Hi I am new to this forum and the TMS concept and I feel grateful that I have found this place to see some light.
I entered a dark loop about 2 months ago. I am in my late 30s and have a family with 2 kids(10 and 6) and a good job. Due to the pandemic, I've been working from home with kids doing remote school from home since last spring. That had definitely given me some pressure but by this spring when my symptoms started I thought I've got used to the routine already. I've been doing fitness group training with a group of ladies that I quite enjoy and increased my activity level tremendously since last November. Meanwhile, I've been following a low carb diet and doing 16/8 intermittent fasting. I felt quite happy about my life.
Until one day in April I felt there is a lump on my neck. I got an appointment with my family doctor within the same week. I am in Canada and during Covid all doctor appointments are provided over phone call only so the doctor cannot do any actual examination. He said it might be a small tumor or something and ordered an ultrasound for me. I felt quite healthy physically but the lump scared me once I started googling about it. Had the ultrasound done the following week, but here in Canada the medical system was so slow that another week later I got a call from doctor's assistant to schedule an appointment to go over the results in another 2 weeks, so 2 weeks after the exam I still didn't know what it was. 2 days later when I was reading the bedtime story to my son, I noticed there was some white noise going in my ear or head. Next day at work I find that noise quite disturbing so went on youtube to search for some background music. I found some good therapy music but unfortunately, I also went on to read the comments and saw many people suffering tinnitus for years and realized there was no easy cure. I was totally freaked out and scheduled an appointment with my family doctor asap. During the phone appointment, the doctor didn't seem to feel my suffering, all he asked was "Do you have hearing loss?" and asked me to book a hearing test on my own as it's not covered by the public health care system. Not sure about other countries but in Canada, any medical appointment is in the term of weeks if you're lucky. So I called to get a hearing test booked in the following week, and meanwhile, I flipped my lifestyle greatly doubting that's to blame. I stopped exercise worrying that might have put too much stress on my neck which triggered the ear issue, stopped drinking coffee, which was a big fun of my life, and stopped intermittent fasting. I was searching crazily online about tinnitus, trying different techniques on Youtube, but only to see my problem getting worse. It went from only noticeable in a quiet environment to high-pitched 24/7, from only my right ear to both ears. And I constantly feel the clogging sensation in my ears. To my "disappointment", the hearing test find my ears quite normal, no hearing loss or ear infection. My doctor prescribed nasal spray and allergy drugs for me, not helping. A month later I got a head MRI, which was my big hope of finding out the cause, but the result came back normal.
So nothing wrong with all the tests I've done, but I started to have more and more symptoms. Every week I wish I could go back to the week before. Here is a list of my symptoms in the order of they appeared:
Ears ringing
Ear fullness
Occasional numbness in scalp, foot and tongue
Lots of tension headache, the whole head is so tight that even swallowing is not easy
TMJ (1 month after my ear issue started, I suddenly found I cannot open my month big and my bites are weird)
Pain in face and ears, sometimes like big pressure pressing sometimes like someone pulling from different directions
Burning/cold sensation on lips
...
I'm about 2 months in this endless loop now and don't see the way out. I've been acupuncture, chiropractic and massage, nothing helped. By now tinnitus is no longer bothering me that much as I've got used to it, but the pain in the ear and face, and the headaches are greatly impacting my work, daily life and sleep.
I have an appointment with TMJ specialist for assessment in August, and on a 12 month waiting list (ridiculous right) to see the ENT specialist .
I came across the concept of TMS 2 days ago, but feel like a textbook example. Am I having TMS? Anyone has similar symptoms and recovered?
I entered a dark loop about 2 months ago. I am in my late 30s and have a family with 2 kids(10 and 6) and a good job. Due to the pandemic, I've been working from home with kids doing remote school from home since last spring. That had definitely given me some pressure but by this spring when my symptoms started I thought I've got used to the routine already. I've been doing fitness group training with a group of ladies that I quite enjoy and increased my activity level tremendously since last November. Meanwhile, I've been following a low carb diet and doing 16/8 intermittent fasting. I felt quite happy about my life.
Until one day in April I felt there is a lump on my neck. I got an appointment with my family doctor within the same week. I am in Canada and during Covid all doctor appointments are provided over phone call only so the doctor cannot do any actual examination. He said it might be a small tumor or something and ordered an ultrasound for me. I felt quite healthy physically but the lump scared me once I started googling about it. Had the ultrasound done the following week, but here in Canada the medical system was so slow that another week later I got a call from doctor's assistant to schedule an appointment to go over the results in another 2 weeks, so 2 weeks after the exam I still didn't know what it was. 2 days later when I was reading the bedtime story to my son, I noticed there was some white noise going in my ear or head. Next day at work I find that noise quite disturbing so went on youtube to search for some background music. I found some good therapy music but unfortunately, I also went on to read the comments and saw many people suffering tinnitus for years and realized there was no easy cure. I was totally freaked out and scheduled an appointment with my family doctor asap. During the phone appointment, the doctor didn't seem to feel my suffering, all he asked was "Do you have hearing loss?" and asked me to book a hearing test on my own as it's not covered by the public health care system. Not sure about other countries but in Canada, any medical appointment is in the term of weeks if you're lucky. So I called to get a hearing test booked in the following week, and meanwhile, I flipped my lifestyle greatly doubting that's to blame. I stopped exercise worrying that might have put too much stress on my neck which triggered the ear issue, stopped drinking coffee, which was a big fun of my life, and stopped intermittent fasting. I was searching crazily online about tinnitus, trying different techniques on Youtube, but only to see my problem getting worse. It went from only noticeable in a quiet environment to high-pitched 24/7, from only my right ear to both ears. And I constantly feel the clogging sensation in my ears. To my "disappointment", the hearing test find my ears quite normal, no hearing loss or ear infection. My doctor prescribed nasal spray and allergy drugs for me, not helping. A month later I got a head MRI, which was my big hope of finding out the cause, but the result came back normal.
So nothing wrong with all the tests I've done, but I started to have more and more symptoms. Every week I wish I could go back to the week before. Here is a list of my symptoms in the order of they appeared:
Ears ringing
Ear fullness
Occasional numbness in scalp, foot and tongue
Lots of tension headache, the whole head is so tight that even swallowing is not easy
TMJ (1 month after my ear issue started, I suddenly found I cannot open my month big and my bites are weird)
Pain in face and ears, sometimes like big pressure pressing sometimes like someone pulling from different directions
Burning/cold sensation on lips
...
I'm about 2 months in this endless loop now and don't see the way out. I've been acupuncture, chiropractic and massage, nothing helped. By now tinnitus is no longer bothering me that much as I've got used to it, but the pain in the ear and face, and the headaches are greatly impacting my work, daily life and sleep.
I have an appointment with TMJ specialist for assessment in August, and on a 12 month waiting list (ridiculous right) to see the ENT specialist .
I came across the concept of TMS 2 days ago, but feel like a textbook example. Am I having TMS? Anyone has similar symptoms and recovered?
