The role the ear plays in your MAV?

When my vertigo first started 5 years ago, the first 10 consultants I saw put it down to Labs or VN, an infection in the ear. Whilst it started during the coldest months of the year, I was never sick, never had pain in my ear or had any noticeable damage or problems with my ear(s) what so ever. All of the (limited) tests revealed my ears were normal. The only thing I noticed was tinnitus but I have always suffered from tinnitus and could this have been just because I started focussing on it more because of the consultants? My ears have always been particularly sensitive (before this). If my mum was chopping food in the next room it would make my ears spasm (as a child).

As far as my ears are concerned, I have tinnitus in both but can only hear it at night time when its dead silent. My right ear is worse than the left and also makes these strange crackling sounds. If I focus on it, its a pain but I found I can ignore it my training my brain to switch off (meditation has really helped with this).

I would love to hear other peoples ear stories or lack of – how many of you believe your ears weren’t obviously involved when your vertigo started and how many of you believe your ear(s) were involved?

I don’t know anything for sure (medically proven) - but am pretty sure that my ear is involved, something to do with pressure… Tinnitus is constant and fluctuating, but does not seem to correlate with ‘episodes’.

+1 for ears - I injured mine, so fairly straightforward (plus have had it confirmed by hearing tests & diagnosis).

Tinnitus btw, is only in my affected ear - I believe its a sign of pressure within the inner ear. Some level of tinnitus is natural, of course.

we could run a proper poll if you want to capture anonymous stats.

I think it would be really interesting, you are definitely onto something and I can see how your theory supports your experience. As I mentioned before, this time around I actually observed no difference in tinnitus but all the old symptoms were back as strong as ever, so by that definition, there is actually nothing obvious to suggest my ears are at play at all.

I don’t think my ears are involved in all this. I could be wrong though. They have bothered me here and there but no where near how my sinuses have. I’d get sinus pressure and throbbing and sometimes even congestion that would accompany or alternate with vertigo attacks. Leading up to this I was getting migraine auras without head pain. They think my brain continued into more of a migraine state from there. It makes sense. My biggest complaint is the vertigo, then sinus symptoms, then visual disturbances, and then ear symptoms that don’t happen that frequently.

I also get sinus pressure on the bridge of my nose, the same pressure i feel around the back of my head and seems to run down my spine and to my feet, very strange.