At this juncture, I’m renaming the category of the blog that tells this story of my life from “ear surgery” to “tympanoplasty”. Hopefully, that’ll make it easier for Googlers to find my experience.

Looks like it worked. I got this question today via email, and with the permission of the person who sent it in, I’m reposting it, hoping that someone with the same concern in the future will feel better reading it.

Googler wrote:

Hey Richard,

I randomly came across your blog while I was looking for information about tympanoplasty online recently. I underwent tympanoplasty on my left eardrum 3 weeks ago. The size of my perforation was moderate, but was located in an accessible region of my eardrum and hadn’t caused too much hearing loss in my ear. It also happened fairly recently (in March) so I hadn’t lived with it long, but I knew I wanted to take care of it as soon as possible for reasons I’m sure you know of.

I have been a little stressed out lately, as my ear is still plugged from the surgery and everything is very muffled. My doctor swears that there is a lot of packing left to dissolve but for some reason I am worried. My ENT used the gelfoam dissolvable packing, therefore he will not be removing it manually. He also went through my ear to repair the hole therefore I only have a small incision from where they took the graft.

My hearing is much worse than before the surgery and it’s so annoying having an ear that feels completely plugged and muffles sound. I especially hate being in loud environments because I can hardly hear anything due to the muffling in the left ear.

I guess my question for you is, how long did it take for you to hear better again after the operation? I suppose your situation is a little different than mine since you had more hearing loss, but I am wondering when I am going to start getting my hearing back. My doctor says it can take 6 weeks to dissolve, but I am really stressing out about it.

There isn’t much chance of the surgery making the hearing worse that you know of is there? Anyways, I suppose I e-mailed you for a little piece of mind, to talk to someone who’s been through it.

Thanks!

Here’s my response:

Hey Googler!

It took me about four months to fully recover my hearing. At the beginning, I suffered immense discomfort, not only from the sore ear drum, but from the muffled sound, especially in loud environments, like you said. Only being able to hear from one ear threw off my sense of direction and placement in the world. I went through periods of intense worrying - “Will I ever hear again?” - because it took much longer than I thought it would to recover the sound. I’d wake up every morning, hoping that maybe I could snap my fingers and hear something today.

At first, I didn’t believe my surgeon when he told me that I had packing in my ear, still, after some time (two or three months). However, after more and more visits of him removing packing from my ear drum, and me taking drops in my ear to dissolve the packing, it got better.

I can’t assure you fully that everything is going to be okay - no one could assure me of that three weeks after my operation. I remember the fear I had; nothing could quell it. What I can tell you is to give it some time, and from my experience, you’re doing well.

I wish you the best of luck, and please keep in touch to let me know how you do. I’m glad you chose to email me. I put the information about my surgery online so that it could one day help someone, and it looks like it finally is.

Take care.

And finally, here response:

Thank you so much for replying so quickly! I feel like everything you said I have thought and felt these past few weeks.

You really helped my spirits! It is stressful bc I was not informed beforehand that it could take so long to get my hearing back.

Your blog was worth it!

Thanks a lot.

Googler

Again, I hope posting this here helps someone in the future. As always, feel free to email me any questions you have (about anything, really).

A few years ago, I never would have thought I’d enjoy listening to “pop” music. I suppose being a town DJ had a long-lasting impression on me.

Of course, pop is only a minor part of my music taste. Remixing is awesome.

Inspired by my friend Michael White, I’m realizing that I don’t read enough anymore. It bothers me, so I hope to read for at least twenty minutes a day for all of January, hopefully increasing that amount when I have time. Of course I’d like to do more than twenty minutes a day, and I will on most days, but that’s my bare minimum, even on stressful action-packed school days.

Anyone else bothered by their lack of reading recently?

Nonetheless, I was weary of ditching the whole concept of a New Year’s Resolution. I mean, any concept that exists to better oneself must be good on some level, right?

Enter Monthly Resolutions - a system where, if you choose to accept it, you choose one goal per month and try to meet it. It’s flexible, allowing you to give your month a theme that means the most at that time. Although a month is just as arbitrary as a year for setting goals, at least it’s more often!

My final 2008 resolution was to consciously balance my studies with enjoying myself. In high school, I tended to let my time be “all of nothing” fun or work. Although I had my doubts, I actually managed to moderate myself this time around. I studied hard, but I feel that I gave enough of my time to relaxing and enjoying the company of my new friends before separating for a month.

If there’s anything I’ve relearned again and again this year, it’s the benefits of moderation in most areas of life. Although professional and academic ambition are important, enjoying the people around us is equally important, if not more.

Seeing that 2008’s Monthly Resolution Experiment was such a success, I’m going to try it for another year, and drop “Experiment” from its name. Year 2009, here we go! In addition to a new resolution every month, I’ll make a serious effort to blog more this year than I have over the last four months. Whether about politics, technology, productivity, inspiration, or my path through Tufts, I hope to have something insightful for you to read.

Best wishes for a successful 2009, my friends. May we all work toward a better world. Let me know your New Year’s Resolutions and if you decide to adopt a Monthly Resolution system!

Twitter is a powerful way to see what the smartest, most clever people in one’s areas of interest are thinking. Over the last year, I’ve followed people interested in technology, politics, and inspiration.

One of the most useful features of Twitter is being able to mark tweets as “favorites”. I encourage you to check out some of my favorite tweets from 2008 here, or after the jump. This sums up some of the most disturbing, hilarious, and engaging content I’ve seen this year.

Favorites Tweets 2008, 1

Favorites Tweets 2008, 2

We’ll talk very soon; I promise.

Simple, profound, successful.

My December goal is straightforward. I’m dedicating these next three weeks to doing as well as I can on my final exams and papers while not forgetting to have a good time. It’s easy to make the weeks leading up to and including finals miserable, so my goal is to avoid that pitfall.

It’s a very similar goal to November, to practice moderation. I’m certain it’s worthy of a second month.

What are your goals for finishing up the year? You didn’t forget your 2008 New Year’s Resolution, did you? If so, you should read up on my alternative and give it a try.

Now that I’m back home in my bedroom in Dover, life has slowed down for me significantly. Let’s catch up!

Academically

I’m doing well at Tufts academically. After my first set of midterms, I had a huge panic that involved the expectations I was setting for myself in a more challenging environment than I was accustomed to at Dover High School. After some work in managing my expectation and tightening my studying skills, I’m growing happier with how I’m doing.

My classes are challenging, and I’m learning so much, both “inside and outside the classroom”. Although I find that phrase very cliché, it’s cliché because it’s true! Always being surrounded by highly motivated people was initially terrifying, but now that I’ve gotten more accustomed to it, I thrive off of it. I’m only just beginning to grok the plethora of opportunities I have at Tufts, and the most exciting of those opportunities are my peers.

On a more serious note, over the last 13 or so weeks, I’ve been studying in Tufts’ School of Engineering. For better or worse, although I tend to think better, I’ve decided to transfer to the School of Arts and Sciences. I’ve decided that I have so much more to study, so much more to learn in so many different areas, than the focused course disciplines in Engineering can ever give me.

Personally

I’ve been having a wonderful time in the backyard of Boston, as I like to call Medford. In the last three months, I’ve seen more and done more than I ever could have back in Dover. The list of people and groups I’ve seen includes Jonathan Coulton (with the wonderful Paul and Storm), Death Cab for Cutie, Nicholas Negroponte, and Barack Obama.

The new friends I’ve made at Tufts are delightful and charming people, and although I already miss them all, it’s great to be back home. I’m overjoyed to be spending time with my family (and dog!), and I’ve been catching up with my hometown friends, which is always a pleasure.

Giving Thanks

It’s no coincidence this post is going up on Thanksgiving in the United States. In a funny way, this is my way of giving thanks to all of the people and circumstances that have made my life amazing over the last three months.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that the people and circumstances in your life are healthy and pleasant, as well.