Meniere's or something else?

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on this forum for a while and I'm glad to be able to share our experiences and find answers. Here's my back story.

Summer 2020, I had a bad head cold with bad cough (not covid). After 2-3 weeks of coughing, I had one really bad cough and my hearing went all weird. Fullness, ringing, and it basically sounded like my ear was infected. But there was another symptom that was odd. When I would walk or especially run or walk, a loud thumping sound would happen in that ear. Like a drum that would sound off right when my feet would hit the ground. If I continued this movement, I would get dizzy. After about a week this went away.

Dr just chalked it up to an inner ear infection. Then one day a month or so later this condition came back out of nowhere. Once again, exacerbated by exercise or straining. ENT visit. Sent to do CT angiogram to rule out aneurysm. That was ruled out. Also ruled out was SSCD with temporal CT. No answers. After about a week or 2 condition goes away.

A couple months later it comes back. Second ENT. Audiogram shows low frequency hearing loss. Diagnosed with MD, but they cant really explain why this occurs or is triggered by exercise, especially up and down movement.

That was a year ago and I still get have the same issues every couple of months. Recently it was a couple of sneezes that set it off. I take it easy for a couple days and it goes back to normal (with the exception of the hearing loss and tinnitus).

I've searched high and low for this condition and I can't figure it out. The only thing I can come up with is a possible Perilymph Fistula, or maybe a small aneurysm that wasn't picked up by the CT angiogram. I also wonder if it could be a hernia in one of the muscles near the middle ear thats affecting the area.

Anyone out there have these triggers? Any ideas on what this might be?

Thank you for reading my long post!

 

Thanks for the replys. My ENT did say it could be a perilymph fistula, but the only way to know would be to do exploration surgery on the ear. My symptoms can be kept at bay by not running or jumping (which is super weird). If it starts to affect me more often ill have the surgery to see if that's the case.

I've also had the theory that this could be caused by a musculoskeletal problem. Even maybe an issue effecting my tensor tympani muscle. I know the sound that muscle makes when it flexes. If you're ever wondering, you can put eye drops in your eye and sometimes right when the drop hits the eye it can cause that muscle to involuntarily flex. That's the exact sound my ear makes when mine flares up and it does it in step with walking. So weird.

I'm going to try cranial sacral massage tomorrow to see of that helps at all.