my ability to hear them (which was possible if they didn't mumble) versus how difficult it was to sustain a lengthy conversation (which was very tiring).

Back when I was having this problem, one of the doctors I saw explained that the main route for hearing was via the eardrum, but there was a secondary route because sound waves also impinge on the skull around the ear which can also result in signals to the inner ear. The brain filters out the sounds it gets through bone conduction, but when the Eustachian tube gets blocked the balance between eardrum transmission and bone conduction transmission gets disrupted, and the bone conduction transmission becomes more obvious - hence the echo effect.