Upcoming Ear Surgery

I (Katie) am scheduled to have ear surgery on November 21. Todd's parents will be visiting for Thanksgiving, so they will be able to help out during my recovery. My right ear drum was perforated this summer, which turned into an UGLY infection. My regular ENT wanted to give it some time to heal on its own. When it didn't after two months, I finally saw a specialist. They redid a hearing test, which I still did poorly on. Then he checked both ears. I got to finally see what the commotion was all about, as he had a little camera that he stuck down my ear. It was neat for about a minute, and then it made me feel dizzy and woozy and I had to close my eyes!! The eardrum is perforated and the flap of "skin" from the eardrum is stuck to the inner ear. The first bone in my ear canal is supposed to be horizontal, but has been "sucked" down into the ear canal as well. There is also TONS of scar tissue everywhere. He basically said that my eardrum is shot. So, I will be having surgery. He will cut my ear open behind the ear, and create a new eardrum in front of my old one using cartilage from my earlobe. He will also be putting a tube in the eardrum. At my appointment, there was also some fluid behind the left eardrum. If it is still there at my pre-op visit, he will go ahead and put a tube in that ear as well. It is only a day surgery, and I should be ready to go back to school on the Monday after Thanksgiving...