Hello! I am new to these boards. Something happened tonight that has me concerned. Sorry if this is a bit long.

Three years ago I had a stapedectomy on my right ear. I regained a lot of hearing and have babied that ear ever since (by not using Qtips, etc). I had noticed that when I try to wear ear plugs they never seem to fit in that ear, but I figured it was because the surgery had "deformed" the inside of my ear to where standard plugs wouldn't work, but I wasn't bothered.

I have been treating my other ear the past few days with Debrox because I had excess ear wax (hereditary in my family). I flushed it out with water this morning, and the wax causing the blockage finally came out and my hearing in the left ear was crystal clear.

I noticed that now my hearing in the left ear was better than in the right ear (which is the one that had the surgery), so I decided to put Debrox in the right ear, and after a couple of times of that throughout the day, I flushed with water.

Well, out came several bits of braided thread!! Large bits actually. And this has me concerned ... is it normal to have thread still in me 3 years? And did I do a bad thing by flushing out the stapedectomied ear with water?? Maybe the thread should still be in there??

My hearing in the right ear is better than before the Debrox, but still haven't had the "crystal" moment yet, if you know what I mean. But I don't know if I should continue, given the findings of thread.

Any thoughts are much appreciated!