mmslc
01-06-2009, 01:41 PM
Hi,
I have hearing loss in one ear. After seeing a doctor he recommended a stapedectomy or stapedotomy (I can't remember which right now). He came to this decision after a hearing test. He wanted to schedule a surgery for me right away. His rush to go straight to surgery put me off a bit. I asked him about it and he said the only way to see what was going on was to do the surgery.
So my question....
If you have had this surgery did they do any further tests before? I can't help to think there must be some other way to confirm the diagnosis?
....BTW I am looking for a second option. If this is the problem them it is somewhat good news because there is something that can be done about it. And his diagnosis is probably correct, my brother had suffered form otosclerosis and the surgery restored his hearing. I was just put off a bit with his rush to "jump right in there".
I have hearing loss in one ear. After seeing a doctor he recommended a stapedectomy or stapedotomy (I can't remember which right now). He came to this decision after a hearing test. He wanted to schedule a surgery for me right away. His rush to go straight to surgery put me off a bit. I asked him about it and he said the only way to see what was going on was to do the surgery.
So my question....
If you have had this surgery did they do any further tests before? I can't help to think there must be some other way to confirm the diagnosis?
....BTW I am looking for a second option. If this is the problem them it is somewhat good news because there is something that can be done about it. And his diagnosis is probably correct, my brother had suffered form otosclerosis and the surgery restored his hearing. I was just put off a bit with his rush to "jump right in there".
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TXMommy27
01-06-2009, 10:42 PM
My ENT did some hearing tests and a tuning fork test, then said, "Good News! Surgery can help you!" and sent me to the otologist. He basically did the exact same tests and said the same thing and we scheduled the first surgery (both my ears were affected and have now both been surgically repaired). He and the ENT both said that there was no way of knowing for SURE until I was in surgery - many on these boards have had the surgery to discover a completely different problem, but the surgeon can usually still fix it.
Get your 2nd opinion, and learn as much as you can -but your dr. is consistent with what mine said. Get a good otologist - my ENT can do the surgery, but she highly recommended the surgeon that I used, saying it was best to use someone who does this surgery a lot.
Good luck to you!
Get your 2nd opinion, and learn as much as you can -but your dr. is consistent with what mine said. Get a good otologist - my ENT can do the surgery, but she highly recommended the surgeon that I used, saying it was best to use someone who does this surgery a lot.
Good luck to you!
kitchener12
01-07-2009, 02:32 PM
Hi mmslc
I had the same impression from my dr/surgeon for my stapedectomy I was like what "surgery right now kinda thing" and he was like "yup what r u waiting for?" well needless to say I did put him off for 8 yrs, when I finally plucked up the courage to go back he said the same thing! But that time I was informed and ready to go ahead. It was a big deal for me becase I hads never known what it was like to hear from that side so didn't know what I was missing! Do research on the surgeon, the surgery and your recovery (that was the hardest part for most of us I would say! right TXMommy27 ?)
to a dr/surgeon its all in a days work so they can seem blase (sp?) about your feelings. I was paranoid that he would mess up etc as it goes my hearing after surgery was one of his best and he has done 1,000's.
YOU will find lots of support on these boards many of us have had the surgery.
Good luck with your decision :)
I had the same impression from my dr/surgeon for my stapedectomy I was like what "surgery right now kinda thing" and he was like "yup what r u waiting for?" well needless to say I did put him off for 8 yrs, when I finally plucked up the courage to go back he said the same thing! But that time I was informed and ready to go ahead. It was a big deal for me becase I hads never known what it was like to hear from that side so didn't know what I was missing! Do research on the surgeon, the surgery and your recovery (that was the hardest part for most of us I would say! right TXMommy27 ?)
to a dr/surgeon its all in a days work so they can seem blase (sp?) about your feelings. I was paranoid that he would mess up etc as it goes my hearing after surgery was one of his best and he has done 1,000's.
YOU will find lots of support on these boards many of us have had the surgery.
Good luck with your decision :)
mmslc
01-07-2009, 02:43 PM
Thanks for the replies! :)
I have never had surgery before and I am a bit nervous (to say the least!) But it would be great to be able to hear fully again. I have become more and more socially withdrawn since my hearing loss -- saying "what?!?" every other sentence can kill a conversation really quick! ;)
I guess my next step is doing a bit of research on surgeon. From what I have read it sounds like the success rate defiantly varies from surgeon to surgeon. This is really my first experience with any type of surgery. I am not quite sure how pick out a good surgeon. You always hear people saying "he is the best in the state" -- how do you know that? lol I defiantly have allot learning to do.
I have never had surgery before and I am a bit nervous (to say the least!) But it would be great to be able to hear fully again. I have become more and more socially withdrawn since my hearing loss -- saying "what?!?" every other sentence can kill a conversation really quick! ;)
I guess my next step is doing a bit of research on surgeon. From what I have read it sounds like the success rate defiantly varies from surgeon to surgeon. This is really my first experience with any type of surgery. I am not quite sure how pick out a good surgeon. You always hear people saying "he is the best in the state" -- how do you know that? lol I defiantly have allot learning to do.
kgummey
01-25-2009, 03:30 AM
I had a stapedectomy 10 days ago. I have known I had otosclerosis for about 10 years. I have procrastinated all this time and now that I have had one ear done I CANNOT wait to get the other one done. It went way better than I expected. Thankfully I suffered NO dizziness or nausea and no real pain to speak of. Only took a couple of the prescribed pain meds and then only Tylenol once in awhile. The first night after the surgery I had a hard time sleeping because I could hear my family breathing and stirring around the house (a first!!) The next few days my ear was very plugged up feeling - I felt like I was under water. Now I can certainly hear better but sometimes it is distorted. I have had a lot of ringing and roaring which is pretty annoying!! BUT the best thing ever is that instead of saying "what" all the time I am now telling everyone that they are talking to loud. The first time I went grocery shopping I about died - stores are really noisy places!! I have my post-op visit in 3 days - I am very excited to have the packing removed and to schedule a stapedectomy on my other ear!! :D
mmslc
01-25-2009, 12:13 PM
Thats great!! It sounds like no more "what"-s for you. :) Thats funny you mentioned hearing everything when you tried to sleep -- because right now I put my good ear to the pillow and I do not think I would hear a dump truck driving through the room. I am working on finding a surgeon now. Hopefully I will be kept awake by the sound of breathing too.
Congratulations again on the success of your surgery!
Congratulations again on the success of your surgery!
dg195
02-05-2009, 03:39 PM
Hi ! I am new to this forum.
I was going through it before registering myself here and I found some good information. Thanks to all the members for their valuable input.
I have a question regarding the charges that go into Stapedectomy procedure. I called my insurence and they told me that I would be responsible for 10% of charge on the procedure. I really want to know what kind of dollar amount i am looking at with this 10%. I'm just looking for a rough estimate on how much the entire procedure would cost. (I know it varies from place to place but I need a very very rough estimate.)
Neither my insurence nor my doctor is giving this information.
Since this is so sudden to me I really want to know roughly how much a procedure like this would cost so I can prepare myself financially.
I request anyone who has undergone Stapedectomy to kindly give me this information.
Thanks.
I was going through it before registering myself here and I found some good information. Thanks to all the members for their valuable input.
I have a question regarding the charges that go into Stapedectomy procedure. I called my insurence and they told me that I would be responsible for 10% of charge on the procedure. I really want to know what kind of dollar amount i am looking at with this 10%. I'm just looking for a rough estimate on how much the entire procedure would cost. (I know it varies from place to place but I need a very very rough estimate.)
Neither my insurence nor my doctor is giving this information.
Since this is so sudden to me I really want to know roughly how much a procedure like this would cost so I can prepare myself financially.
I request anyone who has undergone Stapedectomy to kindly give me this information.
Thanks.
JMusician26
02-06-2009, 06:07 AM
Hi, Dg195! I was just diagnosed as well and am going to have a stapedectomy in July on my right ear. I'm actually surprised you haven't been quoted for the procedure. The day I was diagnosed I scheduled my surgery and the assistant drew up some papers and wrote down the estimates for the hospital, surgeon's fees, etc. I'm not sure knowing my estimates will help you at all, but here's what I was quoted. Surgeon's fees = $6,000. Anesthesiologist = $400. Hospital costs = up to $5,000. She was sort of roughly estimating the hospital cost (checking in around 6:00 a.m. and leaving in the afternoon) but she said the total with everything would be around $12,000. That includes follow up visits for 3 months. For what it's worth, I'm pretty much paying out of pocket - I have a very minimal insurance plan that I pay for monthly but it doesn't cover this kind of thing, though I'm probably paying slightly lower rates than I would if I had no insurance at all. At any rate I'm going to try to talk them into paying a lower amount after the surgery, otherwise it'll take me years!
dg195
02-06-2009, 05:02 PM
Hi JMusician ! I cannot thank you enough for giving me these numbers. I have been very anxious in the past couple of days not knowing how much the cost on the procedure was going to be.
I hope they do agree to a lower price on your surgery ! :)
With a previous bad experience I had with my knee a couple of years ago, by jumping in and getting the surgery done by consulting just one doctor, the aftermath of the surgery and rehab was a very stressful period for me.
This time I am being very careful in weighing my options by doing thorough research on the doctors in the area and getting enough information on insurence coverage.
The first specialist I consulted bout ear my problem was very confident abuot the surgery but my research showed that he just finished his residency couple of years ago.
I read quite a bit about Stapedectomy and every where I go one thing they say is that it's very important that this surgery be handled by a skilled physician.
My other question on the cost is the piston they would be fixing inside the ear, did they give you a cost on that ? Or does this 12 k include that too. I was primarily worried bout the cost of the piston they said they would be fixing inside the ear. Please let me know about this.
Again...thank you very much for your help !
I hope they do agree to a lower price on your surgery ! :)
With a previous bad experience I had with my knee a couple of years ago, by jumping in and getting the surgery done by consulting just one doctor, the aftermath of the surgery and rehab was a very stressful period for me.
This time I am being very careful in weighing my options by doing thorough research on the doctors in the area and getting enough information on insurence coverage.
The first specialist I consulted bout ear my problem was very confident abuot the surgery but my research showed that he just finished his residency couple of years ago.
I read quite a bit about Stapedectomy and every where I go one thing they say is that it's very important that this surgery be handled by a skilled physician.
My other question on the cost is the piston they would be fixing inside the ear, did they give you a cost on that ? Or does this 12 k include that too. I was primarily worried bout the cost of the piston they said they would be fixing inside the ear. Please let me know about this.
Again...thank you very much for your help !
kgummey
02-07-2009, 02:20 AM
Hi. I just got my final bill for my surgery. The anesthesiologist was $575 and the rest of the bill was about $8000. The follow-up and pre-op visits are included in that #.
Mom42
03-04-2009, 10:50 AM
My hearing loss started about 4 yrs ago or so. I thought it was from illnesses, and was never told it was osteoscorosis (sp?) and I lived in a big city at the time! I was told to wear hearing aides. So I opted to wear one in my right ear since at the time that was the worse. Last year I moved to a small town in MO, and I wanted to have my hearing tested again as it seemed like it was getting worse. The ENT I saw diagnosed me and told me there is surgery that will restore my hearing but he didn't do enough of them and recommended me to another doctor in a larger city an hour away. I went there and his diagnosis was the same, well the hosptial I was suppose to have the surgery at wasn't covered, so I had to cancel it and find a new doctor. The doctor that was going to do it recommended someone in a city 2 hours away and he too diagnosed the same thing. He said they do them alot and I liked him and felt confident with him and his staff. I just had it done last week, a week ago today. I was awake for most of it. He said there was alot of disease on the bone so that took awhile to get rid of. I didn't feel a thing thru the surgery. On the ride home the pain started, but once I got home I took pain medication. I was in bed for 5 days, the first 3 days being the roughest. Now I am fine with very little dizziness. I have the packing in my ear so I can't hear yet, but I did hear right after my surgery before they put the packing in, and that was pretty cool. My only concern is that when I yawn, which of course you can't help sometimes, my ears make some popping sounds, but the nurse said that is fine, just not to try and pop the ears myself by holding my nose. So I worry about the yawning and what that might do. Anyone else experience that and had problems? I will keep you all updated on how I do.
kgummey
03-08-2009, 01:19 AM
I know EXACTLY what you mean. I had the surgery in Jan. and although I am hearing great and essentially have no residual after effects. Whenever I yawn my ear pops and sometimes when I swallow. I don't think that it is anything to worry about though. I have a final appt. with my surgeon soon and will ask him though.
Sallyndh
04-14-2009, 07:11 PM
Just had one today at Ochsner hospital in NO, LA. My estimated bill without insurance is roughly $11,000.00