ear tube problem- help

[Val]

My DD7 has mild/moderate bilateral conductive hearing loss. She has had tubes inserted into both ears twice this year.....now one of the tubes in her left ear (she has two!) has fallen INTO the middle ear. This has been verified by the entire audiology faculty at my university- they even made a video and took pictures (they were a little too "excited" about it). There is a hole with scarring where it fell out, and the other tube appears to be in place. The "fallen" tube appears stuck to the ear drum (tympanic membrane) itself, and loos like it is resting up against the osicles. Does ANYONE on the DIS have ANY experience with this sort of thing? No one on the hearing loss listserve I read had, and our ENT tells me I am nuts, that this is impossible. I have searched MEDLINE, most of the other medical/psych/audiology/nursing research data bases and can find very little. What I have found either says to leave it alone or that the problem produces severe, debilitating effects (maybe I should quit searching!). We DO have an appt. with the ENT on Tuesday, but I am going nuts worrying about it. Anyone out there!?!

 

[Oh Kay!]

I don't have an answer but wanted to offer a I hope it works out well for your DD.

 

[ElizK]

Well, I don't know if it's exactly the same thing, but one of the tubes I had in my ears fell into the middle ear. They had to do surgery to get it out. This was a looonnnggg time ago. I was 8 then, and I'm 36 now. Looonnnggg time ago. It was removed, and never had any problems with it. Not sure how much help that is.... Good luck!

 

[Kimberle]

No experience with this problem. My dd had tubes at 1 and they stayed in for years.

I hope you find an answer!

 

[Crankyshank]

I had the same problem with my tubes a little over 20yrs ago when I had them.
They removed it and I was fine. I do have some minor hearing loss in that ear though. My ENT isn't sure if it's because of the tube falling or because of damage from chronic ear infections.