Thanks @Duke Dive Medicine, I really appreciate you and others providing info. It was your information and previous threads here on SB (I believe some also involving @doctormike) that helped me figure out what was likely going on, giving me the incentive to self-advocate more strongly and with confidence that I was close to the right track.
In the slim literature I could find on barotrauma-related PLF I got the general impression that fistulae are found/confirmed visually in more than half of the cases. I'm incredibly thankful to my surgeon, who was straightforward and treated me like an educated/informed patient. Once I was able to get to him (no thanks to the medical system here) he recognized the urgency of the situation and got me scheduled for surgery incredibly quickly.
My wife has been very supportive but also upset about access to medical care here. When we first moved to the US in the 1990s she had a number of situations where lack of direct access to specialists led to unnecessary delays in treatment. Before moving back to the US again a year or so back, we lived in Japan for about 10 years. If this had happened there, I would have walked right into an ENT clinic the first day I noticed something wrong, would have been seen within an hour, then referred directly to the closest prefectural or university hospital, probably being seen by an otologist or neurotologist within a day and likely surgery within a few days after that. It would have cost less than what my copay was here, as there's a low cap on out of pocket medical costs under the national health insurance system. The total cost for my surgery here was about $20,000 and I had a ~$2,700 copay--a small price for a shot at getting my left ear back. I will say that once I finally got to my neurotologist the care was exemplary.
I won't know much about my recovery progress until I get the plug protecting my incision taken out next week, but I can already "hear" myself chewing food in my left ear, something that I didn't have before. Tinnitus has calmed down compared to last night, though it's still pretty intense. My brain is probably re-habituating to yet another physical ear configuration, so I'm hopeful it will ebb as the days/weeks go by. I think the worst thing right now is a terrible sore throat from being intubated for ~3 hours!
I'll try to give an update after my 1-week post op next week. Fingers crossed that things improve!
In the slim literature I could find on barotrauma-related PLF I got the general impression that fistulae are found/confirmed visually in more than half of the cases. I'm incredibly thankful to my surgeon, who was straightforward and treated me like an educated/informed patient. Once I was able to get to him (no thanks to the medical system here) he recognized the urgency of the situation and got me scheduled for surgery incredibly quickly.
My wife has been very supportive but also upset about access to medical care here. When we first moved to the US in the 1990s she had a number of situations where lack of direct access to specialists led to unnecessary delays in treatment. Before moving back to the US again a year or so back, we lived in Japan for about 10 years. If this had happened there, I would have walked right into an ENT clinic the first day I noticed something wrong, would have been seen within an hour, then referred directly to the closest prefectural or university hospital, probably being seen by an otologist or neurotologist within a day and likely surgery within a few days after that. It would have cost less than what my copay was here, as there's a low cap on out of pocket medical costs under the national health insurance system. The total cost for my surgery here was about $20,000 and I had a ~$2,700 copay--a small price for a shot at getting my left ear back. I will say that once I finally got to my neurotologist the care was exemplary.
I won't know much about my recovery progress until I get the plug protecting my incision taken out next week, but I can already "hear" myself chewing food in my left ear, something that I didn't have before. Tinnitus has calmed down compared to last night, though it's still pretty intense. My brain is probably re-habituating to yet another physical ear configuration, so I'm hopeful it will ebb as the days/weeks go by. I think the worst thing right now is a terrible sore throat from being intubated for ~3 hours!
I'll try to give an update after my 1-week post op next week. Fingers crossed that things improve!
