2009 update to My Canaloplasty (original post below) for Surfer's ear, [ copied from below: refers to a progressive buildup of bone within the ear canal, presumably due to long-term exposure to cold water temperatures - properly called "diffuse exostosis". What that does is prevent the ear from draining properly. A damp ear gets infected eventually. I have had chronic ear infections every summer for a long time - even when I am religious about using those swim drops to dry them out.] Six year after the operation... It worked really well. I rarely have a problem with my right ear now. I was one of the 20% of people whose ear starts to clean itself again. Usually, you need to go to the ear doc to get it cleaned once per year. After the operation I tried many different ear plugs and finally settled on silicon putty. I could not find any that kept my ear totally and absolutely dry every time. The silicon putty gets funky after a while and the seal gets worse. The more often you use new putty, the better it works. I need to balance my Yankee frugality... The Mack's pillow soft brand is easy to find, but, I can't see why it would be better than any other form. Even if the ear plugs do not keep the ear totally dry, they prevent the water from washing in and out. So, my left ear has not gotten worse in the 6+ years I've been wearing the ear plugs. I strongly recommend wearing ear plugs to anyone swimming in cold water or anyone prone to ear infections. My hearing is somewhat diminished, but not too much - not nearly as bad as when I have an ear infections. Also, we have fairly low expectations of hearing while we are out in the waves. Once out of the water, I flush my ears with a mixture of alcohol and glycerin. This is sold as swimear, aurodry, generic brand. It seems expensive, but, it is cheaper than not getting it for me. I have thought about getting some glycerin and trying to mix it myself, but, not yet. One more thing - when you get an ear infection, you usually get "cortosporin" - generic. It comes as a suspension and a solution. The suspension is water based, so, after it kills of the infection, your ear is still damp, and if you have surfer's ear, it tends to stay damp... The solution is not water based, so, it has kind of an oily feel, but, it seems to get absorbed and the ear dries out. This is not scientific, just anecdotal and not 100% at that. Patriot's Day, as in Paul Revere's ride, 2003 jch My Canaloplasty. It has been just about two months since I had my canaloplasty and Julie Johnson has asked me a bunch of good questions: How painful is this? How painful is the recovery? Did you have the skin graft or just let the bone grow more skin. Is there debridement afterward during the healing and is it painful? How is the recovery. How are the results after the return to the sea? [Debridement is the process of removing non-living tissue from wounds] Dr. McKenna at Mass Eye & Ear was recommended to me by my Doctor. I had planned on him being only a second opinion because I really liked Dr. Ota, who first recommended I have this treatment many years ago, perhaps close to 10 years ago. However, I really liked Dr. McKenna, who has done a bit of surfing himself. He was the first to call it "surfer's ear". Dr. McKenna mentioned that this is what he does; he is a cutter. Dr. Ota is a great guy, but, he is an Eye Ear & Nose guy who also does surgery. It took another two years and my Doc saying she could not see my ear drum at all for me to decide to do it. Anyway, surfer's ear, refers to a progressive buildup of bone within the ear canal, presumably due to long-term exposure to cold water temperatures - properly called "diffuse exostosis". What that does is prevent the ear from draining properly. A damp ear gets infected eventually. I have had chronic ear infections every summer for a long time - even when I am religious about using those swim drops to dry them out. Q1: painful? I dunno. I was under general anesthesia. It took all day! Arrive at Mass Eye & Ear around 10 - no eating or drinking - not even water. Do prep work for hours slowly end up outside the OR on a bed. Since I was very concerned about nicking the facial nerve Dr. McKenna had a specialist with a nerve monitor and a small flock of sensors on my face. I was put under and the next thing I knew it was 6PM and I was mighty groggy and thirsty. I got several popsicles. and then my wife picked me up and I want home. Another note is that I have a high threshold of pain. I did take the painkillers at night just because things felt more weird than painful. For the first week I had a huge bandage on. I wished I had had better instructions about taking it off and if so, what to expect underneath and what to touch or not touch, etc. I did take off the very big one because I kept banging it. You can see my VanGoIsh portrait on my web page: http://www.jch.com/jch. So, after one week I went in (1st post-op) and they took off the bandages and pulled out the outer packing. I started putting in drops twice a day. When the bandages came off I started putting the mycibacigoop ointment on the external suture which made it feel better. And I put that on the skin graft area. One thing that I should have thought or asked about, but, I did not, is that they have cut a lot of nerves. OK, gross out time. I think it is most common to approach from behind the ear, so, in essence, they cut the ear off. Except, they leave the front part attached so there are no visible scars. Once the ear is out of the way they take a high speed drill and widen the canal by removing the bone growths. Anyway, they cut lots of nerves. When I first touched my ear, it was totally numb. Also, my face around my ear was mildly numb. I called the doctor about that - it is normal. If they nick the facial nerve, you lose control of the face. He said if my face started to sag to come in immediately. After two months my face is not numb and most of my ear has close to full nerve sense. The top saddle join of my ear to by head is still very strange. It is slowly coming around. They say it may take up to 6 months for the nerves to completely recover. I went back two weeks after the operation (2nd post-op) and they took out the inner packing. The other packing seemed like soft of a thick cotton string. The inner packing was a very carefully wrapped band of silk with a small wad of cotton to keep it wide and applying pressure to the newly grafted skin. Yes, I had the skin graft. I did read that it might be better to let the ear skin grow back. When I discussed this with Dr. McKenna he thought it would take too long and be too vulnerable and he just did not do it that way. This might be something to think about. The skin came from the inside of my upper arm - not quite my arm pit. Dr. McKenna is recommending I come in to get it cleaned out once a year. If the ear's own skin grew out that might not be needed. Anyway, I decided that I wanted the person cutting & drilling my ear to be following his own routine. My third post-op was about a month after the 2nd post-op. They cleaned out the ear and said to use the drops every other day. No, the final and big question is how is it in the water? I dunno yet. Certainly the operation was a success. The surgeon seemed very pleased with the way it came out. I won't really know if it was worth it or not until next September. If I do not get an ear infection this summer, then it was worth it. You will just have to check back here next fall. http://www.jch.com/jch/bodysurf/cnlplsty.txt 18-APR-2003.