Hello all,

I hope I can get some info from you folks here. I woke up this past
tues and while lying in bed I heard what I thought was someone
hammering something hard/metallic in the far distance. It was very
faint and didn't think anything of it other than who the hell is crazy
enough to get up at 5:30am and start hammering away.

Then the next morning I woke and heard it again. Strange I thought. I
got up and looked out the window to see who it was. Nothing. So it was
then that I realized that I might be hearing it in my head. I took my
earplugs and put them in and sure enough there it was. Very faint
hammering. And I have it all the time and only in my right ear. I
don't hear it unless it's very quiet like in the morning or if I put
the earplugs in.

I looked up "ringing in the ears" and came across pulative tinnitus.
It said that the noises coincide with the heartbeats. So I put on my
earplugs again and sure enough it was my heartheat I am hearing. After
some further reading about it none of the caused sounded very good so
I called and made an appointment to see my doctor.

I told him the above and he looked in my ears and down my throat and
and closed each nostril and asked me to breath. He said one of my
nostrils sounds slightly congested and said it was eustachian tube
dysfuntion" and gave me Nasonex to use for 2 weeks. He then wrote
"eustachian tube dysfunction" on a paper and said to look it up on the
internet if I wanted info on it.

When I got home I looked it up and I don't have any of the things
associated with eustachian tube dysfunction like pain, fluid in the
ear, reduced hearing. Nothing other than that hammering sound and the
slightly congested LEFT nostril.

I decided to call my doc back today and tell him about what I read and
that I didn't seem to have any symptoms of eustachian tube dysfunction
and he said to keep doing the Nasonex and see what happens. If it
doesn't go away we can always see a specialist.

Now that I know it's in my head and not outside I now recall about
maybe 3-4 time in the past 6mo or so lying down and watching tv and
all of a sudden hearing the hammering in the distance but it must have
been louder for me to hear it above the tv. And it only lasted a
little while. Maybe 30 sec. So I may have been having this problem for
a while now and only now realize it.

Ok, has anyone had a situation like this with the hammering sound of
the heart in one ear? And does it sound like eustachian tube
dysfunction? Some of the other things that might be causing this don't
sound too good.

Sorry it's so LONG but I wanted to provide as much as possible and
thanks for any feedback.

Scott