Ear Blockages as Roadblocks to Healing

My Recent Experiences with Temporary Hearing Loss

I have written before how the ears are an absolutely vital portal into the Nervous System, which can be used for calming, de-stressing, and hence healing:

The Ears as a Portal into the Nervous System

So if we lose hearing for some reason, this can block us off from sound based modalities that can otherwise help reduce our symptoms.

About a year ago, the hearing in my right ear started to go and then got worse over time. When the hearing went, I also started to get ringing in that ear. I tried lots of things, including fascia release around my ear, but couldn't improve the situation. I just hoped it was temporarily blocked in some way and not damaged by an infection. One specific concern was that I wouldn’t be getting the full effect of the sound based Brain Tap app which I listen to each morning for de-stressing.

The "Brain Tap" App for Symptom Reduction

A couple of weeks ago, my other ear started going the same way: distinct loss of hearing replaced with a constant ringing in my ear. With both ears now not working very well, anxiety about it being permanent damage, the constant ringing in both ears [which I actually think would have been continually activating stress modes of the Nervous System], this significantly impacted my mood. The physical discomfort of the blocked ear sensations started making me feel physically unwell. Inevitably, my other symptoms started to get worse due to the stress. It also seemed that even listening to the Brain Tap app on loud volume, the loss of some frequencies meant that I just couldn’t access the usual calming effect I get from this.

Yesterday, I had a visit from a lady who unblocks ears using a suction technique with a miniature vacuum cleaner like device. This is apparently a much safer method than the syringing method they used to use. She came with a miniature camera that she could insert into the ears and you can see it on her phone. She showed me that both ears were indeed blocked up by a black scab like build up of wax/shed skin. So she went ahead and removed it with the suction device, showing what she had removed.., Re-looking with the camera afterwards, I now had a clear view of my eardrums!

As soon as the main wax blocks were sucked out, it made a big difference. Everything sounded really loud all of a sudden, and also the ringing in the ears stopped. I could tell how much of an impact this had on my hearing from how very loud my TV was when I switched on it… it had been on volume level 52… I had to turn it down to level 16.

One downside is that it is now too noisy here at night, so I have to start wearing ear plugs at night again. The lady said it was OK to wear foam or silicone earplugs, but they also have a service where they make bespoke ear plugs moulded to your own ears, made for partners or snorers! I may invest in these.

Having said that, I woke up this morning feeling refreshed, whereas before I have been waking feeling groggy for weeks. So the blockages may well have been impacting on my quality of sleep too. It could also be that straining to listen to voices is very neurologically tiring.

Another tip the lady gave me was not to insert cotton buds far into your ears, as this just pushes the wax up against the eardrum and makes the situation worse [this was my experience too].

Because the ears and hearing are indeed such an important portal into the nervous system, if you have unexplained hearing loss or ringing in your ears, don’t suffer in silence. I would recommend seeing if you have a similar service locally. At least get the camera in the ears to rule out simple blockages.

I do now wonder how many people are walking around with partial or total blockages like this. I also wonder how many folks have just accepted hearing loss as inevitable decline without getting checked out?