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I don't know if it is a muscle twiching around my head or what, but I keep hearing this irregular pulsing in my ear. It's so annoying and I don't know why or what to do about it.

o.O I've been having a similar problem for months now...I'll pray for ya.

Hm, it sounds a little like a fungal infection. My mom gets that every year, and it causes pulsing and eventually constant pressure and hearing loss (due to her ear drum being blocked by the growing fungus). She has to have it flushed out when it gets too big and she can't hear anymore. It's a rare condition, so not too many general practice doctors are familiar with it, but an ear, nose, and throat specialist should know what to look for and how to treat it, regardless of what it is. If it continues, I encourage you to go straight to one of those specialists. In the meantime, I'll pray for you both.

Is the pulsing constant? Sometimes when I am very still I feel my heartbeat in my ear. Might it be that?

I will pray.

Roll wrote:Hm, it sounds a little like a fungal infection. My mom gets that every year, and it causes pulsing and eventually constant pressure and hearing loss (due to her ear drum being blocked by the growing fungus). She has to have it flushed out when it gets too big and she can't hear anymore. It's a rare condition, so not too many general practice doctors are familiar with it, but an ear, nose, and throat specialist should know what to look for and how to treat it, regardless of what it is. If it continues, I encourage you to go straight to one of those specialists. In the meantime, I'll pray for you both.

No, no, no, before people get panicked!

You'll hear the pulse with *anything* that blocks the ear canal. (Think about the physics and the ear's anatomy. You have a significant artery near by with a pulse in it. If you have something blocking the canal and reflecting the sound waves back ...) In your mom's case, I'm sure that it was a fungal infection, but even just regular old ear wax will do it.

It should be looked at, but what your mom has is *not* the only cause. Most of the time it's a lot simpler.

You've got a point, shoob. I once had a hard time hearing out of one ear and that was because I had an accumulation of wax. Once found and removed, I could hear a whole lot better.

I'll still be praying .

It went away after dinner and was every 9 to 36 heart beats. Also, I was refering to specifically the left ear.

Sorry, didn't mean to freak anyone out! What I meant to say is, if you do go to a doctor, go straight to a specialist rather than a general practice, because the general ones never seem to know what's wrong when there are ear problems, wasting your time and money. But, in any event, glad it went away!

Roll wrote:Sorry, didn't mean to freak anyone out! What I meant to say is, if you do go to a doctor, go straight to a specialist rather than a general practice, because the general ones never seem to know what's wrong when there are ear problems, wasting your time and money. But, in any event, glad it went away!

Perhaps it's because *I'm* a family practise physician that I find this very insulting, but I do resent what you're implying. Yes, there are lazy and dumb general docs, just like there are lazy and dumb specialists, but there are also those of us who do try to keep up on a great many problems -- including, I might add, ear, nose and throat -- and know when we're dealing with something that doesn't make sense to us and will refer it on. Similarly, we're also competent enough when a problem really is that simple to deal with it.

I'm sorry that it sounds like your mom initially dealt with one of the less adept of my profession, but I resent the implication that we're all that bad. It's an attitude like this that explains why fewer and fewer medical students are going into primary care, because this is what we face out in the field.

Gak, I deeply apologize; insulting doctors wasn't my intention at all. What I meant was that complex ear problems are usually beyond the scope of the general practice, not that doctors are stupid. I'm really sorry! I honestly didn't mean to come across that way. It keeps coming out wrong! I don't have anything against doctors, honest! I'm sorry, geez, I feel bad. ;_;