Hi Darren–I felt a lot dizzier than usual only immediately after the surgery, while still in the hospital for the afternoon. I went home late in the day, and in the subsequent days my dizziness was about the same as always–fluctuating but not really worse than before the surgery. It was the same old, same old. (I just looked it up in my old journal to confirm my memories of it.)
People who’d had the surgery kept telling me I’d soon feel my ear “clearing out” as my hearing returned, but that never happened. I had absolutely no hearing improvement. My hearing loss was probably caused by an inner-ear stroke when I sneezed (best theory).
I hope you soon begin to feel better! I was quite disappointed when I realized, the day after the surgery, that I WASN’T any better, because I had expected to be.
Nancy, your reaction is what I would expect from an MAV patient after PLF surgery. I wonder why my symptoms got severely worse for a week after surgery, and they are still a bit worse and different than before surgery. The good news is that I never fall over to the left during romberg or quix test anymore. But I still have motion sensativity, and a new symptom of 24/7 slow spinning…
Darren–I don’t know why your symptoms got worse after surgery; that is a good question for your ENT.
It must be very upsetting to have symptoms WORSE after surgery. Ugh. Quite the opposite from what one would hope and expect.
I can’t remember, were you ever under suspicion for SCD?
Interestingly, with respect to your no longer falling on the Romberg, I will say that about 10 days or so after my surgery, a certain bit of imbalance that I’d been having for several months did clear up. (When turning around in the kitchen, for example, often my foot would not land quite exactly where I intended it.) But this may have been completely unrelated, as I had other odd coordination symptoms, including a summer-long bout of missing certain things when reaching for them, that came and went as they pleased. And my head felt no different after the surgery.
Have you been back to the surgeon for follow-up? I would let him/her know that your symptoms are worse as soon as possible.
Good luck to you–hope you see some improvement soon.
It is quite upsetting to feel worse after surgery. I am under suspicion for perilymph fistula. My neurotologist insisted that I didnt have MAV, but I cant be quite so confident. I had a post-op with her and she said its normal to feel much worse for the first 3-5 days after surgery (I was a lot worse the first 6 days). She wasnt surprised that I dont feel better yet, she said I should start feeling better in another week or two.
Ive been having pretty bad vertigo, its a slow rotation that I notice mostly when Im not moving. I need to let her know about this too, I will email her.
Hi Darren,
How is your vertigo feeling now? Though surgery is still a couple months out for me (if I choose to go ahead with it that is), I am still so nervous that it will make me feel worse/bring on new symptoms like with you and the vertigo
Im 4 weeks out and still struggling. I’ve had a few really good days, but otherwise Im still as bad or worse than before surgery.
I just dont know why my symptoms got so much worse after surgery. This flairup makes me reconsider the possibility of MAV. But If I had MAV, I dont think my symptoms would be effected by surgery. If I did have PLF, then secondary hydrops could explain everything Im still experiencing. I now have 24/7 slow spinning vertigo, tinnitus, and some hearing loss in the left ear, I didnt have any of this before surgery.
Id suggest giving several MAV meds an adequate trial before doing PLF surgery. If several meds make no difference, then do the surgery. Its not a serious surgery, I only had a little pain for 2 hours after surgery. I wouldnt worry about the surgery permanently making symptoms worse, but temporary worsening of symptoms is expected, especially if you actually have a fistula. Scholarly literature reports no occurrences of permanent worsening of symptoms, and I havent seen any personal accounts of this happening. However, I have seen many accounts of people who felt worse for a few months because of hydrops, and later made a successful recovery.
Darren, I have always been under the impression that secondary endolymphatic hydrops is something that develops a long time (months?) after an inner-ear injury or disease. BUT I could be wrong. The usual caveat: My “research” is all many years old, and my knowledge was never expert or complete anyway.
From my understanding, SEH can occur either immediately after closure, or years after. Both have been documented in literature. Dr Black and Dr Gianoli are big proponents of immediate SEH after PLF surgery. Their reasoning is that chronic PLF causes the inner ear to overproduce fluid (probably both perilymph or endolymph) in order to keep up with the constant leak. Once the leak is abruptly closed by surgery or successful bedrest, the ear still has increased fluid production, and it builds up and causes SEH. It generally takes a few weeks to months for this to calm down. But there have also been cases of SEH starting years after successful PLF closure, and this flaw in the ear is likely the cause, of the previous PLF (in my opinion).
Just wanted to bump this, because I had trauma induced dizziness for 5 weeks, then a clear 5 months and subsequently an onset of MAV.
I wonder if MAV is actually SEH!
SEH is definitely distinct from Menieres as there is no significant hearing loss, but in other respects it’s very similar.
I wonder if the SEH pressure is high enough it can temporarily reopen a fistula ‘from the other side’? Or perhaps exploit a congenital weakness that fell foul of the original trauma. Perhaps such a ‘reopening’ might cause the vertigo we experience?
I’m convinced that migraine symptoms are secondary to the cause, possibly SEH.
I wonder if this mechanism is the evolved ears response to implosive trauma to help ‘fix’ the implosive wound? It becomes an exacerbation and can cause chronic fluctuation of pressure: periodic breaches of the round window then a repressurisation ?
Given the labyrinth evolved first in fish I wonder if the pressure regulation was developed when fish lived at various depths that might have applied different levels of pressure on the inner ear windows … requiring an ability to increase pressure within?
I would also get a second opinion - if your symptoms get worse after heavy lifting it sounds like you may have neck or back issues causing too many false signals to your cerebellum (MAV). Nothing to do with your ears that part I think - so get a second opinion bedfore surgery, I have had two bad relapses in symptoms because of lifting something heavy and going ten pin bowling - but have tested nil for any ear canal problems…
Darren, if you ever return could you point me towards a reference or two of this … I’m now diagnosed with SEH post PLF (well the PLF is still healing but leak is very much less than it was) and wondering if you know of any success stories where SEH calmed down. My worst symptom is now tinnitus as much of my vestibular symptoms are well controlled by Amitriptyline.
I did this mistake and I lost my life. I went to see Dr. Gianoli and he diagnosed me with what doctors call a scam PLF diagnosis. He recommended a “simple procedure” and he left me on permanent disability. I lost my hearing, he left me with chronic debilitating vertigo and nausea, a monstrous tinnitus, a pressurized ear and chronic neurological pain from his surgery. After destroying one ear and my life he he told me I need surgery on the other ear as well.
So sorry for your nightmare, there is not much to say, but thank you for posting, I’m sure many appreciate it. Surgery should of course not be taken lightly and there are risks and indeed it highlights that we simply don’t know enough so conservative path is currently the best.
I don’t have personal experience but having done a lot of reading and understanding the anatomy I came to the conclusion that it doesn’t make sense to have PLF surgery on the ear if it is hydropic because it will unnaturally increase the pressure within the inner ear which might have unpredictable consequences, and indeed the patch is likely to break in this circumstance anyway, so whats the point? And here’s the rub: a PLF will almost certainly cause a degree of Hydrops, so what is the point? A patch won’t magically fix the fluid imbalance, how could it? The only thing is to leave it and hope it will naturally resolve whilst perhaps making sure you drink plenty each day.
All the people I’ve read here and on Healthboards who’ve had this surgery have had significant post operative symptoms. This wouldnt make sense if this procedure was so successful. If vertigo is a sign of leakage into the middle ear, then clearly if you have vertigo after a patch is placed, it has failed right there! (But caveat: there may be other physiological causes of vertigo, eg temporary compression/distortion of balance sense organs, increased blood/perilymph permeability messing up fluid concentrations)
I was considering PLF surgery last year having become fed up with my symptoms. I went to see a London specialist who is one of the few experienced in this operation. We both agreed conservative treatment in my case was best, and it seems to me that that may be true for most people. I have only improved since that meeting and I’m so glad I took that course of action. He claims an 80% success rate though … (but of course they might have recovered anyway … )
Thanks again for posting, I hope things improve for you.
but imho, be very wary about going down this road. PLF is but one of many explanations for the same set of symptoms also apparently explained by other diagnoses. Medicine is not yet sufficiently advanced such that I would recommend anything other than conservative treatment for the typical spectrum of MAV/PLF/VM/PPPD symptoms.
The most important things to exhaust first are medication, life-style improvements (including diet changes esp. the reduction in caffeine intake) & psychotherapy to reduce anxiety.
As you can see, PLF treatment can resolve some symptoms (e.g. vertigo) but it can do so at the some cost to your hearing, irreversibly so, potentially. Consider the likelihood that you might get better anyway if you persevere and would retain more of your hearing if you avoid surgery.
Yes, I can see that there are a number of possible issues with surgery. I think my specific situation does suggest PLF is at least a possibility though
