The Million Dollar ear
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Written by keller 11. May 2008 06:06 PM
The Million Dollar ear.
I was asked about the history of my ear troubles and here it is.
Around 3 years ago nearly a year after my eyesight failure commenced I was referred to an ENT (ears nose throat) surgeon by my Ophthalmologist (eye Dr) because a head X Ray showed some signs of sinusitis.
I went to see the ENT and he spoke to me for a while and then looked in my ears. I told him I had a history of Glue Ear as a child (10 operations between the age of 5 and 12). He looked in my left ear and asked me a few things but said it was OK.
He looked in my right ear, then looked some more, then put a suction thing in there and looked again. Felt my skull around my ear. He then said I would like you to go for an MRI. And I said what on earth for? He said I appeared to have a serious infection in my ear that was probably venturing into my skull. I was shocked to say the least very shocked. He then informed me that if his diagnosis was confirmed by the MRI I would need to have surgery straight away. My tears came slowly. I asked him how bad this was and he said, until he had all the facts he would not know, at its best a severe ear infection requiring hospital stay and drip antibiotics. And I said. At its worst major surgery.
I had the MRI there and then and the results were given to specialist within an hour. It was the worst side of the scenario. My Dr then contacted another surgeon who specializes in all this staff, facial maxillio surgeon who is also trained in ENT and plastic surgery. I was sent by ambulance to see him, it was about 5.30 in the afternoon.
I spoke to hubby and my sister who came to look after the kids, hubby arrived 15 mins after ambulance. I saw the wonderful Dr who would come to be a great support to me over the next 18 months.
It was discussed and planned for 730 the following morning. Apparently he had to cut to the back of my ear to get to the skull and then cut away the infected bone and see if it had come through to the brain lining. It hadn’t. He took a piece of my skull about a 50cent piece size out to clear all the infected area. He then cleared all the remains of my ear out and had to reconstruct it out of left over uninfected materials of which there were not too many. He tried as best he could to give me hearing, he gave me a little. He knew as my cochlear was so badly damaged that I was not a good candidate for hearing aids he did give a small degree of sound conductivity which I can now to some extent magnify.
The surgery went for 6 hours, my hubby and my friends and family still in shock at all its suddenness. A week in intensive care knocked out for first few days then gradually brought back, another 3 weeks in hospital. I was a wreck a blind and half deaf wreck. I needed a lot of assistance because my balance centre was shot to pieces and I had to relearn this, being blind is not a help for this.
So now, well it looks lie I may have some of this back, and I am not at all inspired or impressed, I cannot imagine it being as bad as last time but it may well screw any conductivity out of my ear at all, that will mean total deafness, relearning to balance, relearning to make my way around , probably never going out on my own again. Without bilateral hearing I cannot work out which direction noise is coming from so I will not be able to cross roads, follow traffic indicators etc. Fucked again.
So that is the story. I can not believe it.
And why the million dollar ear? Well my surgery alone cost about 27,000 and the first 2300 covered by Medicare and another 3 covered by private insurance, plus the hospital stay, plus all the rehab, plus the balance centre. Plus all the lost income for me and hubby. Plus the hearing aids. It was all a shit load of money.
So now I wait and see the specialists specialist I call him because that is who the ENT specialists refer to. Back to St Vincent’s and another merry go round. Who knows what.
I have been thinking a lot about sympathy and of telling more people about what’s going on but I cant just yet, I need to get the facts, need to see if it is worth stressing about…I am just hanging on right now.
Keller
XXX