Hearing heartbeat in right ear.

Hi all,

I was hoping that you may be able to provide some solace / advice.

For the past 8 months (on and off) I've been hearing a whooshing of my heart beat in my right ear and it is really frustrating and a cause of my constant worry and anxiety. It's not all the time, but is most apparent in the evenings, or if I'm lying / sitting in certain positions. I've seen the doctor about it and they've put me on decongestants, but don't seem to think it's anything to worry about. Unfortunately, I have committed the cardinal sin and googled my symptoms and have since convinced myself I have a brain tumor. I also suffer from anxiety so it's hard for me to separate the reality from my fears. The doctors seem to think there would be more sinister symptoms if the situation was more serious but I can't help thinking it's something scary :-(

Any sort of advice would be hugely appreciated.

Holly

You may just have fluid in your middle ear. I had that for an entire year (heartbeat was driving me crazy) and then it went away. The ENT wanted to cut my eardrum but I didn't like that idea. Have your regular doctor look in your ear and see if there's fluid.. maybe he didn't do that?? Do you also have tinnitus?
NY VEGGIE

Your symptoms match those of intracranial hypertension (also called pseudotumor cerebri).  Look it up.  Have your doctor dilate your eyes and check for papilledema.  The defining test is a lumbar puncture.  It's something to rule out.

Holly, I have exactly the same thing in the right ear and I am a migraine sufferer. I had an ultrasound of the carotid artery on the right and it showed nothing. Like Sunnie I was thinking along the lines of intracranial hypertension.

Ironically I had a lumbar puncture a few weeks ago after a very severe and sudden headache. Because I live in a small town, they said they did not have the technology to measure the pressure of the spinal fluid. I have had my eyes checked and no papilledema shows up. I am on a cancellation list for headache expert. She is so marvellous there is a 14 month wait.

The whooshing does not bother me. I know it is vascular because if I press my neck on the right it stops.

As for committing a cardinal sin, these message boards are where we get our best information!