Please Tell Me This ISN"T Tinnitus !!

[rockinhippy]

I've just got in from seeing a GP having had what is one hell of a bad night with the following "drumming" in my head

It started yesterday evening, before I went to bed, is intermittent lasts a few minutes, but has kept me up most of the night as worse when I lie down - Sounds like a kettle drum going off in my left ear & I can actually FEEL the vibrations from it too - seems its worse on lying down - more frequent - not when it's quiet as the GP insisted - it was quiet in the house & I couldn't hear it - cats were making a noise that I would normally sleep through

I do get Tinnitus, I've had it so long I didn't even know it wasn't normal, IYSWIM - I have NEVER had this sound before & NEVER been able to "feel" the sound too.

GP checked my ears, but if the way A&E checked DDs ears earlier in the week is anything to go by, she barely put the light in there at all - then said my ears were both normal - she felt my glands, which are up - DDs suspected appendicitis turned out to be a nasty virus that caused her colitis & stomach gland pain - DDs thoroughly checked ears were inflamed hence why they decided on her diagnosis -

So I'm pretty sure as I also have the same headaches & a high temperature for me (its naturally low) that I too have the virus

Please tell me this DOESN"T sound like Tinnitus has changed into this, as was the GP verdict - followed by if its still going on in a few weeks we could refer you to A&E - its kept me awake all night!!

refer to ENT - not A&E - what makes you think I've had no sleep

Shameless bump

& just to add, having lay down earlier, its definitely linked to lying down, not quiet as the GP insisted - its eased off, but came back with a bang excuse pun when I lay down & then kept on coming & going every few minutes for a couple of hours - now back again, but not so frequent or so long

wonder if & where I can do bat sleeping tonight

Yes - it is tinnitus, but only because tinnitus means noises in the ear, which this clearly is.

But anyone can get tinnitus for many reasons - and it really doesn't mean once you have it you're stuck with it for life. Ear wax build up can cause it, for example!

Is the beating in time with your heartbeat? That's called pulsatile tinnitus and there's loads of causes for that - ear infections & viruses etc.

You may be able to mask it with music through headphones or white noise.

Good luck & hope you get some sleep :)

I feel your pain!

I have loud high pitched tinnitus at the moment.

What you're describing sounds like pulsatile tinnitus - kind of like hearing your own heart beat. Dsil gets this, and it's always worse when she's lying down.

Hope you manage to get some sleep

Thank you, both of you - well its taken a while, but thanks to the Nurse I've just seen for something else I finally may have my answer

I had a few nights of this awful noise stop start, though not sounding at all like my heart, faster & the speed kept changing, the more it went on the more I realised it reminded me of a fly buzzing on its back on a windowsill or similar, but very very loud, so sounded more like banging - it started to die down after a couple of days, but would kick off again in fits & starts when I lay down & would slow down, as if it was wearing itself out -

I couldn't get back into see a GP, so as I was already at the hospital with DD, I tried popping in to A&E - who weren't allowed to see me as I'd already seen the GP with it - she was great though & did agree it did sound like there was more going on & told me about a local walk in clinic - though due to a festival going on here that was heaving, so I gave up - so DH had the bright idea of filling my ear up with water - after pouring it out it went mental for a few seconds & then sounded like it was flapping around & dying & stopped dead.

On picking up the phone to that ear this morning, I realised I couldn't hear properly in that ear, so washed it out again & then mentioned it to the Nurse when seeing her this afternoon - she was great & offered to look - was very thorough with looking to the point where it hurt - thankfully no inflammation etc, but she did then pull out what looked like legs - so looks like I did have some sort of small fly or something in there & what I could hear was its death throws on my ear drum

horrible thought, but looks like its over & nothing left in there to worry about :)

Glad you are feeling better.

But

at ear bug

I know, I am trying really hard not to think about it - makes perfect sense though, the noise fits, just amplified - [shudders]