tympanoplasty surgery

Now some pinch of salt with sugar :)
I went through ear surgery on 10th oct ‘08. In medical terms its called ‘tympanoplasty surgery'..currently I am under my rest and medicine period advised for three weeks..

Reasons to write this blog:
Those who will come across this blog and incase if anyone is going through this same surgery then I can be help in my way.
my experience of going through this surgery is not the only valid reason to write but I have been very lucky with assistant things like – the way my surgery was done, my doctor (who did the particular surgery from inside ear) very few doctors do it that way. Ratio is 1:6 and how does it benefit me today, by doing the same surgery in better and advanced way

what this surgery is all about?
· well it’s a surgery needed to heal perforation in ear drum. I.e hole in eardrum.
· http://audilab.bmed.mcgill.ca/AudiLab/teach/me_saf/me_saf.html
structure and function of ear.

Causes of perforation:
· Childhood perforations most commonly occur from infections_ fortunately self healing!

· An adult with a perforation will generally notice a hearing loss in the ear. Water entering the ear when showering or swimming may be painful and can cause dizziness. Frequent summer ear infections related to swimming may be a symptom of an undetected perforation. Most adults with frequent ear infections usually have had a history of ear infections in childhood.

· Flying with a severe cold can also perforate an eardrum due to changes in air pressure. This is especially true on landing.

· Self-inflicted damage with a cotton swab or other device inserted into the ear is another common cause of eardrum perforation in adults and children.

In my case it was a combination of all of these reasons. :(

Myself, a very prone child to cold and cough. I hardly took up swimming may be cause of the same. When the infections majors one ends up answering the continuous itching inside ear by cotton swab. You can survive with that itching temporary (by using cotton swabs) but then not for long. Eventually you would end up hurting ear… perhaps I have survived last 10 years of my life with the same..! (I used cotton swabs too)
But then lately, I started experiencing ‘vertigo’ too very often specially after my dance practices! my right side ear (damaged) had no air sensation compared to the left one, plus I was experiencing some hearing loss too for the same side ear.
When I got things checked, Doctor in pune advised me immediate surgery cause my perforation was 45% (that’s a lot) with major hearing loss of one ear and specially ‘vertigo’ would get me bugged at myself…….. :( as it had nothing to do with my stamina levels (which I thought would be one) but only ‘my damaged ear’ was the one reason why I would get vertigo.
With work commitments and other things around (may be my good luck!) I could not do surgery immediately. The only bad side of this was when I got it done (eventually in mumbai) my perforation was almost 65% total. :O already added 20% more to original harm in just 2 months… unbelievable...
The good side of doing this surgery in mumbai and little late was that, i got to know things about this surgery before and how its done in little detailed manner. and I been very lucky knowing and finally going through this better treatment.

I was fortunate enough to come across DR. Divyaprabhat (ENT surgeon, mumbai) through my aunt who lives in mumbai. Dr. divyaprabhat was her student 20 years back.

Dr.Divya Prabhat does this surgery in a very skillful way. And as I mentioned before, he operates internally i.e through ear and very few doctors do it that way. (the one in pune was going to do it another way)

usually when you do the same surgery from giving a cut outside it has its own limitations_
· You will be given full anesthesia
· Doctors need to take a cut from outside ear to reach inside and do further surgery (girls be ready, nurse will definitely trim ur hair near ear)
· Once your ear is cut, it needs stitches to get back to original.
· Stitches may cause fibrosis near ear (your ear may loose its original positioning)
· Recovery healing time can be 2 months if you can afford pain real longer :) compared to when you can do the same things in advanced better way which is

When you do it through ear
· You are given local anesthesia plus sleeping injections (though it pains while operating and no sleeping injection works, but you tolerate minimum as compared to when surgery is done from outside)
· Almost bloodless surgery _ my haemoglobin was low during surgery still there was hardly any problem to undergo surgery
· No extra stitches since no extra cuts on ear
· No fibrosis of tissues (my ear today just looks the same) :P
· recovery is faster and better.. hearing loss will recover too.
· http://www.earsurgery.org/tympan.html _ tympanoplasty surgery

On 7th I started with medicines, antibiotics
On 10th morning 8:00 I went through surgery, same day evening discharged to my uncles place
On 13th morning 8:00 went for check up, follow up (doctor said I can travel back to pune)
On 13th night I reached to pune
Started eating solid diet from 14th oct

currently I am on medicines, antibiotics.
work, dance, driving, swimming, hair wash, hangout, chilled food, sour tastes…. nothing is really allowed to do/have for next 3 weeks.. Its little difficult today, when each and every sound I hear is crisp clear to me .. I find everything loud suddenly! but that’s temporary. I shall be fine soon and adjust ant to this new frequency of voice or noise :P
in order to recover properly and forever one needs to rest ! Though it gets really boring at times..
I am going through my own set of temperaments coping with situation……. But a very big thank to all of those people who been lot of help and support during this surgery....... and are still helping me to get out this surgery thing mentally and physically.. :)

here is my doctors’ details :

DR. DIVYA PRABHAT
M.S. (ENT), D.O.R.L., D.N.B., F.I.C.S.

EAR-NOSE-THROAT SPECIALIST,
ENDOSCOPY AND LASER SURGEON
TIME: 4.00 P.M TO 7.00 P.M
Monday to Friday

JEEVAK HOSPITAL
Opp. Asiad bus stand, near Dadar .T.T
Dadar (east) Mumbai –400014
Tel: 2418 3922 / 2414 0055
Email: divyaprabhat@gmail.com