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[Guest guest]

My doctor told me to put a dab of petroleum jelly (Vaseline) in my hand, work the cotton ball through it, and then put the Vaseline-saturated cotton ball in my ear. Doing this has done a great job keeping water out of my ear canal post-surgery (which was on 10 May, and during which the doctor discovered that two of my hearing bones had eroded completely and the third had been compromised; he also had to rebuild my eardrum and part of my ear canal), but then I also hold a plastic glass over my ear to shield it when I'm spraying water anywhere near the ear. Might be overkill, but . . . I've had no problem washing my hair using this method. If any shampoo or soap is on the ear itself afterward, I just use my damp washcloth to wipe it away. When I take the cotton ball out, I dab the outer part of the ear canal with a tissue to wipe away any

residual Vaseline and ensure that there is no water in the ear. So far so good!P.S. I joined this group when I was diagnosed with cholesteatoma in early March 2010. I've been lurking on this board ever since! I'm going back to the doctor ( Brown, who is at Weill Cornell in New York, NY) tomorrow for my four-week post-op consultation. I'll have a prosthesis installed in about 3–5 months, during which time he'll check to make certain there's been no regrowth. I'm in my mid 40s, and this is my first experience with cholesteatoma. I had no chronic ear infections when I was growing up, and no discharge/earache previous to my finding out I had this condition. Kind of a surprise!