This is getting just a little tedious. I saw the ear doctor again this afternoon, and things looked better than they did last week, better even than they have at any point in this now year-long ordeal (yes, the first surgery was a year ago this past Saturday). But still we have to wait. The affected area of the ear canal is now down to fifteen to twenty percent of the replaced tissue, from twenty-five to thirty percent less than two weeks ago, and the layer of mucosa is now about as thin as it can be and still be considered a layer of its own. But it’s not healed yet. It should. In every other case the doctor has seen, I would be home free from here. But my ear has already managed several things he’s never seen before, so he can’t say it won’t again.
We can’t really continue with the wicking and drops. The wicking, as a foreign body and thus a focus for infection, can’t be put in the ear without the drops. And we can’t continue the drops because I’ll develop a resistance and then fungus would grow in my ear. I found that line of reasoning compelling. At this point, I just have to assiduously keep the ear dry and let it get air. The ear canal is now considerably widened, by his surgery and by the fact that the swelling has gone down, so it should get plenty of air. I’ll go back next Wednesday morning, and we’ll see where things stand. I remain mildly optimistic.
morgannels 