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Retained Tympanostomy surgery after 30 yrs! Need advice pls
At the age of 5 I received tubes in my ears. Back then my parents didn't think enough to not have me around cigarette smoke apparently and I stayed sick for the most part. Tonsils removed as well.
Fast forward 30 years, I'm on a flight from Vegas to FL and in and instant my happy trip became a nightmare. Not knowing at the time my eardrum ruptured. Immense pain and draining occurred for a long period of time after. Returning back home I got into the ENTs office as soon as I could. I've had ear infections/sinus/viral you name it my adult life and this pain was unbearable. As the DR looked inside my ear he couldn't believe a tube remained all these years
Apparently my eardrum grew around it? I soon had surgery to remove and reconstruct eardrum. I believe my case is rare and without knowing the dangers of having tubes in that long, not being able to find ent to relieve my pain. I'm just curious if anyone has heard of this or can give me any info. I'm so extremely sorry this is long. I appreciate anyone who took the time to read.
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@livella Welcome to Mayo Connect, a community of patients and caregivers who support one another in our journeys through life.
Your story is a new one to me, although it must have been known to be a possibility for many years. Our ENT for 3 generations of family always wanted to see each one of us every year to assess whether the tubes in our ears were still in place (we had a familial malformation that caused a lot of ear infections.)
My kids had tubes multiple times, which always fell out spontaneously. I had tubes at 32 after 20 ear infections and a dozen sinus infections in 2 years. One fell out on its own after about 2 years, but the ENT removed the other after about 3-4 years, when he observed that it seemed to the eardrum was trying to grow over the opening. It took about 2 minutes in his office, and healed itself within a few months.
I'm sorry you didn't get the same follow-up care. Our ENT was a very special guy, and also taught at the local medical school for years.
I'm glad you got it taken care of now. Has the pain been relieved?
Sue
Thank you for reading my story Sue. I had to look up what familial malformation was. From the little reading I did possibly hereditary? Very interesting.
To answer your first question, my mom did take me for regular ck ups and the doctor said looks like both tubes fell out! So, she didn't worry about it. I continued to have ear infections and throughout my life God knows how many Dr's looked in my ears and never noticed it. The ENT that caught it told me this is the first time he has ever heard of a retained tube for 30 plus years. I suppose I'm just concerned at this point that there is so much scar tissue maybe nothing they can do. Ear pain is just about the worst and I sympathize with you and your family for having similar issues.