Blocked eustachian tube, no infection, facial and arm nerve trouble

[Cactus girl]

For the last month, I've had a pain in the middle left of my head.  It feels like it is at the top of the back of my nose....if that makes sense.  After the first week, it seemed to migrate down a bit and I felt like I had a deep ear infection in my left ear.  Simulataneously, I noticed problems with a numbness/tinglyness/warmness or weird feeling in my left arm.  It seems weakened.

I'm no stranger to ear infections, as I had them occasionally as a child (I never had tubes, though) and I get them as an adult usually at the tail end of a cold/flu.  So this seemed out of place because I have not had any cold or flu.

I went to the ER back in the middle of October and was shocked when they told me my ear was NOT red.  It hurt so bad and felt so much like an ear infection, I was convinced it was.  They gave me Roxicet for the pain and sent me on my way.

After 4 days, the intenseness pretty much went away, but I still felt a "sensation" in the middle left of my head.  I had an MRI for my arm numbness and blurry vision (to rule out MS) and although they found asymmetry of a gyrus in front of the right occipital lobe and under the corpus callosum, two neurologists agreed that it is normal "anatomical variation" like if you have one foot slightly bigger than the other.  

Well, that sensation has intensified in the last week in my head and ear and added was a slightly painful sensation under my left eye to the side of my nose.  It feels like compression of the nerve in my face.   I am still having trouble with left arm feeling strange.  

It occured to me that maybe my eustachian tube was blocked.  I noticed I could not get my left ear to pop.

I went and got Sudafed and had a lot of relief for about 12 hours.  I took the maximum dosage and quickly noticed that although the medication was being taken regularly, all the symptoms returned and failed to be alleviated again.

It seems to me that I have more trouble with the symptoms the later in the day it gets.  I feel best in the morning.  (I do have an anxiety issue and wonder how much of this is actually physical and how much is psychological.).  

I can finally pop my left ear on occasion by plugging, blowing, and wiggling my jaw.  But it seems to close right back up and I feel the ear squeeze pain.  I still have that weird sensation in my head and my arm.  I can also still feel it under my eye, but that symptom is better.

I can't find anything anywhere about a blocked eustachian tube causing nerve problems other than the nerves in the face.  It just seems to me that after a month of dealing with these symptoms, that my arm issue is directly related to the pain in the middle of my head/ear.

What could all of this be???

I hope someone can help me.

[ember95]

According to an article from the American Journal of Neuroradiology ...
"several studies, {have shown} middle ear cholesteatomas present with the following clinical signs:
*Chronic discharge of the ear is present in 33%–67%, and some form of hearing loss, in 60%–87% of patients. Most patients present with mixed hearing loss, less frequently with sensorineural hearing loss or with a dead ear.

*Facial nerve paralysis occurs rarely with middle ear cholesteatomas but can be present in 20%–64% of extensive cholesteatoma cases ....

*Vertigo affects 30%–60% of the patients, whereas tinnitus, otalgia, and headache are less common manifestations."

[ember95]

If you're having trouble with your eustachian tube, then you're at risk for developing a cholesteatoma. A cholesteatoma usually occurs because of messed up eustachian tubes that don't function as well as they should. This is because the tube serves to take air from the back of the nose in the middle ear and then equalize ear pressure; but when the tubes don't work exactly right, (either just diminished clearing or not at all), like, say, due to inflamation caused by an allergy, well at that point the air in the middle ear is absorbed, which it is not designed to do. This makes a partial vacuum in the ear that ***** and stretches the eardrum, and that makes something kinda like a sack-shape of tissue. This happens a lot when people have areas of their ear tissue weakened by previous infections. This sack is what can become a cholesteatoma. Like I said before, the cholesteatoma can affect the middle ear, behind it, or the mastoid process, which is on the temporal bone and near the nerves that affect your face. It can even cause issues in the neck region, rarely, such as in this picture http://otologytextbook.com/BEZOLD%20ABSCESS.JPG

[ember95]

Have you ever been checked for cholesteatoma? It's skin cells that have built up in the ear, that is skin growth that occurs in an abnormal location mostly in the middle ear, behind the eardrum, or in the mastoid process next to the temporal bone, where the nerve for the face runs.

[Dan_in_LA]

I forgot to mention above, make sure it also has psuedoephedrine in the cold tablets, along with expectorant.

[Dan_in_LA]

I had and currently have the same symptoms.  My first pain is in my neck along side my throat.  It is very tender and gets worse as the day goes on.  The first time I had it, it radiated to my ear, but the main pain was in the neck.  I thought it was a sore throat yet it didn't hurt inside the throat but on the outside, where you would take your pulse.  I went to the doctor (about 2008) when the first event occurred and I was told the drain tube to my ear was inflamed and partially closed.  He prescribe OTC cold tablets with EXPECTORANT.  It has to have expectorant to open the tubes.  It took about 3 days to fully clear up taking the pills as prescribed on the box.  I have had it reoccur about 1/2 a dozen times since then and using the OTC cold tablets has always cleared it up, along with using swimmers drops in the ear to evaporate any water.  I usually get it from going to sleep with water in my ear (not knowing it).  So tonight I have it and I am at a fire station and cannot get pills until tomorrow so I went on the web to see if there were any other cures, and apparently there is not.  So I hope I help someone with the same problem.  And tomorrow off to a Rite Aid.

[Abdullah6666]

You slept one day in a cold weather and your body couldn't take it. Now what you need to do is get a gel to warm your body and take it before sleeping for many days plus antibiotics and tell me what happens.