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What is that ticking noise?

Thu, 08/18/2005 - 09:15
Every now and then, when it's quiet, I hear a "tick tick tick" in my ear. Such a light sound, in fact that if music was playing I wouldn't even hear it.When I say "light" - I mean LIGHT! It's not a loud ticking sound like a clock. It's like someone is taking their fingernail and flicking it. But much more lighter than that.It's not constant. It just happens in groups of 3 or 4 or so.WHAT IS THAT???I've only noticed it since I've been on the meds. Or maybe it's happened before that.Anyone familiar?Oh ya...And what about when you go deaf in one ear all of a sudden or it suddenly feels like everything sounds far away. Anyone hear of that?I've been recently diagnosed with Epilepsy 1 month ago.Any advice would be helpful! Thanks!

Comments

RE: What is that ticking noise?

Submitted by jackson3911 on Sun, 2005-08-21 - 22:49
Hi-  I also have "variable hearing" (that's what I call it)  Sound goes flat or far away, then rushes or oozes back,  or volume radically changes.  I get a "tick-tick" or "buzzing" now & again also.  I honestly do not think it is your meds-- (although I don't know what they are...)  I had this going on MUCH more often before meds.  A more likely explanation is that your meds are quieting a large portion of "brain-storm" (seizure activity) & has left this tell-tale tiny thing still going on that you didn't notice while the full storm was going on.   I have complex-partial/amydala-hippocampal seizures  and the hearing center is in close proximity to my seizure focus; my doc said this was why it was happening to me.   When I am concentrating very hard, I hear nothing-  stop what I'm doing & the clock ticking can send me out of the room!  Come back 10 minutes later, and I can't hear the clock-- very strange but true.  Someone mindlessly whistling can trigger a seizure, and if I can't get away fast enough it will "echo" for 10 minutes, even without an outward recognisiable seizure.   Has your doctor put a label on your epilepsy?  My meds now are Lamictal (200mg) & Trileptal (900mg) twice daily.............I'm back to work & seem to be doing well.   I don't know if this helped,  but you're not alone & no you're "nuts" or "imagining it".   It is part of living with epilepsy.  Good luck & take care. 

RE: RE: What is that ticking noise?

Submitted by Gretchin on Tue, 2005-08-23 - 08:53
Auditory Hallucinations - possibly. We have 5 senses. Smell, touch, taste, sight, hearing. All of these senses can have "hallucinations" of things we've experienced before. That's about as clinical as I can say, except I know I've had "hallucinations" of all senses. If these are experienced without further sz activity I've been told they're simple partials. If they secondize into more sz activity they're called an aura, on me anyway. For me auditory hallucinations rarely if ever secondize. Olfactory or smell hallucinations secondize frequently. I feel a short panic attack when I get those because I know I'm probably about to have a tonic seizure. Smelling coffee grounds helps dispell the smell hallucinations for me which I've posted before. I think it was Dayna who said that also helps her.Also Phenobarbitol, Dilantin, Klonopin combination just for me caused me to have really really crazy hallucinations of everything. I have very strong side effects to the AEDs. I've really never heard of anyone who had the strong hallucinations I had to this combination. It was the last one I tried and the last one I will. I went through 2 months of living hell hallucinating sheep herds in my bedroom, hearing my monitor talking to me and worse. But then again that's just me but I mention it to demonstrate how very strong our brains can be tickled into having these memories that seem so very real. The WORST night of this I bailed out of our RV in terror going about 35 mph and was injured. In the ER I was found to have a toxic Dilantin and Phenobarbitol levels too, tho. I was positive I saw people in our RV, which we were in, with hatchets. I could feel their body heat, smell them, SEE them, hear them murmering. That was about 4 years ago? I still have shivers thinking of that. What was so infuriating was that I KNEW what I was seeing, hearing, feeling and my husband continually smiled this infuriating "calm down" smile, refused to even look back into our RV and it was so darn real to me. I was sobbing hysterically for him to look, stop the RV, but you know - it was so darn real. HATCHETS. As it turns out there was an emergency hatchet next to my seat which probably caused that hallucination. I actually started wondering if he was in cahoots with these weird people jammed in our RV! So I bailed. Bounced on the curb, twice on the sidewalk. I remember in the ER embracing my neuro when he said it's the med combo and you're toxic - NOT crazy!On hearing I'll get a sudden "deadness" in one ear, a high pitch almost painful ringing (momentarily), I have distinctly heard my husband's voice saying "Gretchen I'm home". I've heard a rifle discharge right behind my head and made me nearly jump out of my skin. Now on the rifle discharge I shoot quite a bit or have in my past so that's a familiar memory sound for me. I was pregnant the first time that happened and my doctor said my skull plates were probably "shifting" due to pregnancy. I thought that a little thin and asked him if he had ever heard of this before because it was really alarming. No, as it turns out he hadn't. I hadn't been disagnosed with epilepsy at that time. For whatever reason that only happens just when I lay my head on the pillow. That does not make for a nice restful instant sleep!Before a tonic seizure I can get an aura where I feel like my own voice is in a barrel type effect. Sometimes I get this without the tonic seizure which then makes that barrel hearing or echo type hearing a simple partial. Or maybe it's like having a lot of water type sound in my ear. I find that most annoying.It seems to me my sensory hallucinations which are simple partials I'm told for me anyway, come in groups. I have been wildly bugged by overwhelming smells for a period of time, that stops eventually and I've tasted frequently a strong taste of copper penny which for me is often accompanied with a feeling I'm sucking on a 220 v wire on one side of my mouth too or very tingly lips (that's rather common for many), that stops and my hearing goes all funky frequently.I've also been told any of the senses hallucinations, maybe I should stick in "in general", since I'm no expert except for what I've experienced, read and been told by my doctor, are things you have to have experienced before. That doesn't explain all the weird hearing things to me totally.When there is a lot of white noise around me such as humming of wheels of the car on the highway, play by plays of football games a room away drive me batty, I'll hear very very distant music. The funny thing is I hear the words too, they're accurate and I can never remember the words to any songs normally. But I do when I'm "hallucinating" them. I have repeated this before and hope Dayna doesn't mind but her coined phrase of this hearing music very faintly in the ......whoops, had an absence. WIPE OUT! Oh well. Dayna says she's tuning in to KGOD. I always think of that now. I think that's so cute and descriptive.Before I was diagnosed, for years, I just thought I was nuts. I hate having epilepsy but on the sensory hallucinations? It was a near relief to know there was SOME reason a rifle would discharge behind me or I'd loudly and distinctly hear periodically in a totally empty house "Gretchen I'm home". I'm not nuts. I'm an epileptic.Gretchen

RE: What is that ticking noise?

Submitted by tibet2 on Tue, 2005-08-23 - 15:46
can you also feel it? i've had it intermittantly for the last 3 or 4 days and my nose just started running a few hours ago. i think it's an ear nose throat problem. i have small ear tubes and can't dive to the bottom of an 8 foot pool without pain. i often need to pop my ears when i go from sea level to 1,500 -2,000 ft - which is common where i live. that doesn't bother anyone else in the family and it doesn't always bother me. if i hear and feel the tapping once, it happens over several days. so i go with the fluid in the ear theory. once i got used to it, it was kind of cool in some ways. the family theory is that i have a small worm in my head and he has a small hammer.... family.... what are you going to do? gotta love their helpful comments ;-)

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