Comment by dhosek

It might be the condition I have, otosclerosis, where the bones of the middle ear fuse. The surgery, a stapedectomy, involves removing the bones and replacing them with a metallic prosthesis. Unfortunately, in my case, the calcification is also happening in my cochlea which means that at some indeterminate time in the future, I will end up losing all hearing. Not to mention that even with the prosthetic, my hearing isn’t 100% so I have a difficult time understanding speech. There might be some gene therapy that can remedy things, but I think what I may be hoping to see is the ability to grow a new inner and middle ear from stem cells and transplant them into my head, but I suspect that at age 55, I won’t see this happen in time for me.