Jim B
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2002
- Messages
- 4,257
- Reaction score
- 5
Thanks for the well wishes from everyone that posted yesterday. I really appreciate that.
They went ahead as planned with my ear surgery yesterday. What was to be a in and out 2 hour outpatient procedure turned into a 5+ hour me staying overnight procedure. Im still tired and pretty sore. Im just glad its over...
Originally i was to going to have what is called a simple mastoidectomy to drain some infected fluid from the mastoid bone behind my ear. The ct scan showed that i had a lot of fluid there that was most likley the cause of my chronic infection. Well when the doc pened me up instead of fluid he found an infected skin mass called a Cholesteotoma(sp) that had erroded the mastoid bone and had conpletely surrounded the three little bonews that connect the ear drum to the inner ear. The doctor didnt expect this due to what the cat scan showed but wasnt totally suprised. He told me it was one of the largest ones he has seen in over 15 years of doing ear surgeries. He told me that these infected skin mass's are incredibly destructive and it has almost erroded its way into my brain which would have killed me. HE said it was about 1/2 of a mm from my brain( about the thickness of a matchbook cover). Pretty scary stuff in my book.
The good news, the skin mass is gone and he was abot to preserve the little hearing bones and i can already hear a little better even with all the packing in my ear and a huge thing of gauze on the side of my head. The doc also said if my hearing didnt inprove he would go back in therfe and replace those little bones(they were very destroyed) with prostetic ones that would help me hear much better. We will know more after i heal and get some hearing tests done.
One thing im sure of at this point. Im very glad i live in the northeast. I had this done by a doctor form the Mass Eye and Ear Instuite and these people are the best in the world at what they do. Im just glad i have access to that type of care in my own backyard. I spoke to my regular Ear doctor today who sent me to the doctor that did the procedure and he told me there is no way anybody else could have saved my ear, remove the infection yes but restore my ear most likley not.
So now i get to take a week off and heal up and see what happens from there.
They went ahead as planned with my ear surgery yesterday. What was to be a in and out 2 hour outpatient procedure turned into a 5+ hour me staying overnight procedure. Im still tired and pretty sore. Im just glad its over...
Originally i was to going to have what is called a simple mastoidectomy to drain some infected fluid from the mastoid bone behind my ear. The ct scan showed that i had a lot of fluid there that was most likley the cause of my chronic infection. Well when the doc pened me up instead of fluid he found an infected skin mass called a Cholesteotoma(sp) that had erroded the mastoid bone and had conpletely surrounded the three little bonews that connect the ear drum to the inner ear. The doctor didnt expect this due to what the cat scan showed but wasnt totally suprised. He told me it was one of the largest ones he has seen in over 15 years of doing ear surgeries. He told me that these infected skin mass's are incredibly destructive and it has almost erroded its way into my brain which would have killed me. HE said it was about 1/2 of a mm from my brain( about the thickness of a matchbook cover). Pretty scary stuff in my book.
The good news, the skin mass is gone and he was abot to preserve the little hearing bones and i can already hear a little better even with all the packing in my ear and a huge thing of gauze on the side of my head. The doc also said if my hearing didnt inprove he would go back in therfe and replace those little bones(they were very destroyed) with prostetic ones that would help me hear much better. We will know more after i heal and get some hearing tests done.
One thing im sure of at this point. Im very glad i live in the northeast. I had this done by a doctor form the Mass Eye and Ear Instuite and these people are the best in the world at what they do. Im just glad i have access to that type of care in my own backyard. I spoke to my regular Ear doctor today who sent me to the doctor that did the procedure and he told me there is no way anybody else could have saved my ear, remove the infection yes but restore my ear most likley not.
So now i get to take a week off and heal up and see what happens from there.
