new member

[Guest guest]

hi everyone - i am very glad to have found this group... i will soon

be undergoing surgery to remove a cholestatoma in my left ear.

unfortunately, this is just one of many medical problems that seem

to be cropping up for me at the ripe old age of 30. )

according to my CT scan, i have a decent sized (visible)

cholesteatoma in the attic. it appears that my semi circular canals

have thankfully been spared (lets hope this is accurate!) but pretty

much everything else in my left ear has been eaten away, including

my entire ossicular chain. the doc feels that it is probably a bit

larger than what they are able to see on the scan.

i have a decent amount of conductive hearing loss, and i am hoping

to get some of it back (is it too much to ask that it happens before

school starts up in the fall? LOL! i'll be taking classes at night

towards my undergraduate degree! yay!!!). however, both

audiologists and even the doctor have not given such a good

prognosis. i am fully prepared to do the hearing aid thing should

that be a solution.

i suppose i'm not even all that afraid of the post surgery pain - i

have a genetic collagen disorder that makes it difficult for me to

heal, so i'm a bit apprehensive about that. my c-section incision

took a while and having my poor husband doing wet to dry packings a

few times a day. i'm terrified of how close this surgery is to my

brain. i don't have talent, i don't have looks, i don't have a

model body... my brains are pretty much all i've got going for me!

LOL!

well, i'm not really sure what i was even hoping to accomplish with

this post. no questions, really, i guess i just wanted to announce

myself and say hi. i'm actually quite anxious to get on with the

surgery, and be done with this... at least for a while, anyway!

many thanks if you read this far!

susanna