Rob, did they do any balance or vertigo assessments?
Good luck with prednisone. It's been a life saver when I've had to take it but it's not something I'll take unless I have to. Ugh.
About one month ago while squatting my right ear starting ringing suddenly and noticeably when I hit the hole of my third rep of my first set of 5x5. I shrugged it off as not performing the Valsalva properly and completed my training for the day. After a week ringing did not subside. Went to a walk in clinic to have them check to see if there was any excessive ear wax or any perforation to the ear drum or damage to the ear bones before scheduling an appointment with ENT. Clinic found nothing unusual and recommended I see ENT ASAP. Also gave me a tapering dose of Prednisone to see if inflammation could be to blame. No noticeable improvement. On first visit to ENT again nothing found during the ear exam or physical exam. Gave me some Flonase to see if that has any impact while scheduling me for a hearing exam. No improvement with nasal spray. Had hearing exam and some hearing lose was noted at two higher pitches in problem ear. Diagnoses was ringing is due to the hearing lose in that ear. I was skeptical and pushed to treat this as a sudden hearing loss case just to make sure there are no other underlying causes here that we don’t check. Doc agreed to treat it that way for now. Prescribed a higher dose / longer Prednisone taper starting at 60 mg and scheduled an MRI which will be done in about a week. Just wanted to see if anyone has dealt with this or heard of this happening. If all comes back clean and this is just the new normal than so be it but I would rather have the sinuses, jaw, etc. checked to be sure instead of just walking away with what feels like a get me out of the office fast diagnoses.
Additional notes: no pain at all. No cold Or flu like symptoms leading in or afterwards. No sudden pop or anything when it started maybe just a little pressure. I chew gum frequently. I quit tobacco use over a year and half ago and this helps me cope and stay sane.
Some stats on me:
Male
41
5’6”
175 lbs
Squat: 465
Bench: 390
Press: 210
Deadlift: 525
Sumo deadlift (for powerlifting) 610
Thanks!
Rob, did they do any balance or vertigo assessments?
Good luck with prednisone. It's been a life saver when I've had to take it but it's not something I'll take unless I have to. Ugh.
I have a mild tinnitus and some high-end hearing loss. It’s pretty much the same in both ears. Sometimes when I squat heavy I hear a distortion in ambient sound (like a “flange” effect if you know what that is) and my tinnitus seems a bit works. It resolves immediately after the squat.
If you have asymmetric hearing impairment, you may notice asymmetric weird auditory symptoms during heavy lifts. I believe it is due to transient increased intrathoracic pressure (Valsalva) that has a downstream effect on intracranial pressure. If it’s that, nothing to worry about.
Because yours is unilateral or at least asymmetric, good idea to get it checked to rule out local structural causes like an acoustic neuroma. Unlikely, but you want to know about it if you have one.
Tinnitus can just happen. I have it. One day in my early 50s my ear started to whine and it never stopped. It's pretty scary when this happens for no good reason and takes time to adjust. Sometimes it gets worse during heavy lifts, not certain why that is ? 40/50s seems to be about the time when for no good reason the things we took for granted start to play up. Doc said it might go away, thought it was something to do with vestibular something-or-other and gave me tablets for it-didn't help. I have migraines and its closely associated with aura, but there are lots of other causes.
Hi Matt,
No balance or vertigo assessments besides just asking if I had any issues with balance or dizziness which I do not. Thanks for the well wishes! I have taken prednisone on a few occasions and have had no negative side effects to deal with so fingers crossed the high dose taper goes the same way
Thanks Nockian! Yeah, that’s what the ENT said. I was a little skeptical given that it went from nothing to ringing just out of the blue at the bottom of a heavy squat. But after seeing that this is more common than I thought I can live with it if it’s the new normal from here on out. Might as well have the deep look at the sinuses and jaw just to be sure because of the asymmetrical nature of the issue. If all come back clean than oh well. If that’s all I got wrong then I’m doing alright
Follow up question Nockian,, Dr JFSullly or anyone else that has mild hearing loss or Tinnitus: Do you notice any specific pitches are distorted like a blown speaker kind of distortion? Since my issue stated, in the ringing ear when I listen to music or when I talk I notice some pitches of voice or notes sound distorted like it’s coming from a blown speaker.
I experienced some hearing loss as a teen due to a partially perforated eardrum (pressure wave from a hunting rifle that I was too close to without any ear protection). I experienced what you describe for several years. In fact I suspect that my auditory centers eventually filtered it out, although I still notice it once in a while in certain settings if I'm paying attention. Mostly in a large orchestra setting (although I don't find myself in that situation as much as I used to).