Post-Myringoplasty

[Lady B]

First of all I'm new to this ear situation. No history of ear problems.

I had Myringoplasty in my left ear due to ruptured eardrum because of an assault. Unfortunately I got a cold a week after surgery. This has caused pressure changes in my right good ear after I got better from the cold. Since then when I eat, drink or simply swallowing my saliva I can hear crackling noises in that good ear. Sometimes it does feels like the eardrum is being 'sucked in' when I swallow. No pain or infection, but it has gone terribly annoying!

I have seen my ENT Doctor, he simply prescribed me with cold medicine. That was 2 weeks ago, the crackling still happening. How do I get back to normal?

 

[Ed209]

A crackling sound when swallowing is normal. It's the sound of your Eustachian tubes opening, but most people don't really acknowledge it unless their attention is brought to it.

It sounds to me like you have fluid in your left Eustachian tube that has blocked it up. You should get a crackling sound in both ears, meaning your right ear sounds normal. Your right ear may have a small amount of fluid in it as well affecting the pressure in your middle ear. I get it quite bad sometimes and 2 days ago my left ear became completely blocked after a flight. I could hear all kinds of sounds coming from my Eustachian tube like squelching, thudding and crackling as the fluid moved about, and I had greatly reduced hearing because of how tight my eardrum was being pulled. It can take a while to clear but your best bet is to take decongestants, anti histamines and breathe in some steam. A hot flannel over the effected ear can also help.

I would say ETD is when it becomes more of a chronic occurance and you have trouble equalising pressure in your middle ear on a regular basis. If it's really bad you can do the valsalva manoeuvre to force air into your middle ear which can instantly relieve the pressure, but this comes with a warning as you should only use light pressure or not do it at all if you are unsure as you could blow your eardrum. Since you've recently had surgery to your eardrum I'd avoid it and stick with the steam.

As you breathe the steam in swallow or yawn a lot. I can actually voluntarily open my Eustachian tubes but that's next to impossible to describe. Yawning is the closest thing.

 

[Lady B]

That's one of the things I'm worried about because I'll be getting on a flight in a few months and it's about a day or two long (flying from Malaysia to the US). I'm sure the flight will be extremely unpleasant.

I took vitamins and the pressure was gone immediately, except for the crackling sound. It even got to the point where I forgot how to swallow, which was weird and funny. Probably because I was stressing to avoid the crackling noise when I swallow. But I'm all better now after some tongue exercises that I found on youtube, lol. Oh and I have been yawning and did the steam inhalation, it only worked temporarily. Actually I've done a lot to try to get rid of it but nothing seems to be working. I do have ringing in the ears, but I've gotten used to it so it doesn't bother me much.

I will have a post-surgery follow up visit with my ENT doctor next week and let him know about it again.

And thanks a lot for sharing!