Re: plane travel? - 5 year old son just had c-toma surgery

[Guest guest]

HI,

Glad to hear that your son finally got help for his c-toma. I'm

scheduled for surgery this coming week and the post -op instructions

advise not to fly for at least 3 weeks.

Perhaps someone else can advise also.

Hope all works out for your and your family.

maddyfainellis wrote:

Hello everyone -

I am new to this group. We have been living in Bangkok while my

husband is posted with the US Embassy there. My son had a problem

with granulation tissue in his left ear, the cause of which was not

being figured out in Thailand. I was told everything from ear

infection to fluid to our fault for cleaning his ear with q-tips

(which we never did, but the doctor kept insisting that this is why

he had granulation tissue). He had hearing loss in that ear, but it

was always being attributed to fluid or the granulation tissue (which

at first blocked half of his ear). Since we were coming back to the

US for the holidays, I booked an appointment with a pediatric

otolaryngologist at s Hopkins with every expectation that I would

be told that it's an infection that just needs the right antibiotic.

Instead, they ordered a CT scan and diagnosed cholesteatoma, which I

had never even heard of. We decided to stay in the US for the

surgery and it was performed on Thursday. The doctor told us that on

a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the largest) it was a 10

cholesteatoma that had wrapped all around the facial nerve. The

surgery took 3 hours. Fortunately, the doctor was able to perform

the surgery without damaging the facial nerve. But he does not think

he got it all because there is so much inflammation in there. He

said it was likely there would be some more c-toma on their second

look surgery, which would happen in July or August (by which time we

will have moved back to the DC area anyway so travel won't be an

issue then). Most of the ear bones were destroyed, but there is a

chance that the stapes is ok - again, too much inflammation to tell

on this look. I have to say that I was really depressed about the

whole thing, especially that my son has to go through this all over

again this summer. They did canal wall up, but said that if the c-

toma comes back aggressively, they may have to do canal wall down,

but said on my son it wouldn't be so bad if they had to do that

because the mastoid bone is so small. My son's right ear is fine.

My question to you all is whether any of you flew after the surgery

and, if so, how soon you flew since we have to get back to Thailand

as soon as possible. The otolaryngologist who performed the surgery

indicated that 2 weeks post-surgery should be ok for flying, but his

colleague (who has less experience, but still seems knowledgeable

about such things) indicated that she thought he should wait for

longer. Other ENTs seem all over the map about this - some say 2

weeks, some say less, others say much longer. My son did not have

any prosthesis put in (that would be done on the second surgery), but

he did have a graft on the ear drum to close the hole. Anyway, any

experience you can give about this would be appreciated.

[Guest guest]

I'm so sorry to hear about your son's ordeal. It sounds very similar

to my son's, who was diagnosed with his first c'toma at age 5 (he's 12

now, six surgeries later). Only his left ear was effected also. We

drove 7 hours for his surgery, as we were told he needed to wait 6

weeks to fly. The danger is that the skin graph can rupture with the

air pressure. This is always a concern, but even more so after

surgery. I have a friend whose son's ruptured 6 years after his

tympanoplasty. I'd certainly wait as long as possible! Good luck to

you all. Sheri