for those of you contemplating the surgery.......!!
i am in my 3rd week of no water, gee only another 6-7 weeks to go because i had both done within a week of each other , other wise it is approx 8-12 weeks per ear ie 6 months out and wearing a shower cap or having baths..
3 - 4 weeks of having the tv and stereo blaring because of the dressings in my ear canal..
Look forward to 3- 5 hours on the table per ear mine ..was a bit special (as Bruce Mcavaney would say ) 4 3/4hours on the right and 51/2 on the left and a little overnight in hospital
18 -20 external stitches to hold your ear on afterwards
no private health insurance ? like me !! $1800 for the hospital(cheap apparently)
$1500 for the gas man ( Anesthetist)) and approx $1300 for the surgeon roughly200 cartons of cheap beer or 170 of the better stuff.. some small part of this you can claim on medicare
i forgot to mention that this the 2nd time around for me i had the surgery done in the late eighties and have worn ear plugs ever since (DR pro plugs)
the benefits ........
loosing 5- 6 kilos due to no drinking (beer, at least for the first two weeks after)and eating soft food ( jaw is connected near your ear and chewing is uncomfortable)
getting my **** together in the shed cleaning etc (nothing to do unless you want to be the kite bitch /downwind driver for every other local kiter)
my guitaring has a "slight impression "of jimi hendrix and i m kicking ass on resident evil 4
i am keener than i have ever been to kite/surf
i am lurking on this forum
the surgery really ain't that bad and mastercard does have its uses !!

cheers

I had a similar thing happen about 12 years ago, burst ear drum back looping a pole board, blew whole ear drum out, nothing left, ear drum grew back slowly at first and then got infected.....Several months later had the surgery where they put big cut in front of your ear, take a piece of sinew from your temple muscle and stitch that on as a new ear drum. Long process to get it fixed, but the final result was good, some minor hearing loss at bottom and top end frequencies, but all others normal.

Cheers

AB

I have had my right ear done twice and my left ear once (external exotosis) - some peopel say its painful mine wernt - and mine were down the canal - sounds like we have different ears as they wernt through the back of yours which they do sometimes.

Well worth the 6 weeks per ear out of the water - you can hear a lot better and dont get infections or water in the ear anywhere near as much

The only downside is that you at times may get thrush and you will need to get canesten drops for your ears... if you have white bread like material in your ears and they are sometimes itchy - thats what it is!

Yep been there and it wasn't much fun,still trying to work out why they cut off my ear from the back to do the operation (26 stiches) when some people apparently get the same operation done through the hole?
Hear feel a bit weird now and they may have hokked it back up a ted bit too high
Not quite Elephant man