Sometimes I feel it is easier to open up in an anonymous forum like this. I have had problems with my ears all my life. When I was ten l had a radical mastoidectomy in my left ear. I had had continual infections and antibiotics did not work. Tetracycline was tried as a last resort and it left a horrible brown stain and weakened enamel on a back tooth (thankfully it was a back tooth). I was deafened in that ear as a result but my right ear compensated. I was still very prone to infections and had life changing surgery in 2010 where I had the remaining infection removed, plastic bones to replace the originals and a remade, skin grafted eardrum. The hearing improved to the point where I no longer needed a hearing aid.
During lockdown I started having problems with my right ear and have gradually become deafer. The appointments have been protracted and I have had the best possible treatment including a CT scan and an MRI scan. The outcome is that the problem is behind the eardrum and the first course of treatment is a local anaesthetic and the consultant will try and get rid of the infection. If this doesn’t work, I will need an eardrum repair. I am normally stoical and have a fairly high pain threshold but the consultant is fairly new and has less than zero bedside manner and this was all said so clinically. I was advised to have the local anaesthetic treatment first but could have gone straight for the more radical option and I am wishing I had as it would get it over and done with. I am aware that people have far more to contend with than me and that clinically l could not have had better treatment but I am feeling more nervous about this procedure than any of the other major things I have had on my ears. I found my old hearing aid and asked the consultant if it was ok for me to wear it as l work as a musician and rather need my ears. I was told, with no niceties, that I need two hearing aids as I have a mid-range hearing loss, which is sensoneural as well as conductive. I don’t mind the aids as they will help. Sorry for long, rambling, self-pitying post but I feel better for writing about it. I don’t want to bore and bother people in real life.
