Ear Tubes: What They Do, and Why Doctors Are Awesome

Kaeta has had recurring ear infections, so today she got ear tubes. Thanks to a poster in the ear doctor’s office, I learned (more or less) how they work.

Behind your eardrum, you’ve got 3 small bones — they have latin names, but on the poster they were called the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. Sound waves vibrate your ear drum, which passes the vibration along these 3 bones. The last bone (the stirrup, which really looks like a stirrup) is connected to your cochlea.

The cochlea looks like a snail, and it’s full of liquid. The sound vibration now passes into that liquid, and it’s somehow converted to an electrical signal that passes through your cochlear nerve to your brain.

Meanwhile, your eustachian tube connects from your throat to somewhere behind your eardrum. Its purpose is to equalize the pressure behind your eardrum. The tube widens when you yawn or swallow, which is why that can make your ears pop when you change altitudes on an airplane.

Kaeta’s problem, as I understand it, is that her eustachian tube isn’t developed enough yet to really be doing its job. When she gets an ear infection, her middle ear (right behind the eardrum) gets inflamed and filled with puss, raising the pressure, and there is no way to release it.

Sometime between Friday and today, Kaeta’s left eardrum ruptured. It will heal back, but I’m sure it was really painful for her, and that explains her attitude the past couple of days. But it just confirms that getting tubes was a good idea — by rupturing her eardrum, her body was doing (in a less controlled way) the same thing the tubes do — poking a hole in the eardrum to help the pressure equalize and to let the fluid back there drain out.

Already, Kaeta is seeming to feel somewhat better, and I’m sure that will continue as her eardrum heals. One thought I had was this: This operation wasn’t something we could do for her; we had to rely on the doctors and nurses. They studied hard for years and went through a ton of training to be able to do this for our daughter. God gave them the skills, interests, and drive to become excellent doctors, and they are using those skills to love and serve their neighbors — us! We’re really thankful for them!