Can hear blood pulsing in my left ear

I'm a 37 year old female, I've been having troubles for a couple years now with headaches.  They start on the left side of my upper neck, directly behind my ear.  They progress around the front to my left eye.  The pain gets to the point where if feels like someone is stabbing a hot knife in my eye.  The pain in my neck is where is seems to radiate from and it feels like I have a knot on the side of my neck; the pain is always there, just different degrees of pain from manageable to unmanageable.  Recently I've noticed a new symptom accompanying my headaches, I can hear the blood pulsing in my ear, whoosh whoosh whoosh in time with my heartbeat.  I also get blurred vision in my left eye and tingling in my left arm, leg and foot.  These symptoms can go on for days and sometimes a month and seem to get worse around my period.  I've had an MRI done on my neck and the doctor said all looked good.  I do have HBP that is managed with Altace.  I'm concerned about a possible partial blockage of the corotid artery or mini-strokes.  Does anyone have an answer for this?  Or is it just a really bad case of chronic tension headaches?

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. MS is a chronic demyelinating disorder where the disease phase is characterized by active phase and remissions. It has multiple symptoms and signs and is a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not. Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI in addition, a spinal tap. You also need to be checked for small vessel ischemic disease, cerebral ischemia etc for these MRI lesions. Therefore, it would be prudent to consult your neurologist with these concerns. Hope this helps. Take care.

[vixxey]

Thanks for responding.  I have been checked for MS and results were negative, there were about 3 different tests done.  I was thinking more along the lines of Cervical facet syndrome, as these symptoms started after an MVA.  I will rediscuss with my family doctor about going back the the neurologist, although considering my last results, I'd doubt if he'd see me again for the same symptoms!