I would think if they want to do a hearing test before the actual procedure that they need to check your hearing range before and after to see if there's actual hearing loss.

There are meds to dry up the fluid. It's only if the problem is recurrent or if the meds don't work that the drum is pierced (with or without tubes).

I've had that several times but only once to the point of deafness. It cleared up with the help of steroids.

Yes, this has happened to me, too. Doctors told me I just had to wait it out. I was sufficiently deaf to need to read lips to understand what people were saying for three or four weeks, and my normal hearing range did not return fully for about an additional three weeks. It was frustrating to have to repeatedly tell people that knew me, at stores, friends, etc., that I could not hear them; they kept forgetting.

Its extremely common in children though it can happen to anyone.

2 of my kids have had tubes, one was deaf because of the fluid. Another has had her ear drum rupture 3 times. My ear drum ruptured once a few years ago, its happened to my husband a few times as well.

The fluid normally does clear up on its own once the swelling in the Eustachian tube goes down and the fluid can drain the way it is supposed to.

We fought that in our kids in our previous neighborhood. Then I learned that half the kindergarten in that little town had tubes in their ears. That was one reason we left the area. I read about the local cause later.

When we moved here, one son still fought ear problems, and I would give him a big wad of left over Halloween bubble gum to chew till we got to our emergency doctor appointment. The doctor commented to me that he noted I had learned one of the tricks of fluid in the ears. Since then, I gave the kids two sticks of gum to chew to help prevent fluid build up. So my suggestion to you is to chew two sticks of gum, or 4 Chicklets, and actively chew and chew and chew. It flexes the ear area and helps promote draining.

I had it once in my early 30s. I had flown in from altitude with a bad cold and was flying out again the next day so the ENT pierced the ear drum and put in a tube. I really wouldn't call it surgery though -- in the office, no anesthesia required and really just a quick jab and instant relief. Other than that one time ear problems pretty much skipped me. My mother's eardrum has ruptured several times and she has also has had to have her eardrum "lanced" on a couple of occasions, most recently probably 20+ years ago. My DD inherited my Mom's small eustacian tubes and had multiple tubes from infancy though teenage years, (as a child she was sedated for the procedure) until finally in she had to have one eardrum reconstructed because of so much scarring during her freshman year in college.

Right ear - forever! I had the tube put in and it was good for flying. Eventually it came out and all was good for about 8 years.

Then it hit me in 2014. I spent many hours at the ENT place going from hearing services portion, then to see either the MD or PA.

I have bilateral hearing aids and I thought that being in 'the booth' was stooopid. But they had their protocols to follow. Laura gave me three testings last year. It wasn't a build-up of fluid as had happened in the past (thus the tube), but I could not hear in the right ear. It got worse when I bent over to do some weeding in the yard. AND, there was pain.

Someone at ENT said a TMJ problem and that I should see my dentist. He said nope, go back to ENT. Ultimately, I used prescription strength Fluticasone Propionate. One can buy it over the counter, but that cannot count as a deductible on your taxes. She wrote a script and it took about 7 weeks for it to finally resolve.

I also had simultaneously a stone in my salivary gland on the same side. Frustration.

I find Mucinex helps me when I get that water in the ear thing.

sheilajoyce- I'm curious what the local cause was?

Hmmm, I'm guessing it's an allergen of some kind.

Wind blows allergens, people have a response to allergens (swelling) and it closes off the Eustachian tube. Makes sense since you said it can be windy there.

Regarding chewing gum, anything you can do to pop your ears will help release fluid. It's the reason its recommended to chew gum when going through altitude changes, it helps you pop your ears.

Thank you all! I cancelled my appointment for next Tuesday. I'm going to wait a little longer and try steam, heat...and the chewing gum! I have no pain with this, but being *deef* is darned annoying.

I have sometimes in the past managed to get mucus stuck in one ear by blowing my nose too hard. That's painful, but I could usually clear it by lying down with the affected ear up, with a heating pad on top. I haven't tried that.

My hearing has been getting worse for some time before this event. I probably will need hearing aids. I just don't see the sense in testing for that before I get rid of the fluid behind the drums. Additionally, I see that Costco will test my hearing at no cost.

I plan to try a different, more highly rated ENT if I still need medical help with the fluid.

Back to *captioned* TV for now! Thanks again.

The cost for checking hearing is minimal. Without sounding grim, the money is made on the sale of the instruments. Nothing against independent dealers, but we have two large clinics in town that have auditory departments with audiologists with PhD training!

Try not to wait too long. Once you get it resolved, you might kick yourself for waiting so long!

Yeah, I have the hearing aids, but sometimes I don't catch what certain voices are saying. I use the CC thing much to the chagrin of the missus. I pretty much quit watching due to that situation.

Thanks, Jim. Yes, I know how it works! However, being tested in the hospital system would not likely be 'cheap'. I will get tested for aids once this situation gets resolved -- naturally or by draining. In fact, probably both my DH and I will get tested. Then we can stop shouting at one another! Eh? What?

When I fly and a bit of pressure builds up, I open and shut my mouth: chewing gum isn't much help when one has no teeth.

Some years ago when I visited a dentist in a strange town and he asked me to open up ... my jaw went out of joint, and his hair almost stood on end, as he thought that there was deep trouble, but my jaw does that routinely. By which I mean to say that perhaps opening your mouth quite wide and closing might be of less help for you than for me.

I will not answer to the claim that I might have a big mouth ... or be "mouthy"!

ole joyful

My daughter had fluid in her ear behind the drum and after a couple of months went to see an ETN Doctor. He put a tube in her ear and oddly found that the drainage was clear and showed no sign of infection. He sent a sample of the fluid to the lab for testing and it ended up being spinal fluid. To be honest, we were all rather stunned. What happened is that her skull behind the drum had thinned to the point that there was a hole and spinal fluid that sits between the skull and a membrane (to act as a cushion for the brain) was leaking into her ear. The fix was a type of brain surgery where they drill into the skull above the ear and repair that section of bone. The surgery was in March and she is in perfect health now, but it was so so scary.

While that condition is not uncommon (as we later found out), I seriously doubt this is the cause of your problem. My point for telling you however is that we don't really think of how complex that area of our body is and there are a lot of not so obvious things that can happen. We were told if she had waited to see the ENT, the hole could have enlarged possibly causing the membrane between the skull and brain to tear (not uncommon as well) and brain matter could have actually begun to settle in her ear. This would have complicated the surgery even more and she had to go into the surgery knowing that could be an issue. I'm not trying to scare you, but I would like to urge that you don't wait too long to see someone.