aphex944
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2003
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A few months ago, I developed an issue with my left ear-- it felt it was constantly stopped up. When I spoke, I could barely hear myself in my left ear. I was diagnosed with a perforated eardrum, which my ENT doctor patched. I came back 6 weeks later, removed the patch, and it hadn't healed. He decided to, and I quote, "rough up the edges of the hole" to stimulate healing and re-patch it. Needless to say, even though he used numbing drops it wasn't a very pleasant experience.
This morning I woke up, and the patch had evidently come off(which is normal). However, the hole still hasn't healed as I can't hear very well out of my left ear again. Originally, I had a hearing test done, and I had a sharp dropoff below 400hz I believe with the perforation. This is exactly what it sounds like. Everything is attenuated, and I hear almost ZERO low frequency. Listening to music is actually a nerve-wracking experience now because of how uneven it sounds, makes my brain go crazy.
I'm going back in on Monday, and at the last appointment I was told surgery would be the next step. Still don't know what caused the perforation in the first place, but apparently mine is VERY small, yet for some reason it won't heal. The surgery is called tympanoplasty, and it's something I'm definitely not looking forward to. It involves transplanting tissue from another location on the ear into the eardrum perforation. I was told this could either be done under general anesthesia, or ONLY local anesthesia. I'm really not too keen on being awake during the procedure. My main concern obviously is just getting my hearing back to normal, but it's driving me nuts not being able to enjoy music since it's such a stress reliever.
Has anyone ever had one of these before, or experienced the surgery? I've been under the knife before, and I normally do not get anxiety about things like this. This is different though, because it's dealing with a sensory organ. I'd really like to just get it over with!
This morning I woke up, and the patch had evidently come off(which is normal). However, the hole still hasn't healed as I can't hear very well out of my left ear again. Originally, I had a hearing test done, and I had a sharp dropoff below 400hz I believe with the perforation. This is exactly what it sounds like. Everything is attenuated, and I hear almost ZERO low frequency. Listening to music is actually a nerve-wracking experience now because of how uneven it sounds, makes my brain go crazy.
I'm going back in on Monday, and at the last appointment I was told surgery would be the next step. Still don't know what caused the perforation in the first place, but apparently mine is VERY small, yet for some reason it won't heal. The surgery is called tympanoplasty, and it's something I'm definitely not looking forward to. It involves transplanting tissue from another location on the ear into the eardrum perforation. I was told this could either be done under general anesthesia, or ONLY local anesthesia. I'm really not too keen on being awake during the procedure. My main concern obviously is just getting my hearing back to normal, but it's driving me nuts not being able to enjoy music since it's such a stress reliever.
Has anyone ever had one of these before, or experienced the surgery? I've been under the knife before, and I normally do not get anxiety about things like this. This is different though, because it's dealing with a sensory organ. I'd really like to just get it over with!
