TODAYS COLUMN IN THE OC REGISTER SURFERS EAR SURGERY BREAKTHROUGHS By Corky Carroll It’s that time of year again kiddies. The water is getting cold, well ok; it’s already cold and getting colder. This is the time of year that we need to protect our ears the most from dreaded “Surfers Ear.” For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a formation of boney bumps on the inside of your ear canal that grow big enough to block the whole canal if you let them go too long. There has been a surgery to remove them for years and it has recently been improved. But let me go back a bit. I have had these things and had them removed when I was young and years later they grew back in one ear. My insurance company at the time sent me to a doctor who said he would remove them for me again. But that dude botched the job and a hideous membrane grew over the ear canal, which blocked my hearing. Every week I would go back in and he would poke a hole in it saying that “should do it.” But, as painful as it was, it didn’t do it. That is when I first went to Dr. Carol Jackson at the Ear and Balance center in Newport Beach. They went back in and did it right. And Dr. Jackson and her staff of “ear babes” have been taking great care of my ears ever since. She has more than less become the lead doc in the treatment, prevention and removal of Surfers Ear. During the U.S. Open of Surfing this past summer she and her staff had a booth on the beach and checked something like 1500 peoples ears and gave out free sets of earplugs. Surfers ear is very common with people who surf in cold-water climates and you might have it and not yet know it. When you feel your ears plugging up and not unplugging, like they are full of water, that is when you probably know you have it and need to get it checked out a.s.a.p. You do not want to let it get so bad that it is a 24/7 source of misery for you. I know this, as I did that in the past and now I know better. Today I want to briefly go over the advances in the surgery that Dr Jackson has come up with in recent years. Traditionally the surgery was done by cutting the back of your ear and pulling it forward to get a good shot directly into your ear canal and not taking any chances at hitting your facial nerve that runs right in that area. If that gets nicked you loose control of half of your face and would have to live with a drooping half a face for the rest of your life. Not good. So great measures where taken to NOT do that, cutting the ear was part of that. Also they would do heavy packing of the ear canal after the surgery to make sure the canal would not close while it was healing. That is were the dude who botched my surgery blew it. Recovery time was in the minimum of six weeks and up to twenty before you could surf again and often correct hearing didn’t come back for months as the skin grew back over the exposed bones. Dr. Jackson has developed a laser assisted surgical technique that avoids the facial nerve, promotes a much faster recovery period and requires much lighter packing. Not only that but she also has a method for a lighter surgery for some cases that can be done in the office and saves a lot on time and money. To find out more about all this I strongly suggest you contact Dr. Jackson directly. Over that past few years my hearing has been on the decline, probably from all the years dealing with the surfers ear problems and being in loud bands, listening to loud music and other “loud” related things. Two months ago Dr. Jackson fitted me with hearing aids and it has totally changed my life. I don’t have to ask everybody to repeat themselves and my wife is WAY happier. And we all know a happy wife is a happy life. I just have to remember to take them out before I go surfing. I will get more into that on my next ear related story. But, after years of resisting, I am so happy that I have them. Hearing is really a good thing and you should never take it for granted.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 23:17:11 +0000
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