post irradiation otitis media with effusion - update

corleone
corleone Member Posts: 312 Member
edited March 2015 in Head and Neck Cancer #1

To make a long story short: on Sunday (everything seems to happen during weekend!) early morning I wake up with a severe pain in my (right) ear. A few hours later I went to ER. Of course, no ENT specialists available on Sundays, so the general practitioner missed the diagnosis. Anyway, can’t blame him, how many NPC patients had he seen? Probably none. The good part was that he agreed to perform a head CT scan which showed no abnormality (huge relief for me!).

What I believe it is most probably post irradiation otitis media with effusion. I was lucky because the pain practically disappeared once the tympanic membrane (eardrum) perforated (by itself, no intervention) and since then there is this clear liquid discharging at a constant rate (a drop every few minutes).

My question to the team, anyone had tympanic membrane perforation (done by ENT or otherwise), tubes implanted in the eardrum, or anything similar? How do you cope with that?

 

Comments

  • phrannie51
    phrannie51 Member Posts: 4,716
    #2
    I have minor earaches a couple

    times a week in the ear that caught most of the rads, and constant, never-ending pressure.....but nothing like what you just went through.  They did test my hearing after the pressure thing started (last May)....but my hearing seems unaffected.....I've never had fluid leak out, either.

    I had to look post irradiation otitis media with effusion up.....how'd you ever find that? :)

    p

  • KTeacher
    KTeacher Member Posts: 1,103 Member
    #3
    Keep an eye on the discharge

    Last summer I had continual ear and sinus infections.  At one point I bent over and liquid came out of my ear, nose and the area where the tear duct would be (I have had my eye removed).  ENT took a culture, strep and staph.  I also have a hole in my eardrum, 30 HBOT did not take care of it.  I am numb on that side because of so much surgery, radiation, that I do not feel any apin.

    Hopefully just an infection.  The little hairs in the e-tube get destroyed from the radiation.

    Keep on top of it and follow-up with ENT.

  • AndrewP16nose
    AndrewP16nose Member Posts: 23 Member
    #4
    I have effusions in both ears

    Hi Corleone. I developed a left ear effusion 5 weeks into my 7 weeks of radiotherapy. I'm now 2 months post treatment and have also got some fluid behind the other ear drum. My ENT specialist and radio oncologist don't want to consider ventilation tubes. They're hoping that with time my own eustachian tubes open up again. In the meantime I'm fairly deaf. I'm trying to get my ears to pop with positive pressure. You'll need your ENT to keep a close eye on your perforation which may get bigger if your ear keeps running. 

  • corleone
    corleone Member Posts: 312 Member
    #5
    Thank you all for your answers

    Thank you all for your answers. I’ll have to wait until I’ll see the ENT specialist (I live in Canada). There are some positives for a perforated eardrum: like I won’t be bothered too much by changes in air pressure during air flight. Oh, yes, and now I don’t have to pretend that I can’t hear my wife when she grumbles about something.

  • wmc
    wmc Member Posts: 1,804
    #6
    No answer but you're in my prayers.

    Sorry you have to go through this and you will always be in my thoughts and prayers.

    Bill

  • corleone
    corleone Member Posts: 312 Member
    #7
    Update

    I had to go for another visit to ER, but the second time I was lucky, I was consulted by an ENT specialist. Anyway, I ended up with frank infectious otitis media at both ears, which needed antibiotics. I started taking the meds 3 days ago and now I feel much better. Prior to antibiotics wasn’t easy: intense pain, nausea, sometimes vomiting, later dizziness, and again nausea. I was asleep all the time, could barely stand up to go for number 1.

    Hearing hasn’t recovered yet, the mid ears are both full of liquid (one of my tympanic membrane actually spontaneously perforated, and I also have a discharge from that ear). I am worried about this because of my job. My hearing aids don’t help anymore, and if the liquid doesn’t clear up soon, I am screwed, I will no longer be able to do my work. I know I could have some help from ventilation tubes; that would open just another chapter into my glorious future.

     

  • MrsBD
    MrsBD Member Posts: 617 Member
    #8
    corleone said:

    Update

    I had to go for another visit to ER, but the second time I was lucky, I was consulted by an ENT specialist. Anyway, I ended up with frank infectious otitis media at both ears, which needed antibiotics. I started taking the meds 3 days ago and now I feel much better. Prior to antibiotics wasn’t easy: intense pain, nausea, sometimes vomiting, later dizziness, and again nausea. I was asleep all the time, could barely stand up to go for number 1.

    Hearing hasn’t recovered yet, the mid ears are both full of liquid (one of my tympanic membrane actually spontaneously perforated, and I also have a discharge from that ear). I am worried about this because of my job. My hearing aids don’t help anymore, and if the liquid doesn’t clear up soon, I am screwed, I will no longer be able to do my work. I know I could have some help from ventilation tubes; that would open just another chapter into my glorious future.

     

    Hearing

    When I was in high school, both of my eardrums spontaneously ruptured due to ear infections. This was in the olden days before tubes. I was totally deaf for a few days, but slowly my hearing did return.  Hopefully yours will return soon.

  • corleone
    corleone Member Posts: 312 Member
    #9
    MrsBD said:

    Hearing

    When I was in high school, both of my eardrums spontaneously ruptured due to ear infections. This was in the olden days before tubes. I was totally deaf for a few days, but slowly my hearing did return.  Hopefully yours will return soon.

    Thanks for sharing this.

    Thanks for sharing this. That sounds encouraging, knowing it should last a matter of days vs. weeks (or worse). Of course, with all the post radiation issues (fibrosis, etc.), recovery might take longer, I can understand that.

    Then it’s not a big deal. I already feel better!

     

  • lornal
    lornal Member Posts: 428
    #10
    tubes

    I've had a tube in my right ear since last April.  It wasn't too bad.  More loud than pain. I had chemo/radiation in 2007.  Lost much of my hearing.

    Had cancer again and laryngectomy in 2014.  And then the ear issue.  (I think it is because I can't blow my nose again - but the doctor says no).  Even now, preassure will build up and then it starts draining - happening every few weeks.

    Lorna

     

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