So, yes, I have Eustachian Tube Dysfunction in my right ear. The GP’s contention a week ago that he couldn’t see my eardrum under examination was backed up by the ear clinic technician’s discovery that, in the middle of an ear shape she described as “interesting”, my eardrum was retracted like a frightened burrowing b
east. This makes it difficult to hear and leaves me with the sensation of my eardrum being drawn back into the rest of my face as if by a magnet. Freudians or linguistic determinists (you know, the kind who believe repression causes cancer) might ask what it is I don’t want to hear. If it doesn’t come right, there may be surgery to which to look forward.
This ailment is likely a function of my chronic hayfever and the bumpy flight into Wellington last month on which I was too nauseated to consume the generic ear-poppin’ lollies that were circulated. I have therefore an eight-week regime of home and medical remedies to try and lure my ear drum back out of its burrow into the light of my middle ear. These remedies include nose-blowin’, ear-poppin’ (called valsalva, which I didn’t know), head-steamin’, nasal-sprayin’, gum-chewin’ and side-sleepin’. I am uncomfortably reminded not only of my years of hayfever misery prior to nose and sinus surgery, but also of a child with lots of middle ear problems and several surgeries. It’s not a huge deal but I’m a little sorry for myself. If only my bottle of Vicks Vapor came with a complementary ear trumpet.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh dear, my sympathies. I have an amusingly shaped Eustachian tube myself, which means that unless I pop the ear regularly I get ear infection after ear infection. Fortunately I discovered a fantastic low-intervention device called an EarPopper – if you need to pop your ear but have difficulty doing so, I can heartily recommend it and I see it’s specifically recommended for Eustachian tube dysfunction. The only drawback: it’s not cheap. Naturally it’s not available in New Zealand (tchah!) but I got the Australian distributor to send me one – I think it was about $250. It was worth it to me; YMMV.
Sympathies from moi also. I’m partially deaf, as a result of (yet another of) my mother’s equivocations re: my love of art. We were holidaying in Greece and I developed this extremely painful otitis. The night before we visited the acropolys, I was up all night and I can still feal the beating of my eardrum and the pain that went with it – and I was ten, mind. She thought, and has always maintained since, that I was just so excited about the idea of seeing the Parthenon that I couldn’t sleep all night. And naturally they didn’t take me to a doctor. (Which was also another of mum’s things: you didn’t need to see a doctor unless you were either absolutely well and complaining of nothing, or demonstrably bleeding from several gaping wounds).
So yeah, mmmhhh… look afterit is what I’m saying, I guess.
Giovanni’s last post was 7 Grams
That sounds annoying more than anything. I hope your eardrum unpops itself in due course. I can always send David Bowie in there to sort things out if need be.
Robyn’s last post was A weekend in the muntryside
Old surfer’s ear canals eventually close over due to bony growths in an attempt to stop the continual inflood of seawater (paging Dr Jung). Periodically I go deaf in either ear. At first this was disturbing, the Doctors perplexing, surgeons desirous of drilling.
Eventually I will go back to the sea, deaf, mute and unbewailing.
Thank you everyone for your kind comments and helpful suggestions. It is reassuring to know I am not alone and that options are available, such as David Bowie administering the ear popper. I’ve noticed some small improvement in the last day or so but if my drum is still shy and retiring by the autumn I will go back, I think, to my otolaryntologist, who made such improvement of my nose and sinuses some five years ago now. Already I miss the popping and locking that is a part of a normal sort of day.
The señor and I are like a British sitcom and the moment, he, fast-talking from the kitchen and I shouting, “wha’? Wha’? Can’t hear ye!” from the living room. We have become our grandparents faster than perhaps we thought we would.
You know you have arrived when you answer the phone…iz ya theere?
merc’s last post was Dual.