Deafness & pulsating "Whooshing" noise after grommet operation

My problem is exactly the same. It is now 4 days.  Does anyone know if this improves?

It is now 4 months since my grommets were inserted and NO there has been NO improvement! Its driving me crazy, especially at night.

I got my grommets in in July 2011 and it took about 2 - 3 months before there was an improvement but there was an improvement.

Thanks for replying.

Did you see your ENT doctor? Have you tried anything?

Did you do anything to achieve an improvement?

I talk to my ENT and they did suggestI use Otrivine and Sterimar a few times aday and it does help. It might be because my Eustachian tube is blocked? I should state that you can only use Otrivine for 10 days at a time.
I should also mention that Air Con doesn't help.

Interesting as the Grommets were suppose to release blocked Eustachian tubes!

Thanks I will try Otrivine.

You could also try the “Valsalva manoeuvre” take a deep breath and blowing while pinching your nostrils and closing your mouth. When you feel a "pop" you know you have succeeded.

PJB wrote:

sister1stara wrote:

It is now 4 months since my grommets were inserted and NO there has been NO improvement! Its driving me crazy, especially at night.

Thanks for replying.
Did you see your ENT doctor? Have you tried anything?

Yes i did see my ent doc and he suggested removal of grommets but i couldnt go back to severe pressure in ears, headaches and dizzyness so i will have to put up with constant high pitched ringing, and other annoying noises in both ears, Have tried the pinching of nose and blowing, nasal sprays along with cortisone tablets. None of these have helped.

Hi all, sorry to think so many struggle with this but am still with it. 

Hi everyone. I wanted to come on here to offer reassurance!!

I had a grommet put in my left ear a week ago and the next day my ear was extremely painful and I couldn't sleep all night because I could hear my heartbeat booming in my ear (FYI this is called Pulsatile tinnitus).  After a second night with no improvement I came online to see if anyone else had experienced this and was scared to see so many people posting about it and saying it hadn't improved even a year later etc etc. Ended up in floods of tears.

Anyhow I just wanted to come back on here to say that while I saw no improvement AT ALL for 4 or 5 days my ear has now cleared up and the pulsing sound has gone almost completely.  So please don't read all of these comments and scare yourself. Obviously some people will see no improvement (and for those people my heart goes out to you) but for everyone who posts on here in distress there are probably dozens who haven't experienced these problems or did experience them but they went away - they just haven't come on here to write that!

I'm really pleased I had the grommet done now. I still get a few pangs of pain here and there but that's to be expected when you've had surgery. My hearing is slowly returning to normal and my ear feels free of fluid for the first time in years.

Pulsatile tinnitus is often caused because your ear is so blocked that you can't hear external noises so all of your internal sounds become magnified. If this is the case, as soon as your hearing has improved the pulsing should stop.

Hope this helped someone. All the best.x

Hi,

I had grommets inserted just over 3 weeks ago for intermittent blocking. The day of op and before the operation my ears were NOT

blocked. From when I woke up from having the insertion my hearing was muffled, I felt like I was under water, I had whooshing

and deafness. I was not told this was a possibility in recovery but assumed it was just inflammation, until I got to the fourth day

and still not let up from it. i went to my local A & E as I could not get hold of the surgeons secretary to get an appointment. The A

&E Dr got me an ENT appointment for the following week.

 

At my ENT appointment, the specialist had told me he had never heard of this before and  to keep them in for a further 6 weeks to

see if resolved. I could not go on his advice when he said he had never even heard of my deafness after grommets. I demanded

that I have them out as they were of no benefit to me as my ears were not even blocked before I went in and now I felt much

worse. I told him ' if you leave earrings in for 6 - 9 weeks, there is more chance of there being a permanent hole, if I have them out

while the wound is still fresh the there is a greater chance all will heal over back to normal'. As much as he was hacked off with my

decision he  got me on the list to have them removed just over a week later.  

 

I had the insertion just over 3 weeks ago and now I am 2 days post op of having them removed and was the best thing I couldv'e

done. I have no build up of pressure behind my ears like I did, I no longer feel like i'm under water. I still have partial deafness but

that's due to having the hole from where each grommet had been. The surgeon who did the op agreed that my decision to have

them out so early was best for me as they were of no benefit and in fact made me feel a lot worse. he said if i had wanted them

out after a couple of months he wouldve said no, not to disturb it. The surgeon who removed the grommets has now placed a

mesh over the hole to encourage the healing and I now have a check up in 8 weeks for hearing test. So I hope all has resolved by

then and have made a full recovery.

 

PLEASE NOTE - This is only my experience, but I do believe, if your ears are not blocked, do not have grommet surgery. The risks

out weigh the benefits. Thank fully I made the right decision to have them removed when I did as I just  knew it  was not right and

had the theory that when you have your ears pierced, the advice is always to leave the earrings in for 6 -9 weeks in order for the

hole to stay open. I went on that theory and knew that getting the grommets out early enough would give my eardrums a greater

chance of healing over.  

 

Please , please, please someone out there do some research studies on perceptions of adults following grommet surgery. I hear

a lot, that specialists say they have never heard of the feeling of feeling blocked, deafness and and pressure. How can this be

whenI only have to look on forums to see this is a common thing to have after grommets. This complication needs to be told to

patients when gaining consent, and specialists should not advise to have grommets if ears arent blocked! Therefore medical

research on this matter is absolutely vital to avoid putting patients at risk. why on earth I was advised to try grommets for rare 

intermittent blocking! MORE RESEARCH ON ADULTS, POST GROMMET SURGERY PLEASE!!

 

I am last poster and would like to say that my hearing returned to normal after 2 weeks of grommet removal, am pleased to have made a full recovery, and I'm glad my surgeon listened to me to remove them :)

It has been over 6 months on my third grommett on left side on under 3 years. I continue to have some pulsing and whoosshing noises but nothing like the first month. I also have ringing in my left ear when in quiet surroundings. I do hear differently on either side - right side is 'normal' hearing is and good for phone extra, left side is very good at picking out sound / small noises at a long distance (like telescopic hearing). I am deaf when i get an ear infection in my left side and infections can be very tricky to resolve.

My ENT explained that the eardrum is always slowing creating a 'new skin' and slowly grows out from the centre, that's why grommets are never 'permanent', they grow out. Ear drum skin is not the same as skin on our arms, etc. That's why I've now had three grommets in under three years. (I theorize that is part of the reason that many older persons have large ears)

My problem was dysfunction Eustachian tube in left side only. I did not have much balance and would walk like I was drunk. Walking for more than a few minutes made me nauseous and i was continually swaying. The grommet provided immediate relief and I am likely to have them for the rest of my life - I am used to the hearing difference and the additional 'noises'. I would much rather have these than the major problem on imbalance issues.

Everyone is different and each situation is different. But it's the best decision for me.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. In my opinion, if you can stick with the noises for a month, it generally gets better.

I have just found an interesting Wikipedia article on 'Patulous Eustachian tube'. It describes what we go through and a possible remedy - a pea size ball of blu tack in the ear!

I suggest to look this up - interesting reading.