Cholesteatoma Battles

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Ever since I was a kid, I've always had constant inner and outer middle ear infections - the GPs always gave me antibiotics and never looked into it regardless of my long history of ear infections. Late 2017, I started experiencing smelly fluid leaking out of my right ear, and I didn't know what it was. Months later (early 2018) I used a cotton bud (Never do this, it is not advisable) to clean out my ear, and bright red blood came out. So I went to the GP who gave me antibiotics as a trial. It didn't work. He sent me to get a CT scan with concerns of a cholesteatoma. Nothing came up. We trialled ear drops. That didn't work either. So my doctor referred me to an ENT specialist where they did more tests, including a hearing test which showed fast hearing loss in my right ear. It took about three months before an official diagnosis, where my hearing in that ear disappeared completely within that time frame. I had a surgery in December 2018 to get rid of the cholesteatoma as that is the only treatment option. I had tympanomastoidectomy to get rid of the disease and fix my eardrum, which had retracted. Throughout 2019 I've had constant monitoring which lead me to have another surgery early 2020 for bone reconstruction of all three of my hearing bones which had been taken out in the last surgery. Now I have hearing back (not clear though, just amplified), and awaiting my next hearing test.