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Avatar universal

ear and head pressure

I am 20 years old and for the past four years have been experiencing what feels like water or fluid in my head and ears. It used to go away after a few months,but this year it has been 24/7.Lately it feels like I have fluid in my chest.When I turn my head to one side,I sometimes hear my heartbeat in my left ear.I always have to crack my neck because it helps loosen up the water in my head and ears.Sometimes I get this tremendous amount of pressure on the top of my head and it feels like the two hemispheres of my brain are pressing together.The only way to relieve the pressure is to keep moving my head from side to side or blow my nose.When I bend my head down I feel nauseous and I feel water moving on the side of my head.I hear cracking noises in my ears and head daily.I have been taking Paxil for 4 years and Tranxene for about 4 months due to anxiety issues.In 2002 I had a CAT Scan and it came back normal.Now 4 years later I experienced 2 vertigo spells and was referred to an ENT who saw nothing wrong in my ears or nose.He sent me to The National Institute for Balance and Dizziness which identified that I have no vestibular response in my ears but my hearing levels were normal.My ENT couldn't understand how that could be so he sent me to get a MRI of the brain with contrast.The only abnormality that showed up was an underlying mass in the pituitary gland.I then had a MRI of the pituitary gland and it showed a 0.5 x 0.5 benign cyst and minimal deviation of the pituitary stalk to the left of the midline.I went to an endocinologist who saw nothing else wrong.What should I do?
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Avatar universal
Thank you for all your advice. I went to another ENT today and he told me I have a thornwaldts cyst and I need to have surgery to remove it.
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Avatar universal
That waa exactly what I was goint to suggest, I too have been diagnosed with PTC and have recently had a LP Shunt placed and a do not have near as many problems as before. Hopefully with the help of a neorologist you can get the same releif!!!
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Avatar universal
Ok, so I have to tell you that my symptoms were very similar to yours before I was diagnosed with Pseudotumor Cerebri.  Please go see a Neurologist.
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Avatar universal
First of all keep in mind that I am unable to diagnose you since I am unable to examine you, and this forum is for strictly educational means. Many patients with vertigo become frusterated with the lack of an apparent diagnosis.  The difficulty arises because so many things can cause vertigo (by this I mean the sensation of movement when there is none, it can be room spinning, feeling like you are on a boat or other movements).  The most frequent causes of vertigo are by things that affect the vestibular apparatus (a series of tubes behing the ears).  These include labrynthitis (inner ear infection) and BPPV (benign positional vertigo-caused by calcium depsoits inside the vestibular apparatus).  Other causes of vertigo include strokes that affect the cerebellum/brainstem, which is sudden in onset and may be accompanied by other symptoms such as swallowing problems and paralysis.  Another cause of vertigo is migraine headaches.  Vertigo can be associated with auras (symptoms preceeding the headache) of headache and can also occur without actually having the pain of the headache.  Headaches associated with vertigo often turn out to have an origin in the neck.  It is difficult to say if your headache/vertigo/ear sensations is related to the pituitary cyst, but I do not think so.  The only thing I would suggest for that is to follow that levels of your hormones with your endocrinologist and yearly MRIs as needed to survey for growth.  Things that would likely to be helpful to someone with the symptoms you decribe would be MRI of Cervical spine, neck physical therapy by someone with knowledge of cervicogenic migraines (migraines coming from the neck). I would also suggest that you see and Neurologist that specializes in neuro-vestibular problems for more extensive testing.  I hope this has been helpfull.
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