ericb76

Hello guys this is my first post here and I pray to God I can get some experiences here from others who suffer similar things like I do. Here is a little history about my self. Two years ago around late April of 2011 I started to have issues with fluid build up in left ear and it would linger on for a long time and never go away.

I saw a local ent dr and he said it was most likely allergies but I explained to him I never had problems like this before. Fast forward to the fall of 2011 I had surgery done to fix my deviated septum which helped me to breath equal on both sides. All during this time I kept having to get tubes put in left ear and the fluid build up kept getting worse and worse. My health and job performance started to decrease very rapidly and I felt worn out all the time.

I kept going to local ent for wanting to know what was wrong and he kept saying allergies etc. Fast forward to Spring of 2012 I started to have issues with terrible sinus headaches and my jaw started to get stiff on left side and I could no longer open my mouth all the way. I started to get massive nose bleeds that would last 12 hours and it kept reacuring over and over again along with the ear fluid even though I had a ear tube. Finally after almost a year my local ent dr finally did a scope and found a tumor in my nasopharynx and finally in April of 2012 he sent me to a specialist ent dr and he did tests on me and I was told I had nasopharyngeal cancer stage 4.

The tumor was the cause of the ear fluid build up on left side cause it was pushing close my eustachian tube and allowing blood and other fluid into my ear and also was what kept my jaw from opening all the way. I took radiation treatments with a total of 35 which was five days a week for seven weeks and 6 rounds of chemo and then after radiation was done I had three more rounds of chemo done.

Ok here is my problem when I started to get towards the end of my radiation treatment I started to get autophony off and on and over time it got worse and worse to where it would last all day long. I finally had enough of it and told my specialist ent dr about the problem and he scoped me and saw my eustachian tube was open and did not function like it should when you swallow etc. My right side praise God works fine and functions normal but left side does not work right anymore. I started to get autophony where it would last for all day long unless I laid down but eventually it just got to the point where it would not go away anymore.

He did a surgery where he injected a filler into the sides of my eustachian tube to fatten it up and I was fine for about two weeks but I had fluid in my ear that started up again so that took away the autophony for time being. About two weeks after that surgery and the fluid went away the autophony came back. So I had a second surgery in December and I had fluid in my ear at the time of surgery and this time he put in a silicone type injection on the outer part of my left eustachian tube and fattend it up even more.

I was fine for about three weeks and then the fluid dried up and then the autophony came back but not as bad but was still persistent. Then like clock work my chronic ear fluid came back so for now it gets rid of the autophony for muffled hearing and fluid drainage from left ear tube.

I saw Ent dr again and said only thing he can do now is a eustachian tube obliteration by taking some fat from my belly button area and plugging the eustachian tube then cauterize it shut and after it heals it should scar up and totally seal of the left eustachian tube which will get rid of autophony issues for good. But what worries me is what will be the long term side effects for doing this and even without it being done I will always have to have a tube in left ear cause of having chronic fluid reappering all the time since the tumor was found and did its damage.

I don't have very good hearing on my left side anymore cause of all this and it also rings all the time as well.

Has anyone on here had this procedure done and how has your ear pressure along with hearing and is your fluid build up really bad and do you get bad muffled sound more since having this done or not?

I had my last PET scan done and cancer is not active for now in case anyone wants to know. I really hope someone out there who has had this done can help me out and give me your experience. Thanks guys for all your posts that has helped me out with knowing what I got and what to tell my ent dr. Take care.
Eric