Sporn again! Bought a tiny camera to lol inside my ears and my eardrum looks really weird. Warning! Grim pics

[trashcanjunkie]

I posted this yesterday but left my bloody name on the pics by mistake so here goes again!

I have had lifelong ear issues and recently had drumming tinnitus. I bought a tiny camera and when I saw my eardrum I googled the description and have decided it is cholesteatoma. I have a gp appointment on Friday next week.

Tbh the pics are not clear enough to show anything, it's just a mess of colour with absolutely no clear image. I'm glad you have a GP appointment. Not sure what you are asking though?

Doesn't look normal at all. The purple areas especially. I hope you get referred

Yikes.

I guess the aibu is my self diagnosis of a fatal condition! Through ridiculous means of a camera bought online and dr Google. The pics aren’t great but I have marked out the eardrum in green and what I think is a hole by my ear drum with cholesteatoma leaking into the ear canal in orange.

Oops here’s that pic

It won’t post dammit

Ah success

Dr Google doesn't seem to think it's fatal IF it even is that

I need one of those, where did you purchase it please

I found some online images which I think look similar

Wombatstew not immediately fatal but because it’s basically a cyst made of dead skin, it grows continuously and eventually pushes out through the mastoid bones and squashes the bones of hearing. If left it will cause lesions on the brain and meningitis.

Goldenhoops it is cool! It was about $20 (not sure in pounds as I used PayPal) it took a few weeks to arrive. You have to download an app to use it on whichever device you have, eg phone or laptop.

www.inskam.com/index.php/Product/index/cid/379.html

Both my brother and sister have had a cholesteatoma and have had multiple surgeries to remove it and rebuild their ear drums. They have both survived to tell the tail and their hearing isn't too bad. Just see the GP and try not to worry.

Yeahyourright thanks that’s very reassuring. Of all the things to have growing in your skull, I’m happy it’s something so fixable, I’m just a bit freaked out by how strange it is. Did your brother and sister have them in both ears too? I looked in one of the dcs ears earlier and I think they also have it. I’m going to get them checked too. I have a collagen disorder so I have a few weird and wonderful things that already happened in my body. I recently discovered I have a kind of cleft palate that often goes undiagnosed. It’s been a week of discovering secret caverns in me!

@trashcanjunkie

I posted this yesterday but left my bloody name on the pics by mistake so here goes again!

I have had lifelong ear issues and recently had drumming tinnitus. I bought a tiny camera and when I saw my eardrum I googled the description and have decided it is cholesteatoma. I have a gp appointment on Friday next week.

Hahaha my god. My mum did exactly the same! I spent ages looking in her ears LOL I did it to mine out of curiosity but I have ridiculous baby ears and couldn't even get it in 🙈

Looks normal to me (practice nurse) but get your GP or practice nurse to check.

Also would be helpful to have your blood pressure checked.

My sister had it in one ear and brother had it in both. They had constant ear infections growing up and I think that was how it was picked up

That looks normal to me. I will confess that I'm a vet not a ENT Dr. But I look in a lot of ears 😆

Cinders my blood pressure was checked very recently with a 24 hour monitoring thing. It was normal. What isn’t visible in the pics is the cavity off my ear drum that goes up and the strange yellow and black discharge which has adhered to the canal wall. I will have to update after the doctors!

It looks different to my ear drum and I’d consider mine normal and issue free.

I got one of those cameras when I had blocked ears. One was completely blocked with wax and needed syringing and I’ve used the camera to have a look inside every few weeks since! Find it fascinating lol.

Didnt Oscar Wilde die from a cholsteatoma?

Update- I saw the practice nurse on Friday. He couldn’t see the holes with his instruments but could see the drums, which he said were scarred but also ‘in a shocking way’. He listened to my symptoms and gave me a really thorough head/neck exam. He’s referred me for an urgent appointment at the ENT department.

Fingers crossed you get your answers

Good luck @trashcanjunkie