Sunday, September 11, 2011

My Ear Hummering Story

Once, in my teenage years, there was a time when suddenly my right ear began to hum permanently every day. Something was wrong. Usually whenever I had a cold, both of my ears would "close" and render me hearing things to a lesser extent.

Whenever I would sneeze my way out while closing the holes of my nose, my ears would pop up and "open", allowing me to hear things normally once again. I quickly felt that this wasn't exactly normal either whenever feeling sick, and upon questioning others about it, I have heard mixed reviews about it.

But this time was different. My right ear that constantly was humming, would not stop, ever, for whole days. The effect isn't quite the same as whenever someone stays around a very loud discotheque for too long, or if a loud explosion happened close by. Sure, our ears would make a high beeping sound then, temporarily, but my hummering was easily and arguably worse.

The only explanation I can give of the sound and the feeling is a constant continuation of  hearing "vr/zoom, vr/zoom, vr/zoom, vr/zoom" , each part counting for one second, and at times, especially whenever I was training or being busy with Kenpo Karate, my right ear would go "VR/ZOOM, VR/ZOOM, VR/ZOOM, VR/ZOOM", hindering me hideously while my teachers where speaking to the groups.

Worst of all was when I would go to my bed, and I tried to sleep, while this hummering never stopped. This, in particular, happened for a full year in my life.

Most of this blog post so far has been generally speaking over a course of roughly 3 years. I would also like to say that occasionally it would be my left ear instead of my right one going crazy. But now, let's get further with my story.

After checking with a doctor specializing into throat, nose and ears, he diagnosed that next towards my ears being filthy from inside, in my right ear, a small bone was missing. A crucial one that potentially could had caused this unexpected sudden hummering.

As my ears where getting tested, it came to be known that my left ear hears better than my right, 70 percent towards 40 to be more precise. That was quite a revelation considering the huge difference towards them.

Then it was decided to perform a surgery on the right ear. Now I don't really remember the exact time periods and dates, but let me tell you the results after the surgery; The small bone that was missing(I think it was the hammer bone) got replaced by a dummy replicating it, both of my ears got cleaned and nothing else unusual was found. My hummering was completely gone, And I was happy to acknowledge and feel that.

Fast forward to about six months later, the buzzing effect returned in my right ear. What a surprise. I went to the hospital once again, but this time, my doctor got replaced by another one with the same specialty. What I remember from this doctor is that he usually said upon each visit that my ears looked beautiful plus clean, and that nothing was wrong with them. However, my incident was not gone, so me and my parents pressured him into getting with a solution.

I think that I got some kind of earspray first for a couple of months, with no good results. The buzzing continued to happen, most of the time in my right ear, but never at the same time for both ones. After visiting the doctor for another time, my second surgery was decided. This time, another thoroughly search through both ears and the so called middle ear would once again happen.

The results were that my ears got cleaned, again, my dummy ear was still working properly and nothing else was found. Surprisingly, my hummering was gone once again, and the doctor then said that time would be needed for the right ear to recover fully.

Fast forward to another five or six months, it returned, again. This time I was getting mad and worried. I mentioned before that I once experienced this painful and annoying occurence for a full year once. This was that period, while I regularily had new visits with my second doctor.

And every time, he always said that my ears were clean, beautiful and working correctly, and whenever I spoke of my pain, time to recover would be the answer according to him.

After visiting him like 5 times in a full year, I decided to suggest getting a second opinion of my original doctor that also still worked at the hospital. And upon getting tested by him for my ears, I shockingly heard that my ears weren't working properly at all. I don't remember the exact details, but if my ears would not get a third surgery in a short period, my hearing would damage further and lower down even more.

Without further delay, a fast surgery came and went, while I was also mad at the other doctor now, claiming that nothing was wrong with my ears in a dangerous way. Finally, the results were truly satisfying, and a twist happened. My dummy ear got removed while the ORIGINAL hammer bone got found in my right ear, some part of my body that never got spotted in my first two surgeries. Amazingly, the doctors were able to relocate the bone to its original position, restoring some kind of connection with the Tympanic Membrane (the ear drum) amongst other parts of the right ear, which finally removed the hummering.

It only returns in a minor state whenever I feel sick involving the ears and the nose, but that only happens for a maximum of three days at most. I'm really glad that for the rest of my life, it is gone now. Now only if my actual hearing could be improved in a medical way, then a whole new world would open for me.

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