THUMPING IN MY EAR.......HERE IS WHAT THE SPECIALIST SAID IT WAS.

[CROOKEDSMILE]

I HAVE FACIAL PARALYSIS AND I STARTED GETTING THIS LOUD THUMPING SOUND IN MY EAR (HEARING IS FINE). I WENT TO THE NEUROLOGIST WHO ALSO SPECIALIZES IN HEARING AND BALANCE DISORDERS AND SHE SAID THAT THERE IS A MUSCLE CALLED THE STAPES INSIDE THE MIDDLE EAR. THIS MUSCLE IS CONTROLLED BY THE FACIAL NERVE. SHE SAID THAT AS THE FACIAL NERVE REGENERATES AND THE STAPES STARTS TO WAKE UP THAT IT WILL HAVE TINY MUSCLE SPASMS AND THAT IS WHAT IS CAUSING THIS NOISE. SHE SAID SHE COULD PUT ME ON CLONAZEPAM TO LESSEN THE FREQUENCY OF THE SPASMS BUT WITH FACIAL PARALYSIS FOR 7 MONTHS I DON'T CARE WHAT IS IN A SPASM AS LONG AS SOMETHING IS MOVING! THE NOISE IS LOUDER WHEN I TRY TO MOVE A MUSCLE IN MY FACE.

[nancyann]

Never had that either - so, a good thing for you?

[Nancy T]

I think this is called the STAPEDIUS muscle. It is attached (I think) to the bone called the STAPES.

The stapes is one of the three little bones (ossicles) in your middle ear that form the hearing chain between the eardrum (which separates the outer ear from the middle ear) and the oval window (which separates the middle from the inner ear).

Nancy T.

[CROOKEDSMILE]

YES YOU ARE RIGHT...........DUH. THANK YOU FOR CLARIFYING THIS. THE STAPEDIUS IS THE MUSCLE IN THE EAR.

[Soundy]

Last week the ENT said the new buzzes and rings in my ear are muscle tension and not
really tinnitus ...told me relax and it would go away... and told me to go back on clonazapam
which I came off of because even at low dose I was hung over feeling... so I will just listen to
it and maybe it will go away some day...it isn't as bad as the ringing that I have had since I
was four years old and actually now that I am used to it doesn't particularly bother me ..that
is what is scary ... the acceptance of it as normal now