Hi all again hope everyone is good.
Going back to the problem of a thick head and pressure in ears. I’ve checked out a few posts on this but question is, is it common and does it ever go away?
I’m 11 months post now balance still bad (because of head problem?) Loss of peripheral vision but feel its improving slowly.
Take care everyone.
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Hi. I too have a thick head and what feels like blocked ears. I wear hearing aids which are good but I still feel as if I have something like a goldfish bowl covering my head and blocking out sound. My balance is ok except when I get tired which seems to be most of the time! My stroke was 16 months ago and nothing has really changed. Have spoken to my GP and a specialist stroke Dr but no one seems to have any answers.
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@Seeney i too often have a thick head & a pressure type feeling. I’ve never really had any answers either. I’m 2 1/4 yrs in & it has eased a bit but not much. I don’t really have pressure in my ears but do have horrid tinnitus & over sensitive hearing.
My balance is often off & I get a lot of dizziness. I’m off to see an ENT consultant in a few weeks to see if there is anything they can do but when I had a telephone consultation he seemed to think it is all stroke related although stroke consultant says different.
Not sure how common it is but there are a few of us who suffer & for those that I know of it has never really gone away but that’s not to say it won’t.
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Hi. Thanks for that. I too have bad tinnitus. Use earppods at night to drown it out. Went to doctor’s about thick head. He referred me to ENT specialist. Asked me a few questions made me turn around with my eyes closed and promptly discharged me. Guessing he couldn’t do anything about it.
Take care.
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Oh how disappointing for you. I hope my appointment is a bit more useful than that.
Take care x
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Hi Seeney-- I had that “head-in-a-vice- feeling” for a long time after my stroke. Every now and then it recurs for a day or so when I over-do or am tired and sometimes for no reason I can figure. (I’m 5 years post stroke)
One thing I noticed from your post is that you mentioned feeling “block ears” and balance not good, as well. What came to my mind was that you could be having some sort of ear problem along with your stroke recovery (allergies causing fluid in ears or?). Maybe it would help to see an Ear specialist to rule that out. Just a thought. 
Jeanne
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Hi. Thanks for that. Yeh went to see ENT doctor last month. Just said it takes time and discharged me. I went completely deaf in left ear after stroke. Its back to about 60%. Suffering with vision balance along with deafness is all part of stroke. I said how long will it to recover. He said how long is a piece of string. Thought that helps a lot.
Take care.
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Hi @Seeney
The general wisdom I would suggest in a non-scientific way and certainly non-medical is generally these sorts of symptoms do get reported as reducing or people to live with them better and timescales can be from several weeks (even days!) to a few years
How long it takes for any individual symptom to recover or if it will even recover isn’t something anyone can yet predict in an individual case.
none of the medics seem to recognise that giving the statistical likelihoods (best, worst, most common) would be a lot more useful and comforting than these “everybody’s different” type answers which just adds to frustration, isolation from understanding our new normal etc
It Does seem that there is a problem post stroke that we still go on a living in a body that doesn’t quite work right so can have physical malfunctions that account for the issues & we have a brain that is also working in fall back mode so neurological causes can impact too. .
Thus your ENT person probably knows little about your neurological state and your stroke team may not be quite so expert in other causes 
I guess a starting point is to say that most of these nuero- things respond slowly to exercises (or just with time) but identifying what might be helpful exercises w/ autonomic functions is a mystery.
Our energy and attitude towards being active is I think a factor in the recovery rate…So I guess a general shotgun approach is more active you can be more = more demands your placing on neurological processes so the more adaptations the brain processes that seek to economize will be spurred towards good plasticity. Inactivity definitely leads to bad plasticity.
Maybe we’re at a scientific epoch. We are no longer at the stage where “Stroke by the hand of god” is adequate explanation of what happened - we now know much better what happened but we do not know any better ‘what the consequences will be’ nor ‘what are the remedies’. that is knowledge & learning that lies in the future still
Ciao
Simon
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Cheers Simon. Informative as usual.
Thanks.
Take care.
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Hi Seeney
I am 18mths in and still have problems with pressure/thick head feeling. I find its made worse when i try to push myself too far. I am learning that if i have something i want or need to do, be it attending an appointment, doing a bit of washing or just spending an hour chatting to a friend, i have to plan it well with time to rest before and definitely after. I too head deafness in my left ear when it first happened. That only lasted a few weeks but i was left with a whooshing sound in the ear. I still get this on an evening when ive had a busy day. It does seem that it is a common issue.
I wish you all the best in your recovery. 
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Hi. Thanks for that. SNAP! yes i believe things get worse if you exert yourself. Today I’ve been in the garden doing some landscaping. Paying for it now ears ringing like mad. Trouble is i don’t want to stop doing things.
Take care.
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Hi. Seems like eyesight hearing and vision are all linked. We are useless without all 3 especially after a stroke. I use earpods in bed throughout the night to drown out tinnitus.
Had a sudden thought. Am I giving my brain too much to think about when it’s trying to repair?
Take care.
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Hi. I sometimes think Im overthinking the head thing and if I stopped worrying about it so much it might go away!! Maybe if I stopped worrying about everything it would help!!!
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