I am a 50 year old male with intermittent/ mild tinnitus and slight fullness in my right ear since January.. With the death of my father on May 6, 2016 the condition got worse. I have tried Zyrtec, neomycin ear drops, amoxicillin at first. I woke up one morning and I suddenly developed a sensation of fullness in my R ear and ringing. ( low pitched roaring sound).Nothing that preceded it as far as I can tell. No colds or infections or anything. There was no vertigo. I am able to pop my ears, but there is no relief. My hearing doesn't seem to be affected, although the sound of my own voice has a strange echo-quality to it on that side of my head. Even my own voice sounds muffled. It's autophony (the loud, echo-ey hearing yourself speak). It feels like when you go to a concert or when you go on a airplane. I could hear myself talking or hear an echo. Outside noise is amplified and it would make me hear drumming sound in my ear. Insomnia because of ear. I began to develop a real sensitivity to sharp loud noises, crowds, restaurants, dishes clanking, etc. I also noticed that any kind of pressure applied to the ear canal or pushing in the ear canal with my finger resulted in a very odd feeling along with occasional sharp pain deep within the ear I know when it is coming now because i would feel 'flutter' like having an insect in the ear, or give a feeling of drawing the eardrum inwards (which it does!) I have tired Ginkgo biloba, Vit E, warm compression on the ear, sleep on the L ear. Lipo Flavonoid Plus or lemon Bioflavonoid I have placed myself on a low salt diet. Saw 2 ENT had blood work done..normal MRI done normal. I took two short round of prednisone I then saw a 3rd MRI who is also a Neurotologist. He placed me on diuretic and then given me a cortisione shot in my ear. Now the pressure and ringing fluctuate fast. I would get the ring and fullness and by the end of the day ..it would be less...still there but less. The pressure is better and so is the ringing. But here is the question. I would get better and as soon as I go to sleep and wake up the next day...the pressure would come right back. Not the ENT is giving me a good answer.
I have coclear hydrops. I had these symptom as well as a few more. The autophony was one of the worst. What worked for me particularly the autophony and distortion and roaring tinnitus, was antivirals. You can read a lot about that on this board. I started with acyclovir and within a month got a lot of relief, but not complete relief. I started with acyclovir because that is what my family dr knew about. If you take acyclovir, make sure to spread it out across the who,d day in five doses. If you take valtrex or famvir you do not need so many doses. I am sorry, i have forgotten the dosage amounts for acyclovir but it is a prety hefty dose and you need to keep it up for a month at least. Improvement comes very gradually. These symptoms can be very hard tomlive with somif they work for you, hey are a life saver, i know. They do not work for everyone but your symptoms are very close to mine. Work with your family dr or ent to give this a shot. There is no test to see if a virus is the culprit in your case other than seeing whether it is responsive to antivirals. They are less dangerous thn most of the thi gs doctors routinely prescribe for cochlear hydrops as long as you dont have any kidney issues i think. I had some wierd symptoms at night and also some variation with weather and what not. I dont know all the answers but the inner ear is highly sensitive to pressure, weather changes and other things. Cochlear hydrops can progress to classic menieres with vertigo. If you can nip it in the bud you do yourself a favor.
And if you see *any* improvement during that time, continue for three more months. It was one step forward and two back for me. The other thing that helped me was allergy treatment. That is much slower. The antivirals were really ffective with the distortion and tinnitus in my case. I was treated by my family dr and also dr derebery at house ear clinic in LA.
The best approach is to discover what is creating these symptoms in the first place and eliminating them or at least lessening what you can't eliminate. I was just like you especially my first couple of years with the same symptoms. I had those symptoms for about 6 months steady before the vertigo attacks kicked in and I actually slowly went deaf in my bad ear. Experimenting with what was in my environment that could have been affecting me so badly took time but was worth it. The changes I made to eliminate the offenders made a huge difference, I even got my hearing back even though it had been gone for 3 months. Tinnitus eased up, it never went away but is mostly ignorable, and the pressure went away unless I was exposed to an offender (environmental or food products and additives). My worst symptoms came on at night. My house was always very clean, I thought, but I learned that dustmites thrive in clean households in bedding and pillows, carpet and in the dust under my furniture. I significantly reduced their impact on me in those areas. It was becoming evident that fragrances and chemicals were making me sick, I stopped using scented laundry detergent and stopped using fabric softeners so the bedding became fragrance-free and chemical-free. (think of how many hours we spend with our faces smothered in that stuff) No plants allowed in the house any more, mold spores live in the dirt. And.... I have to sleep with my upper body somewhat elevated, even a 20 minute nap laying flat will make me feel like crap. Experiment. It takes time but it's worth it.