I'm going to have surgery on the 19th to fix a hole in my eardrum. Basically, they are going to make a big ass incision behind my right ear and do a skin graft to close the hole. I thought I'd share the events leading up to this. About 2 months ago I got sick and had a lot of nasal congestion. I first noticed it on a Monday. That Wednesday I woke up with a sharp pain in my right ear. To date, it's the most pain I've ever been in. I literally couldn't move because I was in so much pain. The pressure from the congestion was enough to cause a perforation in my eardrum. I didn't know this at the time. My eardrums have always been fragile. I couldn't hear as an infant and had tubes put in to correct the problem. The first time I flew in an airplane I was in a lot of pain because of the pressure on my ears. I can swim but can't go underwater. I've perforated my eardrum twice (right one both times) in swimming pools. The first time was playing a game called "shark" which is basically underwater tag. The second time was simply from sinking to a normal depth after jumping from a 10 meter diving board. I went to my family doctor and he totally missed the perforation and said I just had an ear infection which I also had. He gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and some eardrops. Well, the eardrops aren't supposed to be used if you have a perforated eardrum. One of the side effects after prolonged use is hearing loss. My hearing was impaired from being sick already because my ears were clogged. With the infection, I had a lot of draining out of my ear and it was like my right ear was under water. Over the next week or so my infection went away. But my hearing never fully recovered. Remember, I didn't know I had a perforation at this time. So I go back to my family doctor. He looks at it (still missing the perforation) and says to give it a week. I do and nothing changes. So I make an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He finally sees the perforation. He said that they can be hard to see and family doctors often miss them. I had pressure tests and hearing tests perfomed. My right ear is still within a normal hearing range but it's noticibly not as good as my left. So he wanted to see if it would heal on it's own. I went back 3 weeks later and it didn't look like it's healing on its own. We gave it 2 more weeks and still no change. So I'm having surgery. The procedure is called a Tympanoplasty. It has an 80-90% success rate. It's an out patient procedure. I go in during the morning and am put under general anesthetic. They make an incesion behind the ear (almost the entire length of the ear) and then graft some skin over the perforation followed by some gelfoam to make sure it stays in place. Once it heals and the gelfoam is absorbed into the body (about 6 weeks) I should notice improvent in my hearing. It also takes also takes a couple of months for the incision to fully heal, especially since there won't be any stiches or anything. It should be routine but I'm a little nervous.
So you waited a week, to wait a week, to wait 3 weeks, to wait 2 weeks for surgery, then wait 6 weeks, and an extra 2 weeks. You are one waiting mug, aren't you. I have this ringing in my ears that they could never attach anything to. I hope it eventually passes, but I've kinda got used to listening to crickets. Now I answer them, because they're not so bad. I think they are very misunderstood. I sincerely wish you the best in your surgery.
Mark an "x" with a sharpie marker on the ear they are going to operate on. You don't want those wily doctors performing surgery on the wrong ear. Good luck.
This is the reason I don't have a "family doctor." Eitehr they miss something, or tell you to go to a specialist, which you could ahve done on your own and bypassed the first step. Of course, it helps that if I need some antibiotics for a bad cold, I can just call up a family member who is a doctor to get it called in. I'm sure the surgery will go fine.
Good luck, bro. Just in case the surgery fails though, SHOULD I TYPE LIKE THIS IN THE ASTROS GAME THREADS SO YOU CAN HEAR ME?
Good luck. I have had ear problems all my life, too. Tubes as an infant (constant ear infections). Two "busted" ear drums. Then, a cholesteotoma. What that last thing is, is a fatty tumor of the middle ear. It eats away at tissues in the ear, and if left untreated, can cause meningitis, or death. I had bad earaches for a long time, and eventually started noticing blood on my pillow in the morning. Then, my left ear started leaking out a greenish-yellowy substance. All the time, it was just leaking. Finally, one morning, I woke up and my glands was so swollen I couldn't move my neck. We went to my doctor, who said I had another busted eardrum. She sent me to a great ENT doctor in Tomball, who then diagnosed it as a cholesteotoma. I went for treatment at Texas Children's for a while, and eventually, got a CT scan. The CT showed that the tumor was much larger than initially thought, and I was on the verge on meningitis. They changed my surgery to the next day, instead of 3 weeks later. I went for a scheduled 2 and a half hour surgery - it ended up being 5 hours. I stayed overnight at the hospital. They got it all out though. I was left with 40-60% hearing loss in my left ear. This was because the tumor ate away 1 and a half of the three inner ear bones. The incision they made was like the one you talked about. Basically, they cut around the backside of my ear, and peeled my entire ear forward. I had like 15 stitches...or something... around the outside, and tons more inside. They also packed 9 feet of gauze, somehow, into my ear. I had to go each Friday and get 3 feet of it pulled out. That tickled. All in all, it wasn't too bad. I would have been a lot more scared if I was older, though. The positives out of the experience is that it steered me towards a medical profession.
Oh yeah- I have a permanent hole in my eardrum. It sucks because it really causes problems when going underwater and stuff. I'm supposed to wear an earplug(which in their own right are annoying), and when I don't, I got the worst vertigo in the world.
The doctor told me that there's a good chance the perforation is old and it's just been there since the last time I busted it. I just kind of reaggravated it this last time and made it worse. If it didn't affect my hearing, I might just go the earplug route. I don't even go swimming anymore. The only real way for it to get wet is in the shower. But since I'm a musician, it's nice to have hearing. I played lead tenor in a big band 3 days after it first happened while my ear was still filled with all this liquid. But I thought it was no problem since the lead tenor sits on the right side of the band. I could still hear everyone through my left ear. Nope, they flipped the band so I was now trying listen to everybody through my clogged up ear. It was rough. I really couldn't hear myself or anybody else. A week or 2 later I played with ImaDrummer2K's band and that was alright since they use in-ear monitors. Eddie, Thanks for your story. The thing I'm worried about most is having some morbid desire to mess with the incision after the surgery. Except that he's telling me there will be no stitches. I guess it's just supposed to heal back when it's bandaged. I know my head will be wrapped and my ear packed with gause. That packing will come out 2 weeks after the surgery.
Yeah, it's usually not a good thing for a horn player to have a hearing problem, especially a SAX player!! It's hard enough to play those things in tune! Seriously, good luck. I'm sure everything will go fine.
That sounds about how mine was. My head was wrapped for about a week (I got to stay home from school for a week). Then, for another week, I had just my ear wrapped. Then, the gauze came out in stages. I never had a desire to mess with the stitches....I never even saw them, due to their position on my head. Most people didn't know they were there, either.
I won't be allowed to play my horn for a while which sucks. But I can practice my piano and I should be able to play my flute, both regular and skin.
There are few things as frustrating as getting swimmer's ear - it drives me CRAZY when it happens to me every year or so. Even fewer things are more of a relief than finally feeling that pop when it goes away. I imagine you feel about 1,000x more frustrated to have to endure that feeling for as long as you have. Hopefully hit will feel 1,000x better when it is successfully fixed. Good luck on your surgery!
