This is confusing. I have been dealing with severe pressure and pain in my right cheek, eye, ear and temple for a long time now. I know to a near certainty that the source of my pain is my neck, and I can feel a ticklish, painful area near the middle that seems to play a big role in the pain, but I don’t know exactly what that area is called.
However, today I have had a minor breakthrough (?). I gave noticed how this area in my throat gets ‘activated’ or flexed when I talk, and when I made an effort to flex that area my pain was instantly recreated. I’m talking instant pressure in my face followed by eye pain. This leads me to believe that whatever things (very scientific, I know) are being recruited for talking, or are near those areas and are maybe getting rubbed against, are causing my pain.
I don’t know if this makes ES less likely to be a factor (am still waiting for CT scans), but can anyone weigh in on what else this might be?
One last thing: if it helps, a few years ago I was hospitalised with surgical emphysema, which means my stomach acid burned a hole in my esophagus. I used to be bulimic sadly, so I was throwing up an excessive amount and putting strain on my throat. This may have caused some relevant damage, I don’t know.
Talking never affected me too much, but I know quite a few members have found that it worsens their pain. We have quite a few members who are teachers and singers and have found that ES has affected their ability to work.
I guess maybe the other problems you’ve had could’ve caused inflammation in your neck. Pharyngeal trauma can be a cause of ES, but whether bulimia would count as that I don’t know.
Let’s hope that you get your results soon and know one way or another…
Thanks. I have also noticed that the painful areas throb or “pulse” with the rhythm of my heartbeat. Can this help narrow down what type of pain it is, and can it rule out other types (such as muscular, viral etc)?
Interesting question, but sorry, I don’t know! Sometimes if you get an infection (like I just had an infected thumb after a bee sting!) that can seem to throb, so maybe we can’t narrow down any throbbing pain…
But with pulsatile tinnitus, you can hear your heartbeat as a sort of whooshing noise, and this is a symptom which comes up quite a bit, and pressure/ throbbing in time with your pulse, feeling your pulse throb in your neck or head can be a symptom of pressure caused by vascular ES. I had that quite a bit, but the pulsing wasn’t painful, the pressure was.