Does your vision vibrate a bit?

That’s a good point about the pressure: definitely much less than in the doctors surgery using one of those almost dental sprayers. I just wonder if the angle of my head had closed my eustacian tube thus blocking pressure release. But doctors generally refuse to carry out that procedure now. The question is: why?

The usual cause of purely dizzy symptoms with a fistula is when you get a breach of the round window of the inner ear. Apparently 90% of these breaches heal spontaneously but hydrops can develop as a secondary condition as the leak temporarily messes up the inner ear pressure management.

I might add there is one other possible other culprit: stress. I was under an enormous amount of stress over this entire period. I started to notice I got dizzy momentarily when I became very stressed in the lead up to the full blown symptoms.

The ones that are like dental sprayers may have been discontinued because the stream is so fine that it probably hurt the patient more than doing the syringe method which is a fuller robust stream of water. I went to two audiologist to get the caloric testing done which came back normal however I noticed that one audiologist office used cold water and his office was older with older equipment, while the other audiologist who also found just above normal ear pressure in my right by the way, was using brand new equipment and all the latest technology. In his office he didn’t use the cold/hot water stream but instead used warm air to do the caloric testing. Now I question why was he using this rather than the cold pressured water? Maybe they realize there is some risk when cleaning the ears with water than not? I should ask him this question, because then my DR. could be liable for not even telling me this, if this was the cause of my constant imbalance.

Ok I understand now regarding the fistula in the round window, familiar with that part of the inner ear.

Did your stress come before the beginning of your symptoms or after?

Yes I’m very wary of syringing now, would always use olive oil drops now instead.

Stress was independent: work, relationship and grief from losing both parents in recent years. But yes the condition brought with it anxiety.

One significant feature is that ever since that first incident I’ve had the sensation of fluid in my ear the majority of mornings, as if it’s built up in the night. It’s obvious when I first stand up in the morning and can muffle my hearing for a few seconds, with an accompanying flutter and roar then clears. This sensation does not feature any vertigo. I wonder if this is indeed a collection of fluid in my middle ear and when I stand up it drains away. Could a fistula be responsible? Of course it could be in my inner ear but not sure how it would drain away so quickly in that case.

I’ve also heard a dripping sound more recently in my ear several nights and it has woken me up on rare occasions. Could this be a fistula healing and the dripping become more pronounced as the hole gets smaller? Wishful thinking its evidence of healing.

Other symptoms are I often get worse and pulsating tinnitus when I bend down or over. The baseline is a high pitched hiss like an old hifi or radio static.

Turnitaround sorry to hear you lost your parents…
Funny you mentioned fluid in your ears. I too just started feeling that about a week ago. That feeling is in both ears for me.

Thank you. Unfortunately that’s the cycle of life. Your fluid, is it trapped for a while, or just brief?

Feels very brief.

Interesting!

Yep I’m telling everyone close to me to not syringe, even ENTs don’t use syringe, they use a metal too to get in and clean it physically.

Sorry for your loss.

I did also have a lot of stress, anxiety and even panic attacks before this came on. The floor felt soft just like you described then it became more and more obvious and started feeling like I’m walking on a trampoline. I lost a friend as well during that time but had other stressors as well. Stress is very destructive no doubt but what it has to do with the ear, and it being damaged as a result of it I don’t know. Perhaps it has to do with constant stress causing a very acidic environment rather than alkaline so hence the damage. Or maybe a chemical imbalance in the brain. Not sure wish there was an answer to this.

Maybe it is the middle ear maybe not. The ENTs can place a grommet or a tube through the ear drum, would probably know that way as it probably would drain this way if it was fluid in the middle ear. If not then it’s the cochlea. Hopefully its a fistula healing. I don’t understand how we can send people off to space with pinpoint accuracy and yet we can’t figure out how to fix something in the inner ear. Not to mention have access to nanotechnology, I guess it’s all in who gets funded and all that jazz.

I get pulsatile tinnitus from time to time too when bending or getting up, thats the arteries in the ear causing that.

Thanks Zeal.

Yeah, exactly, I was shocked about the lack of knowledge and treatment options for the inner ear. Most of the surgical options seem to revolve around destruction! Fistula and SCD repair seem to be the only constructive treatments! They don’t even seem to be able to treat tumors without destroying the hearing on that side!

Pulsative tinnitus … my theory on that is that its loudest and most pulsative when the hydrops pressure is up … a good way to judge if your food has been too salty or your stress levels are too high? My tinnitus has actually got slightly less aggressive over time (9 months) so I feel as if any hydrops pressure might be slowly decreasing, although I have evenings when it goes crazy still occasionally. However, i used to be able to worsen my tinnitus by clenching my teeth, that no longer works.

Stress: my theory is this increases the pressure in the inner ear … in a healthy person this might help make the balance organ more acutely sensitive for fight or flight … if you have hydrops the stress exacerbates the problem. When you stress out about the imbalance condition you worsen your symptoms and it becomes a vicious cycle. This might explain why people get better on SSRI’s, even those with menieres. If you can cut out the stress, the inner ear pressure stays within reasonable bounds. So a reasonable goal for treatment could simply be: minimise stress and then let the body take care of the healing. This explains why some sufferers say getting over hydrops takes great patience.

Oh oh, this is really interesting. These articles discuss the role of otoconia in possible disfunction.

Hain:

"Several authors have pointed out that the plumbing in the inner ear is precarious at best, and that having loose crystals embedded in a gelatinous matrix could plug things up even more. Yamane et al (2014) suggested that Meniere’s disease is sometimes due to blockage of the duct reuniens by saccular debris.

Again, little is known about this. It seems plausible that one could develop hydrops after BPPV. We have encountered patients who complain of aural fullness together with BPPV, or after BPPV is treated. We have also encountered patients with hydrops on ECOG, after canalith repositioning. Overall, we think that this hydrops is an occasional complication of BPPV treatment."

http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/complications.html

Given my experience of an acute episode of vertigo lasting several weeks, followed by a delayed relapse, could the crystals be involved?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477891/

and:

http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/bppv/otoliths.html

Hello everyone,
I attempted to read the above posts and it’s very difficult for me to retain the written word. Apparently due to the print “jumping”. So, please forgive me if my reply is a bit scattered. With that said…whew…
I too usually feel stable upon awakening but not always. When I am having days of severe imbalance, straight out of bed I am dizzy.
What’s interesting is that the physicians that I have consulted with feel that a large percentage of Menieres cases are caused by the effects of long standing untreated migraine. As opposed to MAV being a result of menieres. Research does show that migraineous events can damage the inner ear.
I consulted at Johns Hopkins University.They have one of the finest vestibular labs here in the States. Lots of good solid research. They concur that I have MAV.
What’s interesting is that , I presented my abnormal bilateral ECOG testing for their review. They actually dismissed the findings. They told me that they rarely use ECOG testing as it is notoriously inaccurate and nonspecific.
So, do I have hydrops or not?
Now, my local neurotologist relies heavily on ECOG. So, he says No to Menieres but yes to Bilateral PLF and hydrops. Also yes to MAV but he feels it is often a “wastebasket” diagnoses. Keep in mind he is an old timer, but a smart guy!
Regarding stress causing exacerbation and possible issues with fluid abnormalities.
Yes, yes and yes! Let me share… I have a condition called central serous retinopathy. Excess fluid buildup in area behind retina. I am simplifying but you get the picture. BTW, Mine is bilateral. As are my hydrops diagnoses.
Let me confuse you a little more…I also have sub clinical Cushing’s syndrome. A disorder where the body produces way too much cortisol.
Cortisol is a stress hormone which is known to cause central serous retinopathy. A disorder of excess “fluid”
My theory us that my Cushing’s, an endocrine disorder plays a role in my dizzies as well. Excess fluid eyes and ears. My Doctors Disagree…go figure.
I’ve had surgery and it failed. My cortisol levels are still high.
If I haven’t lost your attention yet, I wonder if anyone else suffers any type of endocrine issue?

PLF surgery failed, NYGAL?

Have you considered SSRI’s to reduce stress levels?

One last question … in my ‘bad’ ear i’m showing only high frequency loss, but all hydrops examples seem to suggest that low frequency loss/fluctuation is the key indicator. I never get a fullness feeling, just slight pressure and fluctuating, sometimes pulsative tinnitus - do you think that would rule hydrops out, or can you have ‘atypical hydrops’?

Turnitaround,

No I did not have PLF surgery. I had an adrenalectomy for an adenoma on my adrenal gland that they thought was cortisol producing.
The excess cortisol in my case is not caused by stress . It’s caused by an endocrine issue. Although, I will say that all these medical issues cause me excess undue stress.
I too have high frequency sensoneural loss in my left ear which is the ear with tinnitus. We share odd findings…
Low frequency loss is usually seen in Menieres. Again, go figure.
Was your ECOG abnormal?

I really want to read this thread, but it’s so long and one of my triggers is staring at a computer screen too much. Maybe I’ll try coming back to it. Just wanted to say I too have episodes of oscillopsia. It happens to me when I’m walking down the street – feels like my vision is bouncing a bit. It is sort of like walking on a trampoline. It’s MUCH worse on days that I’m tired (which are like 1/4 of my days).

I have a vibrating vision in 2 ways.

  1. When I’m migraneous my eyes sometimes feel like they’re floating and it sometimes takes a while to focus on one spot. Goes away with the migraine.
  2. And when I’m moving (even when not migraneous) I have dynamic gaze instability. So even though I technically have 20:20 vision I have difficulty focusing on words, faces etc. if my head is moving. I’m doing some vestibular rehab exercises for this.