First, the disclaimer…I have a doctor’s appointment to discuss this problem next week, I’m just looking for information in the meantime. I’m a curious little cuss.
Anyway…my problem. For the past month or so, I’ve been intermittently getting a roaring sound and pressure in my ears. The feeling is similar to that of having water in your ear after swimming or holding a sea shell up to your ear in combination with that feeling you get when you have an altitude change and feel like your ears need to “pop” (usually facilitated by yawning). It doesn’t hurt, it’s just a nuisance. I don’t feel congested otherwise, no sinus pains, vertigo, etc. but I do have a little bit of difficulty hearing while it’s going on.
One the 4 or 5 occasions that this has happened, I noticed it when I got out of bed in the morning and it has lasted most of the day, but never into the next day. I’ve also noticed that it has a tendency to happen on days when the weather is shifting, so I thought it might be related to the barometric pressure. This has never happened to me in the past, though, so it seems odd for it to have just started happening out of nowhere.
So…any ideas what this could be? Is it likely to be an ear infection/sinus problem sort of thing, or should I be seriously concerned about hearing loss? I’d always thought that tinnitus was a constant ringing in the ears, but I’ve seen in described in several places on webmd.com and elsewhere as a roaring in the ears, which this is. I also thought that once you had tinnitus, you had it forever, it wouldn’t come and go like this is.
I’ve got a pretty good case of tinnitus, and sometimes it could be described as ‘roaring’, but it’s fairly constant. I’d heard that Ginko Biloba was supposed to help, but nada (it didn’t make me smarter, either)
It sounds! like something else - check out your company’s workman’s comp program - at least you might get paid for it.
Dragline…I wish I could say this is a workman’s comp thing, but I work in an office. I’m not exposed to loud noises either in or out of work, which is another thing that makes me doubt that it’s tinnitus. Do people randomly get tinnitus, or is it typically related to prolonged exposure to loud noises?
Nope…no new meds, no high blood pressure (mine tends to be a little on the low side, actually…usually 110/70), no anti-inflammatories. No recent changes in overall health or habits. This recurring ear thing is a new development, starting within the past month. Like I said, I thought maybe it was related to barometric pressure changes, but that’s never happened to me in the past so it’s not like I have a history of noticing this sort of weird congestion thing.
