Me and My Grommet

Since many people on this board like me suffer from a feeling of pressure, fullness in the ear, as well as tinnitus, I thought some of you might be interested in my experience of having a ventilation tube in my ear to try and alleviate this condition. This is only my personal experience, everybody reacts differently. My ENT did not promise it would help, she said it might, and she could always remove the tube if it didn’t help. I had read about this procedure, and since it seemed fairly simple I said yes. I only have tinnitus in one ear, and the pressure in that ear makes the tinnitus louder, so I hoped I would get some relief from that. The procedure itself was fairly simple, it was done under local anaesthetic and though it did hurt for a moment, there was no pain afterwards. I had the tube for 8 weeks and this is what I experienced during that time:
Extreme pressure and tension of the ear drum.
Muffled hearing.
Stronger, intensified tinnitus.
Vibrating ear drum. The tinnitus seemed to vibrate and press on it and sounds from outside also made it vibrate, as well as the sound of my own voice. Hyperacusis, I presume.
Twitching, fluttering of the ear drum. A few times this went on for hours, but mostly it would twitch now and again.
Also: bleeding from the ear, which clogged the tube, slight infection of the ear drum, ear wax getting stuck around the tube irritating the ear drum. All treated with different ear drops.
After 8 weeks the tube started to fall out, and I had it removed. The ENT stuck a small patch over the remaining hole to help the healing. I did feel relief initially, but now, 2 weeks after the removal I still have this tension, like there is a big plug stuck in my ear, I have painful hyperacusis, vibrations and very intrusive tinnitus. These symptoms are now getting worse again. I still hope it will get better with time, but I think it’s not a good sign that it’s getting worse now, after 2 weeks. I’m scared I’ve done some irreparable damage to my ear drum.
Again, this is just what happened to me, a lot of people will go through this without any problems and be helped. I did find out from various boards that I’m far from alone in experiencing these side effects though. So in my opinion ventilation tubes should only be offered to adults if there is a definite diagnosis of a condition where this procedure is known to have helped. Otherwise, at least think carefully first.
Possible diagnosis of my problems: tension in the muscles in my ears. That could also be the underlaying cause of my tinnitus, and with increased tension my tinnitus vibrates and sounds louder and more intense. My ENT has made it clear that there is nothing more that can be done about that.

 

Hello Catarina I was wondering how are you doing these days ...