Earlier this year, I wrote about an elective surgery I undertook to recover hearing in my right ear. From the time I was little, my right ear drum had a hole in it, a perforation. I went for several procedures as a child to repair the hole, but none of them were successful.
Having that hole in my ear drum had always been a part of me. I learned to turn my head to hear people better, and I adapted to wearing an ear plug whenever around water, including and especially while showering.
Fast-forwarding eighteen years, this last February, my family and I decided it was time to take another shot. Consulting Dr. Lawrence Meiteles, we were introduced to and studied a procedure called a Tympanoplasty.
The idea of recovering any hearing was truly amazing to me – thinking about it made me instantly emotional.
As a student, I’d always refused to take any time off, unless I was particularly sick. In this case, for this reason, I was willing to take any amount of time off, even in the midst of a busy senior year of high school.
I retell this story now because it’s time to wrap it up. It’s been six months since the procedure and everything is well. I can bathe and swim without an ear plug and my hearing is much better, although not perfect. Although recovery was painful and tedious at times, I regret nothing… not even wearing this setup immediately after the surgery:
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. I entirely and without reservation recommend the surgical services of Dr. Lawrence Meiteles to anyone with an ear drum perforation. I couldn’t be more appreciative to have something I thought I’d never have – decent hearing.
Wowza that is a huge bandage. I am glad to hear that you are better!
The bandage is a good look for you, you should adopt it as a style statement. Hey, college may be the last time you can dress like a crazy with relatively small repercussions.
Of course, covering up your ear might render the whole surgery kind of useless…
Matt and Kim, you know the real reason I wrote that post?
I just wanted to get blog comments about that photograph.
Hi Ricky,
I wanted to tell you enjoyed your story about the tympanoplasty. My son, who is 12, had this same operation in July. He, like you, has spent his life to date wearing ear plugs while swimming and showering. Because this surgery is not quaranteed to be successful, we thought about it long and hard before deciding to go through with it. We had gotten two other opinions and also researched this procedure at great length. After his surgery evertyhing looked great. He had 3 scheduled follow ups with the surgeon. At the 3rd follow up, unfortunately a small whole the size of a tip of a needle has reappeared on his eardrum. The doctor said there is a chance this may heal. We are keeping our fingers crossed, we will be going back in a month of so to see.
I felt compelled to write to you because not only did we just go through a similar situation, but I also know you. I work at Dover High/Middle School as a substitute and you are also my neighbor. I live down the road from you. I found your website to be interesting and I wish you lots of luck at Tufts. Beantown is a great place to go to college, enjoy it!
Pattie, thank you for *your* story. I hope, with all of the empathy I can find, that your son has the best of luck.
And really, thanks for wishing me luck in Boston. I think with all of the luck people are wishing me that nothing could ever go wrong.
I just came across your blog and my son 13 just had this procedure for the second time. I know this might sound like a stupid question, but was your ear put back properly, or did your ear look different?
My sons ear is a little lower and sticks out more.
Hey how’s it going I’m having this surgery on the 8th of Jan and scared to death its not my first I had a patch out on it a year ago which didn’t work out. So here I am with a little over a week to go until surgery I was just wondering about the pain and how much of a scar that it left behind.
Michelle: I don’t like to dwell on this, but yes, my ear was put back slightly off from where it was before. It was very noticeable to me at first, but other people didn’t usually notice it unless I pointed it out to them.
I’ve since learned to live with it.
Jasmine: With only 6 days until your surgery, I can understand why you’re afraid.
I was in a fair deal of pain directly after the surgery, but the pain medication they gave me helped a lot. It wasn’t unbearable.
I have no noticeable scar.
Good luck! Please let me know how the procedure goes.
Thanks for posting this pic and for your story. I’ve had many tympanoplasties, which unfortunately for me didn’t work. So I had to go the other route. I hope you don’t mind but I linked this entry to a post I made today at britishcowgirl.livejournal.com.
Cheers!
Hey,
Like yourself ive had ear problems all my life, so recently i decided to have my tympanoplasty about 9 days ago. I know someone already sorta asked this above but i wanted to ask anyways. In regards to your ear being put back on right i noticed this as well. Not only is my ear really swollen, but it sticks way out to me. I feel like i have one of dumbo’s ears… while other ppl say its only slightly noticeable from the front, they all agree that from the back you can really tell. With this said i’m worried it wont go back to normal. While i understand that it cant really go back to the way it was exactly, im curious to as if it will at least go back to its normal place a little bit.. When i asked my doctor he said its just swollen and that it will go back to normalish in a few months once it fully heals. Ive had suregery berfore on my ear twice so my right ear has always been a little off, but it was liveable and not really that noticeable. However, i feel this is VERY noticeable. I guess what im really trying to ask is, will my ear stay like this more or less? or is only like this because its only been about a week since the surgery?
~Andrew
Andrew,
The placement of my ear bothered me for a while, but after some time, it either fell into place, or I got used to it. It doesn’t bother me anymore.
I honestly think that a week since the surgery is too soon to worry or be concerned about this issue. I wish you the best of luck!
Richard, I appreciate the information on you Tympanoplasty recovery. I am 61 years old and I am in the process of having a Tympanoplasty on my right ear. I have been in the autobody repair business my whole life and have never really had any major injuries caused by my profession, until January of 2009. While lying on my side under the front of a car, welding on a new inner structure part, a welding spark entered the rear of my welding helmet and into my right ear all the way to the eardrum and burnt a huge hole in the eardrum. It was quite painful to say the least. The burn has finally healed even after a bad infection set in. We are now in the process of scheduling the Tympanoplasty surgery. The loss of hearing for me was quite annoying. Unlike you, I have been able to hear throughtout my life and to have half of my hearing gone in an instant was quite a blow. Like you, having to turn my head to hear and the Tinnitus is really aggrevating. I am looking forward to the surgery and pray that is is successful. At my age, I will not be able to undergo a number of surgeries. So my wife and I are hopeful that the first one is the only one needed. I have been touched by your original posting and I am very happy for your success in getting your hearing back. I am sure that if mine is successful, all of the discomfort and pain that comes with it will well be worth dealing with just to be able to hear again. I can’t immagine going through life not being able to hear as you did. Thanks again for your posting and I wish you all the success in the world at whatever you do.
I am glad you have a blog, I have had a perforation in my ear for about 10 yeas now and had the surgery 5 days ago…a Tympanoplasty and middle ear bone surgery… you can find 100 articles about the procedure but none about the recovery and people’s experiences with it. Just curious how long did it take for your hearing to come back to where it was previous to the surgery, and for the packing they must put in to disolve or fall out my next appointment isn’t for another month and 1/2 ? I cant hear hardly anything out of my repaired ear yet. Also, like Andrew one of my concerns was my ear is sticking out, and is lower (sounds like a couple of months is the concensus?). Thanks again for the blog, it gives people recovering some real life experiences.
Hey ,
. honestly im really happy that you have this website richard cause like paul says there are alot of websites about tympanoplastys but none about recovery… like u said the ear has gone down a little bit still sticks out but im hoping it will go down some more.. again its only been a month the hearing hasnt come back yet but they have done some of that vaccuuming in the ear that u wrote about. im pretty sure the hearing will come back in a few more months along with the ear going back to normal..ish..
so ive been checking back here every so often,
considering now its only been a little over a month since my surgery i was seeing if anyone else had posted any new info
oo and to paul, lets hope its all worth it yea? im in the recovery process like you.. im only a month ahead of u.. all i can say tho is that month feels like forever without being able to hear lol thanks again richard for having this site
bringing all of us hearing impaired together
~Andrew
ok so i had the surgery like 2 weeks ago & my ear was swollen but it healed. my ear also had dried up blood & that made it so hard to hear & when i talked it seemed like i could not hear myself clearly. after 2 weeks i tried to removed the dried up blood and i did. it was kinda thick & the end of it was still wet because of the ear drops i waz using. the reaosn i did so was because the ear drops didnt go into my ear because it just soaked into the dried up blood. i waz wondering if i did the right thing because right now i feel like my ear is still healing & i have an appointment in 3 weeks with the docotr and since i removed the dried up blood from my ear, the eardrops go straight in. i still cant hear clearly from the ear but its better than before. i hope to get a response because i’m kinda worried because i feel like i shouldnt had removed the dried up blood from my ear. it looked very thick and long too. i know there are still some more in there but i’m not going to touch it until the doctor takes a look at it.
Billy Bagby – Thank you so much for your kind words! I really mean this; everything you said was outrageously nice. I wish you the best of luck with your procedure, and I hope you come back and keep in touch!
Paul – It took me a full six months before I felt I had gained the maximum amount of hearing I was going to. Give it time. It really does take that long for all of that packing to dissolve. Also, if you re-read the information on this page (http://www.richardmondello.com/category/tympanoplasty/) you’ll find, with more detail, how my hearing progressed through time.
Andrew – Please keep us posted on your recovery! I’m glad you’re being patient with hopes of a full recovery.
femi – I’m not sure if that’s what you should have done. I would ask your doctor as soon as possible.
Richard, Thanks for the reply on my posting.
I had my proceedure done on April 3rd. Everything went quite well especially the fact that my ear canal was large enough and after trimming the eardrum for the graft, I had lost over 75% of my eardrum surface which gave ample room to do the proceedure through the ear canal. So I didn’t have to have my ear removed for the proceedure. Although the surgery was done through the ear canal, the first two days after the surgery were quite miserable for me. I went back for a revisit on April 9th and so far everthing is fine. We won’t start removing packing from the ear for another 2 weeks then hearing testing 2 weeks after that. I will keep in touch and let you know the final outcome.
i did & he actually said that wasnt a big deal as long as i keep the ear away from water. ma surgery is kinda different from everybody else’s though. my ear drum actually shifted away from its position creating a hole beside it so they took some of my skin to replace the hole inside. i still dunno about this packing everybody is saying. does a tympanoplasty require packing on every surgery? well i have an appointment in 2 weeks with the doctor so they will vacuum the ear & i’ll hearing testing procedure will follow after that. i think getting the surgery was the worst decision i’ve ever made in my life. my hearing waz perfect on both sides but my ear dischaged a yellow liquid but when it dried up i could still hear very clearly. the doctor said if i didnt get the surgery then an infection could affect it going into my brain. well now i had the surgery & ma left ear is ok. not perfect like before but its still ok. maybe if they use the vacumm the it would be better who knows. i’ll keep u guys updated
Billy – that all sounds great! Everything appears to be going as planned, and that’s really awesome that you were able to have the procedure done right through the ear canal!
Femi – Give it some time. You may have hearing return – it’s too early now to say anything for sure. Either way, your doctor’s rational about infection is nothing to doubt. If there’s any place to have an infection, that is not one of them!
hey guys. i had my surgery about 3 weeks ago. i keep hearing my heart beat in the ear that i got surgery on. is that normal? Also there’s like some kind of sound that i keep hearing, sometimes its ringing sound & sometimes i hear that kind of sound when you are in the woods camping. i dont know what to do because i’m really stressed with my situation. i just wanted to know if any of these occured to you guys. i still keep using the eardrops & i;ve been stayin away from water ever since i had the surgery. when i was asleep, the dried up blood came out of my ear & the doctor said its normal as long as the ear packing behind the ear drum & around it is still there then i should be fine. pls help me out guys. i just want to know what everybody went through during the healing process,the mumblin sounds & heart beats. thank you
Paul you will get all kinds of sounds in your ear. They really can’t tell you why and can’t stop it. It is terribly annoying, I understand that for sure. Even though it is not a ringing only they still call it tinnitus. I have heard just about everything I could imagine after my surgery that I had on April 3rd. So we have been there about the same length of time. As long as you are putting drops in your ears and there is packing in it you will get things coming out of your ear, very normal. Hang in there and best of all be very patient with the ear healing. Good luck
WOOHOOO! Jus got bak 4rm da hospital & dey removed out all the ear packings. my ear is clear for now. its actually betta dan b4. i still have anoda appointment in 3 weeks so who knows…my ear could just be perfect again!!! i’ll keep u guys posted.