Playing after a perforated/burst eardrum

[Rusty]

A week long bad cold lead to a huge build up of pressure in my ears and now a perforated ear drum. I had 3 days of fairly excruciating pain and bloody fluid draining out of my ear, which has now subsided as the antibiotics have kicked in. My ear remains feeling like it’s completely blocked and is constantly ringing, so everything feels pretty distant and uncomfortable but not as painful. The doctor thought it could be 4-6 weeks before my hearing was back to 100%.

I wondered if anyone had been through this before and how long it took them to get back playing? I’m not going to touch the horn for at least the rest of this week, but have a few gigs coming up later in the month, but not wanting to risk any unnecessary damage.

Any thoughts or comments appreciated!

[baileyman]

Covid did that to me, and left me with the right ear as a kind-of high pass filter. Every pro site I read on the subject emphasized that an ear infection is a medical emergency. It's an existential threat to an organ, the ear. I'll tell you though, I do not see that anyone other than an ENT treats this as an emergency, and sometimes not them either.

Further, I was unaware that ENTs do in fact have a therapy for hearing loss, a course of prednisone. But they want to do it within three days of loss. Just try to get an appointment in that time period! I pushed my ENT to do it anyway, weeks later, with uncertain improvement. I figure, you can succeed in our system only if you already have an ENT appointment and experience loss the day before showing up.

I don't think I had any difficulty practicing, but had no gigs.

Good luck.

[timothy42b]

Further, I was unaware that ENTs do in fact have a therapy for hearing loss, a course of prednisone. But they want to do it within three days of loss. Just try to get an appointment in that time period!
Good luck.

I don't like to recommend dishonesty, but in a case like that, where all else fails, I might consider calling my primary care physician and saying I just got into a huge patch of poison ivy and I'm all swollen, could you please send an Rx to the pharmacy?

[Doug Elliott]

That sort of thing could easily backfire.
In my experience doctors can usually squeeze somebody in with an emergency.

[kendoro]

Did the doctor tell you to not play? It sounds like you're already on the right treatment and just need time to heal. The perforation itself should not prevent you from playing, though.