Per Muggles:
The Dr. had to see me
every day for a week to rinse out the infection and clean them out with
q-tips, which was so painful I'd cry like a baby just when he'd touch my
ears, let alone go to cleaning them. By the 5th day, he finally could
see my ear drums and the pain was bearable by that time. After the
scabs fell off from the ear drums he told me there was some scarring,
but didn't say anything about hearing loss.

I has a similar experience in the military - except for typical
incompetent military medical attention.

It was only one ear. When it was all over and the eardrum finally
ruptured inwards (MAJOR sense of relief...), it wrapped around the
little bones in the ear.

Got back to the doc that had not treated me properly, he snapped his
fingers a few times, said "Can you hear that".... "Nope, not a
thing...", then he took a look in there and this "Oh **** !" expression
crossed his face... and I think he knew he could be in trouble over this
one..... sent me to a specialist who took a little suction tube and
un-stuck the eardrum from the bones and tacked it back in place.

But I do not think I lost any hearing from that one.... because it would
have shown up on tests as different results for each ear.

A side "benefit" of the chain saw experience was constant very high
pitched tones in both ears......


All-in-all, I'll take the deafness because before that I was constantly
tormented by sounds that were above the pitch that most people can hear.
Had to quit a perfectly good management trainee job at the local bank
because I could hear the ultrasonic emitters for the security system and
they practically blew my brains out....

OTOH, this lady who sat right under one of them - and claimed she could
not hear anything - had these huge bags under he eyes and dark circles
around her eyes - so I have to wonder if there is an effect even though
a person cannot hear the sound.
--
Pete Cresswell