Earthrax Redux

Well, after the last round of antibiotics, my ear infection seems much better. The last doctor I saw mentioned that I should have a specialist check out my eardrum, so on Monday I drove down to
Central Carolina ENT (and botox center), paid my $40 co-pay, and saw the Ear, Nose and Throat guy.

I figured he’d look at my ear, say something like “well, we should probably keep an eye on that” and that would be it. Instead I got “well, that needs to come out”.

Ouch.

It seems that I have a cholesteatoma – it’s a growth on the eardrum caused by ear infections. Dr. LeLiever says it is about three times the size of the head of a pin. They gave me a hearing test, and while my hearing is fine in both ears, you could definitely see a difference when they ran an “tympanogram”. For my right ear it looked like this:

image

But for my left ear it was much, much, flatter.

Anyway, I head to the hospital about 6am on Friday (I need to be there by 7:15), have surgery under general anesthesia at 9:15, and should be in post-op by 11. Leave around 1pm and home in time for Oprah. I also get to wear one of those dresses that let’s your butt hang out.

The worst part is no flying for 28 days. That will be hard. Amtrak from Raleigh to Chicago takes over 24 hours.

Wish me luck. I’ll have Andrea take pictures.

Last updated on Oct 05, 2004 21:46 UTC




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