Hi, I have had constant dizziness / imbalance issues for 2.5 years. Am still undiagnosed as to cause....long story short, also have eustachian tube problems my whole life. So decided to try getting tubes in my ears 3 weeks ago. Am nursing a newborn and doctor thought it would help me get through the nursing period without any meds. Unfortunately, the whole thing backfired. From the minute the tubes went in, I was horribly ill, the most unbelievable nausea and dizziness, ringing in my ear, warped sound, etc. This has been the worst experience of my life, and I had to have the tubes taken out at 2 weeks, after the doc told me to try and hang in there for 6-8 weeks. That wasn't going to happen.
Anyway, after hanging on for dear life, because I had a newborn to nurse, and couldn't take meds or afford to be in the hospital, things are finally turning around, and I am starting to feel better.
But I still have ringing in the ear, hopefully due to the perforations from the tubes. The ringing is getting better but VERY SLOWLY and I am terrified to think it might not go away completely!
And the tubes did nothing to help my vertigo by the way.
Has anyone ever had tubes, and did they have such awful effects as me? I am trying to process all that has happened, I am very traumatized, I have never been so sick in my life. Panic attacks and everything. I am very worried about the ringing in my ear.
And, yes, of course, I have been to the doctors, but they can only say they hope the ringing will go away as the ears finish healing.
And I did change ENT's as well, the one who put the tubes in was not very cool about everyting, and not helpful. I am now being treated by House Ear Clinic, which is good, but once again, just want to know if anyone has been through tubes or an eardrum perforation?
My mum did, about 10 years ago...she got an innerear infection that was antibiotic resistant...and after a couple of months of it, got tubes put in.
She had a similar experience, although shorter...her vertigo/nausea/etc went away after 4 days...but her problem (caused by the infection was a LOT shorter than yours.
The way I understand things is this:
The inner ear controls our sense of placement in the world (up/down/sideways, sense of movement through that plane/etc). Pilots actually have to be taught to ignore where they "feel" that they are going and trust their instruments, because (long story short) given the right situation a pilot will think that they are zooming toward the ground, and pull up...when they're really already headed up...plane goes vertical...plane stalls out...plane crashes and burns. There are tons and tons of training exercises that anyone who works in military aircraft has to go through, to learn to compensate for your middle ear (the spin & puke g-force thing, the upside down in darkness water crash, etc).
My mum's inner ear had been filled with fluid for so long, giving her weird readings, that as soon as the excess fluid drained it was actually way WORSE, because her brain had been trying to adjust between what her ear was telling the brain (it's default), and what the eyes were telling the brain (usually, just a double check system).
It's like the classic experiment of having students wear glasses that inverts the world. Give them a few days to a few weeks like that, and one morning their brain makes the switch and they can see rightside up again. But take those glasses off, and everything is upside down!!! Given another period of time, the brain switches the world the way it's supposed to be again. (Whew! Bet that first batch of students were relieved. They too, went through panic attacks, and other adrenalin responses when they thought that they might be like that forever.) The process is called accommodation.
Back to ears. If my mum's ears had been consistently 'clogged' her brain would have accommodated for the change in perception, and her vertigo/ringing/etc would have self resolved. Fluid & infections though AREN'T consistent. They change from minute to minute, day by day...so her brain was never given enough time to accommodate...but it kept trying...hence the disorientation. It kept trying to match it's response to the world via ears and eyes...but the durn ears kept changing.
Children's brains are denser (waaaaaay more neurons and pathways than ours), so they adapt/accommodate waaaaaay faster...than we do. But my understanding is that they, too, have the same terrible first reaction. They have known "normal" for a far shorter period...so whatever they're experiencing tends to imprint itself as normal. We KNOW what normal is, and violently object (mentally, emotionally, and physically) when normal is suddenly taken from us. We also don't have superheroes living with us promising that everything will be okay, like they do.
The ringing will most likely go away as your brain accommodates & the perforation heals. It took my mum 4 days for the horrible reaction to going back to "normal" to pass...and she had ringing/sound issues as well for several week, maybe a month, afterward. The tubes were taken out after a few years...but there was no difference at that point. So it didn't cause her any effect. Her perforation never healed though...so she has to be very very careful about getting water in her ears, to this day.
I've had numerous tubes throughout my life due to an underdeveloped eustachian tube in both ears. I have had some ringing, but nothing that has made me this sick. I know at times it has taken my ears a long time to heal. I would suggest finding vertigo specialist. I have been to numerous doctors throughout the country and sometimes you just have to find the one that will work with you. My current doctor is at MD Anderson in Houston TX and he is awesome. Maybe you could call MD Anderson Cancer Center, Head and Neck and ask if they could recommend an ENT for treatment of vertigo? They see patients there from all over the country so they should have contacts in California. Good luck!