Hearing My Heartbeat: Pulsatile Tinnitus Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe pulsatile tinnitus, a whooshing, thumping or tapping in the ear that beats with the heart. Many were first told it was tiredness, nerves, age, anxiety or their headphones. Contributors include a paramedic, a retired police officer, a dog groomer working beside force dryers, a flamenco teacher, a ship's cook, a pilot grounded until his doctors were satisfied, and a family doctor who used to tell patients it was usually nothing, from Leeds and Pune to Lagos, Nairobi, Guadalajara and Zurich. Writers describe what their tests turned up: a fistula repaired through the groin, raised pressure inside the head first spotted at a routine eye test, years of high blood pressure, a pouch on a vein, a sound that stops when the head turns, and whooshing that began with pregnancy, hard runs, a crash, COVID or new tablets for a skin problem. Treatments include a stent, surgery, hearing aids and tablets one woman could not tolerate, and one man explains why he said no to the surgeon. Daily life brings night shifts, newborn feeds and a first scan costing more than a bank manager's good week. Not every story resolves: some never got an answer and learned to live alongside the sound, with a counsellor, a fan by the bed or a spreadsheet finally abandoned.

Who it's for

For anyone who hears their pulse in one ear, people waiting on scans or weighing a procedure, and the partners and parents lying awake beside them in the quiet.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 278 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.