HELP! - I have a 13 year old that has thick fluid in the inner ear that doesn't seem to respond to treatment. He has no history of recurrent ear infections (not since the age of 7)and no allergies. In the past 3 years, he has had: 7 surgeries for tube placement, adenoids removed, and a mastoidectomy. Because of the fluid, he has some cognitive hearing lost that improves immediately after the tubes are placed. However, within a couple of months, the fluid builds up again and clogs the tubes and his hearing starts to diminish. The next step would be either hearing aids or more invasive surgery. I find it hard to believe that he could be the only person in America with this problem and was wondering if anyone else has or knows anyone with the problems described above? -D.

Welcome to the club. I too had excess fluid after having the measles as a child back the 1960's. I had never had ear infections or any problems till then. I was given antibiotic after antibiotic and had tubes in my ear several times along with my tonsils and adenoids out too during one of the surgery. They finally quit and I have been hearing impaired for years and wear hearing aides. Hopefully something will wind up working for your son so that he doesn't wind up with the amount of hearing loss I have but if he does wind up with a good degree of hearing loss let him know that he is not alone and that I have been dealing with this since the 1960's. You may want to consider adding a good antioxidant supplement to his daily multivitamin to keep his immune system healthy and see if this helps. Also be sure he wears ear plugs anytime he showers or goes swimming but I am sure you are already doing this. Good Luck.