Chronic Ear Infections


May of 2017 I had a really bad ear infection. I have had sinus infections all the time, but never ear problems. After a variety of antiobotics and ear drops it seemed to go away. Two months later I got another one. My ENT doctor put me back on some more antiobotics and ear drops. It went away again after a month of fighting it again. Then in August it came back again. This time it caused a couple of holes in my ear drum. My ENT said I need surgery. He told me he is going to repair the ear drum and put in a tube. I had to wait 2 1/2 weeks for surgery.  In the meantime he stuck some purple stuff in my ear. This caused my ear to be completely plugged. 

Four days before my surgery I got into some gluten causing me to vomit. I was stupid and desided to do a paid taste testing thinking I could get away with it. I was completely wrong. The $30 I made was not worth it. Everytime I throw up it made me get really dizzy. The dizziness caused me to vomit some more. I ended up going to ER because I couldn't keep my pheregan pill down. The ER gave me some IV pheregan and hydration through an IV.   

Surgery day approached. I was terrified but was ready to stop suffering from ear infections. You don't realize what symptoms come from having ear infections. This includes, dizziness, headaches, neck aches, severe neasuea, vertigo, hissing sounds, hearing my heart rate, hearing loss, severe pressure in the ear and list goes on.  
My ENT told me that he didn't have to repair my ear drum because it healed, but he did put a tube in. 
Having a tube put in isn't horrid. It did take me 3 days for the pain to go away.  I had to be careful what I did for 2 weeks. I couldn't lift anything heavy or blow my nose. 

Having the tubes in was very helpful. But then in October my ear was acting really funny. It felt like another ear infection was approaching. My ENT took a look at it and said it looks fine.  
Ear Wax/Purple Medication fell out of my ear

Another ear infection happened to me in January. This time it was worse then the ones before. I ended up on four different antibotics, steriods, five different ear drops because each one didn't get rid of it. I had to get my ear suctioned out 1-2 times every week. Eventually he cultured the fluid in my ear, which was very painful.  It came back showing I had a fungus type  infection. He disagreed with the results because he feels it is still bacteria because fungus doesnt look like what he is seeing. However he does think yeast is growing in my ear due to it being so wet from the infection. After getting the results he decided to put me on another round of antibotics and created a special ear drop compound. It seemed to work except the compound ear drop plugged my tube causing all the infection and fungus to get caught behind the ear drum. This made it so I had to get the tube pulled out in the doctors office. He pulled the tube out with any numbing. At this point he didn't want to do anything. Instead he wanted to wait a week and see what it does. 

Well a week went by and the pressure and hearing loss was still pretty bad. He told me the yeast/fungus and bacteria looks like it is better, but my ear drum healed and trapped all the fluid behind the ear drum. This means he has to cut it open and drain it.  
My First Ear Surgery August 2018
He numbed it up. The way they numb the ear is the same way they would with anything else. He had to give me two shots inside my ear.  You cannot move one bit while he does that. It burned like hell. He was extremely concerned I could be having a spinal cord leak. Once he cut and tried to sample the fluid but couldn't because it was so thick. He said it is what he calls cement glue. Because there was so much of he there was no way he could get the right sample.   Let me tell you that was incrediably painful. It took about 15 minutes. He suctioned it out. It took about 10 minutes of suctioning.  He confirmed I need to have surgery to clean out the tissue around the ear, ear drum and in behind the ear. To do this he will have to drill a hole in my skull.  In the meantime a tube must be put it. I asked him if I could just wait until surgery. He told me he wouldn't recommend waiting to put the tube in. Plus, he already cut open a hole in my ear drum and it is numbed up. I agreed to put it in. Then he told me he needs to give me two more shots in the ear to numb it. Darn it. He freakin lied to me. The hardest part is you cannot move, swollow and flinch. He had a hard time getting the tube in causing alot it to be very uncomfortable. This appointment was the last week of Feburary 2018. 

The soonest they could get me in is March 29th. I saw him last week and my ear is looking pretty good, but he still recommends getting the surgery done to prevent the infection from coming back. He feels like there is still infection particulars that is behind the ear drum and in the tissue area around the back of ear and skull. He feels that is the reason for it coming back after getting the tube in August. 

I am not looking forward to it, but I am also looking forward to maybe getting my normal hearing back. I will keep you all posted on how it went. Please keep me in your prayers. 






Popular posts from this blog

My Book Review on Rachel Hauck's The Memory House plus Giveaway

Medication Gluten Free List

Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4 Junkie Review