Today I am three weeks post-op from what turned out to be a stapedectomy. Since my hearing loss was from trauma and not otosclerosis I don’t think my results are going to be as good as others who have this procedure.
Something is still very wrong with the hearing in my operated left ear. The fluid in the ear feeling has eased up a lot and I am no longer living on decongestants to get through the day. Yeah! I still have aural fullness, unchanged from what it was pre-op. Tinnitus is still present, but that has changed from pre-op. Before, it was an ever changing array of high pitched noises that would come and go in intensity. Now, it is pretty much a constant high pitched static, which is better in a way as it is constant and my brain has adjusted to it and I can completely block it out most of the time. When it’s quiet I hear it still, but not bad unless I focus on it. I also have what I call heartbeat tinnitus, when I’m resting it is barely there but as soon as I get moving it gets louder and louder. It is not high pitched, more like a sound bite of TV static that plays for a second with each heartbeat.
Unlike many others I don’t really have any popping or crackling. With pressure changes my ear will clear a little bit, the volume goes up a little, and it immediately goes back down. This is most likely due to some remaining “gunk” inside the middle ear after the surgery. But even when the volume goes up, it is still much, much softer than what I hear with my other ear. When I yawn I can hear, ever so faintly, a little crackle sound but very faintly. And from inside my head it sounds like it comes from where the “kazoo” lives.
Ah, the kazoo. The most disturbing part of my new hearing reality. It still exists, completely unchanged since the surgery. I thought it had gotten a little softer but no, it is still the same as it has been since I fell. My own voice on the left side is a kazoo inside my head. Just as before, the louder I speak, the louder it plays. It was the biggest factor in my decision to get the operation, and it’s the one thing that has not changed in any way, shape or form since.
I have eighteen days to my next follow up and my first post-op hearing test. At least the surgery was not a waste, don’t want o give anyone out there reading this the wrong impression! What I can hear of people’s voices is a lot more “normal” than pre-surgery. At least the distortion on my incoming hearing is gone, I have more quality in what I can hear than I did before the surgery.