r/PatulousTubes

I thought I had Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD), but now I’m honestly not sure.

I’ve had constant ear fullness/ pressure for months, along with crackling and popping pretty much every time I swallow.

I can hear my own breathing too, but it doesn’t sound unusually loud or amplified. This is the part that confuses me when I read about patulous ETD. Isn’t it normal to hear your own breathing to some extent? Everyone I’ve asked who has normal ears says they can hear theirs too.

I’ve also tried lying down and putting my head between my knees, since I’ve read that patulous ETD often improves in those positions, but it makes absolutely no difference for me. The pressure/fullness stays exactly the same.

At this point I’m just trying to figure out what kind of ETD I could have, or if this is even ETD at all.

Has anyone experienced constant ear fullness and crackling/popping with every swallow without having obvious hearing loss or unusually loud breathing?

So unfortunately I have 24/7 PET caused by a balloon dilation. I tried months of Patulend, filler surgery that extruded, and my shim is currently falling out 😭 My doctor said my choices for further treatment are a larger shim or a cartilage graft with a nasopharyngeal approach (through the nose not ear). I’d love to hear some experiences with the cartilage graft and the recovery process. Good and bad. This last year and a half has been so hard and I really hope I can finally have some long lasting improvement.

I recently began tracking my PET symptoms vs barometric pressure fluctuations after noticing it gets worse in the days/hours before large storm systems, and I have a definite correlation of increased PET episodes (frequency, duration, severity) as atmospheric pressure drops (esp if it dips below 1000 mbar).

I searched the sub for both "barometric pressure" and "atmospheric pressure" but didn't find much discussion on this subject, so I thought I'd ask if anyone else experiences this correlation.

1 year ago I started hearing my heartbeat nonstop and then came a feeling of ear pressure, popping and also hearing my tendons around my ears pop loudly. I noticed that if I'm going up stairs, or lifting something and my breathing becomes more heavy, then i hear the breathing in the same ear but that part is not all day long like the others. What I noticed from the beginning is that is is positional and I feel best when laying. Once my feet hit the floor in the morning, I hear my heartbeat and the clogged feeling comes back. When I swallow I hear crackling and it also feels like when I eat or drink it puts pressure on my ear drum.

I went to ENT and they did a brian mri, mra, mrv, ct temporal bone and an inner ear mri and nothing has been found. They also put a scope down my nose and looked at my tubes and that is also clear. Looked in my ear at my drums and had me breathe while holding a nostril shut and said that is fine, also no fluid in ear. Hearing test was clear as well.

Other symptoms I have is ear fluttering/tapping/rumbling sounds in both ears at times and I have muscle twitching on both sides around my ears on my scalp.

Also notice the more my heart rate goes up, the more my ear feels clogged and more my ear pops.

Idk what to do anymore. All of my symptoms started after a epidural steroid injection in my lumbar and I thought I had a csf leak but I have done 2 blood patches in that area and that didn't help my problem.