Worried about hearing symptoms after possible injury?
 

Hey all,

So I'm not sure if I have suffered a concussion from this recent event, however, I had some troubling symptoms, so I figure it would be best to see what you all think.

This happened last night. I have a lamp that's positioned in a way that you need to get onto the couch to turn it off and on. As I was going to bed, I stepped onto the couch to turn it off as I always do, however, when getting off I tripped in the dark. Luckily, I was able to land on my feet, however, because it all happened so fast, I landed hard without bending my knee much if at all, and I felt the force go through me.

Now I was worried about concussions, and this elevated my stress, but there was no immediate symptom. However, within 15 minutes, I began to hear a thumping sound in my ear, like it was trying to equalize pressure. However, it continued irregularly for over an hour, only lessening in frequency over time until I went to bed. Looking it up, I think that it was caused by a muscle twitching in my inner ear, but for what reason? I do not know.

Normally I wouldn't worry too long about the hard landing off the couch, however, because of this strange hearing symptom, I'm dwelling on the issue for much longer. The other thing I didn't mention is that at this point I was extremely sleep deprived, only having had 3 hours of sleep on the previous night. So from my way of looking at it, the ear symptoms could have been due to one of three things: a brain injury from the shock of the fall traveling through me, the stress and anxiety from the fall itself, or being sleep deprived. I think that the sound would boil down to being a persistent muscle twitch, so is it likely that the only symptom of a concussion is a muscle twitch? Does this sound like a possible brain injury?

No, this is not a brain injury.

This is a classic anxiety reaction. Your Blood Pressure elevated a bit so you could hear your heart beat. You keyed in on this sensation which made it appear even louder. Now, you have paid so much attention to this beat, you can't ignore it.

You need to find some serious distractions to occupy your mind for the next few days to break this cycle of thought.

Yeah, I fully intend on distracting myself with my studies and the gym to prevent the anxiety about the situation from growing. I'd really been doing well controlling it up until now.

The one thing is though, I dont think the beating was my heart beat. It was irregular, and wasnt consistent. Im pretty sure it was some sort of muscle twitching in my ear. But does that change your opinioin of if it were a true injury at all?

No, it was not an injury. I've had that sensation of hearing my heartbeat many times. It has never been consistent. The sound comes and goes and skips beats. Not a big deal.

Thanks for the response. There were no other symptoms such as headache or nausea, so I'll just try and forget about the event for now.