Hi. What you have is called as tinnitus. Tinnitus is a condition where you constantly hear a sound within your ears (swishing or ringing or echoic) when there are actually no external stimuli. This happens because the auditory nerve is injured and it is misfiring signals even though there is no real sound and making you hear an abnormal sound. In your case, since you are 68 years old, your auditory nerves are aging and in my opinion the most logical reason for your symptoms. Now, tinnitus can be a very annoying condition and I completely empathize with your frustration to deal with the situation. There are many causes of tinnitus and the treatment can be variable, sometimes even difficult but unfortunately the reasons to why this occurs and how can it be cured is still poorly understood. There are some treatable causes of tinnitus, such as due to the blockage of the Eustachian Tube (ET) or sometimes earwax and these would present with ear fullness. The ET tube connects between the back of the nose and the middle compartment of the ear between the eardrum and the cochlea. The purpose of the ET is to equalize the pressure within the ear to the atmospheric pressure. Many times allergies, secretions, mucus and sometimes swellings in the back of the nasal cavity due to adult adenoids or inferior turbinate enlargement can block this tube. This results in negative pressure in the middle ear and irritates the auditory nerve to cause tinnitus. I would recommend that you visit your ENT specialist and have him look for these causes too since they can be easily treatable.However a ET dysfunction for 15 months is rather unlikely. Other causes include vitamin B 12 deficiency that could have made the nerve weak and susceptible to noise injury or recent exposure to excessively loud noise can cause nerve damage and tinnitus. Also some medications such as anti-inflammatory drugs and some antibiotics (aminoglycosides) and some naturally occurring ototoxic material in food can also precipitate nerve damage and tinnitus. In rare occasions it can be something in your brain pressing on the auditory nerve pathway (MRI to rule out). The treatment involves oral antioxidants (avoid if planning pregnancy), Vitamin B12 capsules and the use of white noise maskers during sleep. There are also some hearing aids available in the market that can help mask your tinnitus with white noise and help you defocus your attention from the tinnitus and also improve your hearing. It is common that tinnitus worsens when you think about it too much even though it is hard to avoid. Also please note that it is important to avoid noise exposure and use ear plugs in noisy environments and check any ongoing medications for potential ototoxicity. I will be happy to help you further if you can share with me your pure tone audiometry findings and your ENT assessment on your ET function. Hope you recover from this terribly annoying condition at the earliest.