Unexpected CAVITY! A spontaneous Auto Atticotomy and the LIFE CHANGING results! 625

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]I did not expect to find what I found in this poor lady's ear.

[00:00:05]Uh what you're going to see here is the end of the video. So, it's a bit of a spoilable. I hope I'm showing it to you, so I hope you understand how difficult this thing was to get out and what we found at the end of it. And it was a it was a shocker.

[00:00:21]I really was not expecting it.

[00:00:23]It was a un- un- Get [snorts] Put my teeth back in again.

[00:00:27]It was an unexpectedly found cavity.

[00:00:33]And a cavity that should not have been there. It was not created by a surgery.

[00:00:39]It was a naturally formed what I think is an auto atticotomy.

[00:00:45]And what's that, you ask Nurse Richard?

[00:00:47]Well, I'll I'll tell you.

[00:00:50]I'll blind you with too much science.

[00:00:52]Um the long and short of it is that the top part of the ear canal eardrum is known as the attic region.

[00:01:00]Attic's top, roof, loft, however you want to describe it. That's why it's called the attic region.

[00:01:05]And this lady's had this giant ball of skin in this area for so long uh that it's been growing and growing and growing and through the process pro- process through the process of bony resorption, which is where this thing has been physically breaking down.

[00:01:26]Uh and it's been disrupting a destructive and it's breaking down the bone. So, it's been and it's it's been ever growing as more skin sheds. It's been ever growing forming this cavity.

[00:01:37]And who knows how far back that goes cuz it's absolutely huge.

[00:01:42]Um it was a real shocker.

[00:01:45]And it was beyond difficult to get out.

[00:01:48]This is a long video.

[00:01:50]Um so, for those of you maybe haven't got uh 20 20 25 minutes on your hands, then maybe go and do something else for a bit and come back when you have got time on your hands because this does take some time. And having seen what you've seen at the beginning, I the result of this giant skin ball eroded that area and caused that giant cavity. If you hadn't seen that, then you'd you'd you wouldn't understand it how how we got to this point, why is it taking so long, and it's all because of what you can see what you saw at the beginning.

[00:02:25]It's What I'm trying to say is there's more here than you think there is, but I didn't know that at the time.

[00:02:33]That's the key is I did get very frustrated with this. I'm not going to lie.

[00:02:37]And I can already hear some of you shouting, "Get a hook in that.

[00:02:43]Get forceps in it. Get whatever in."

[00:02:45]No.

[00:02:47]This is really deep in the ear. This is in the bony portion of the ear.

[00:02:50]And it's incredibly swollen. You'll notice You'll see a bit more when when I come in in and out of it.

[00:02:57]Just how swollen this ear canal is. It's really small. This isn't a big tube.

[00:03:01]That's not the full-size tube either.

[00:03:03]So, we haven't got much room in there because it's so swollen.

[00:03:07]But because this thing has been growing into this cavity and physically forming this this cavity itself.

[00:03:15]To get in something behind you For a start, you don't There's no room for a start.

[00:03:19]So, there's no room behind it, to the side of it.

[00:03:23]To the left, to the right, there's just no room. You can't go around it. And the only way you could even begin to do something is to embed something into it.

[00:03:32]But it's totally the wrong consistency for it. I did try on a couple of occasions.

[00:03:37]Um because this thing kind of it behaved like keratosis obturans.

[00:03:42]And what I mean by that is And if you don't know what that is, keratosis obturans is a is a condition where there's a failure of skin to shed in the ear canal cuz it normally sheds, moves out sideways, and in keratosis obturans it it doesn't do that. It just sheds and then it and then it you get this ever growing ball of dead skin.

[00:04:04]Uh as it sheds and it grows because the the outer layer of skin keeps keeps keeps forming.

[00:04:11]And that's kind of how this behaves. I know I've heard Neil describe it like a rubber ball.

[00:04:15]Uh and it's got like this connects kinetic energy in it that it keeps trying to pull it back inwards. And this is behaving just like that.

[00:04:24]Cuz it's kind of a um an artificially created ball of dead skin that behaves like an artificially created keratosis obturans, should I say.

[00:04:36]And it cuz it just it just kind of springs back into place.

[00:04:42]And um at some points as well, I think just there where you can see the the soft mushy skin. Again, it looks like keratosis obturans, doesn't it, because of the um the pale white skin on the outer edges.

[00:04:57]And I said the reason why it started, however, I must which I must explain. Nearly forgot to explain.

[00:05:03]If I'm forgetting a few things, it's because I'll tell you why.

[00:05:07]And [clears throat] why I might sound a little bit hoarse.

[00:05:09]I've just narrated this video.

[00:05:11]Uh which again, as you know, takes 25 minutes 25 minutes long.

[00:05:16]Um when I came to upload the narration, the microphone wasn't turned on.

[00:05:24]So, I'm [laughter] going to have to do it again. Thankfully, I've got time today.

[00:05:28]Uh well, if I sound like I you sound a bit hoarse, like you've been talking a lot. I have been talking a lot. I've been talking for the last 25 minutes nonstop for no reason.

[00:05:37]Which was very frustrating.

[00:05:40]But hopefully this one has recorded by the time I come to edit this video.

[00:05:47]Um so, yeah, this pale white skin that you can see around the outside, it's really tightly packed in against the ear canal wall.

[00:05:56]Which is all deep This is all in the the like inner third of the ear canal.

[00:06:01]We don't know that we're really close to it. I knew I knew it was.

[00:06:04]Um but you might see a little tinge of pink on the left-hand side of there.

[00:06:09]You know, there's going to be some granulation tissue. There's going to be a tiny little bit of contact bleeding as well.

[00:06:15]Which is unavoidable.

[00:06:17]You can get bleeding in some ears. It was only a small amount, to be honest.

[00:06:21]It wasn't a huge amount.

[00:06:23]But it can happen in because just because it's so tightly packed in that it's been forced against the skin that when you do finally pull it off, it bursts a couple of blood vessels.

[00:06:32]So, that's that's unavoidable.

[00:06:35]So again, used more oil. I think I tried both I think I tried both olive oil and sodium bicarbonate in this ear.

[00:06:43]Tend to find that sodium bicarbonate works a little better when it's skin like this.

[00:06:47]And you can see on the the right-hand side of it, the top right, where it's a bit red, that's where again there's going to be a a little bit of contact bleeding there.

[00:06:58]And believe it or not, she didn't feel any pain right throughout this procedure.

[00:07:03]Not that she told me anyway.

[00:07:05]Um but there's there's still Yeah, I forgot I'm forgetting again how we got to this point. So, this lady who was I think a similar age to me, so obviously 23, has been suffering with ear pain and repeated infections for a for many many many years.

[00:07:23]And I know a lot of people tell me in the comments, "How does a person let it get to this?

[00:07:28]Why don't they get it sorted?" This lady did go to a doctor on and off for years.

[00:07:34]Keep telling her that that she gets a really bad pain in her ears, really sharp stabbing pain. I'll tell you to give it its proper medical term.

[00:07:42]And what the doctors kept doing was giving her antibiotics cuz they thought this pain's coming from an infection. Because there probably was a number of infections over the years anyway with it with something like this.

[00:07:55]It's hard to think that there wouldn't be, to be honest.

[00:07:58]And some when she was given the antibiotics, yeah, it might have eased it a little bit, but on and off she'd still have pain. And she couldn't hear a thing out of this. So, she It had got to a point where uh she was told that just because you've had that many infections in your ear, it's probably damaged your eardrum and it's probably affected your hearing that you you just can't hear in this ear.

[00:08:17]You're just going to have to get used to that you you can't hear anymore.

[00:08:22]Um But not only that, I completely forgot what I was going to say. Not only >> [laughter] >> Oh, the first narration was much better than this.

[00:08:36]>> [laughter] [gasps] >> Anyway, I'm coming in with a a hook, as you can see, and I've been putting that off for a while now just because I know it's squishy and soft and it's just not the kind of stuff that you can hook out. It's not like a a firm ball. It's again like a rubber ball that's just got layers. So, all it'll do it it might pull out a a layer or two of skin, but there's no there's no gap to put it in.

[00:09:00]I'm trying to see if I can dig it in and it's it's like it's like hardened set jelly or Jell-O, depending on where you where you live, which side of the Atlantic you're from.

[00:09:12]And I can just see I'm I'm looking at You can tell my indecision, can't you, as I'm got that got that hook in there.

[00:09:18]I'm thinking, "Oh, what am I going to put this? There's nowhere to put it."

[00:09:21]So, I'm going to try the um the other end of it, the curette, which again I was really wary to use cuz I know that the eardrum is bound to be very close to here.

[00:09:31]And I don't want to bump into it cuz that would be disastrous.

[00:09:39]And also because I know that there's al- already because the clues are there that there's something terribly wrong with this ear.

[00:09:46]I know that at this point. I knew that as soon as I saw it, to be honest, because of all the swelling in the ear, the story that she'd given me.

[00:09:53]Uh she'd also had chronic tinnitus. She had had a constant ringing in her ear for um years.

[00:10:02]And a response to actually getting this out, when we got the last bit out, um I swear there was a few tears.

[00:10:08]Uh not not just the patient's, possibly mine as well at the relief that we'd finally got there.

[00:10:13]Um but she said, "I didn't know this was what it was" she'd forgotten what it was like to hear. "I didn't know what this was like to hear. I've completely got used to just hearing in one ear."

[00:10:24]The other ear was fine, by the way, absolutely nothing in that. It was absolutely perfect.

[00:10:28]Um but what was most staggering was that the um the ringing that she'd had in her ear, it was gone, just like that. It was It was quite remarkable.

[00:10:40]And that's one of the things I love about my job.

[00:10:45]And I do I mean that. I'm not just saying that. Um is that you can make a huge difference to someone's life in a relatively short space of time.

[00:10:53]You know, can can you imagine having a constant ringing in your ear, constant pain, and then and just being told that that well that's just how life is now.

[00:11:02]And then all of a sudden it's not. You know.

[00:11:06]So, here we go. You can see that a little bit of the eardrum has revealed itself now, can't you? So, in the bottom left corner you can see a little gray membrane there. That's the eardrum.

[00:11:17]And we're starting to finally get somewhere with Look at all this mushy dead skin.

[00:11:24]And again, that's just appeared out of nowhere, that, didn't it?

[00:11:29]And what's happened here?

[00:11:34]Oh, I should remember what happened here because I've just narrated this video.

[00:11:38]I've clearly forgotten to clip the bit where I'm in between where where it's where This is what happens when when I'm outside of the ear.

[00:11:45]You know, I might be able to quick chat to the patient. Um maybe clean the clean the end of the endoscope, and then go back in back in.

[00:11:53]Clearly when I was editing this video, I missed it.

[00:11:56]>> [laughter] >> I think everybody who has an ear channel has done that at some point.

[00:12:01]>> [laughter] >> Uh so, yeah, that's what you can see.

[00:12:04]May Actually, one of these days I was actually um considering um showing you how I make these, how we how we create them, and the technicalities behind it. If anyone's interested, um let me know.

[00:12:18]Because it there is a lot of work goes into it, believe it or not.

[00:12:22]And I used to be a bit rubbish at it, but through practice and a lot of um a lot of Googling stuff, >> [laughter] >> a lot of watching YouTube videos, uh I finally got the hang of most of it. So, yeah, if you want to see how we actually uh technically do all this and put these things together, then then let me know in the comments down below.

[00:12:44]Speaking of comments down below, I haven't done subscriber of the day, cuz that's where you need to leave yours if you want it to be you.

[00:12:51]And today's subscriber of the day is I'm Sorry, it's in really small writing.

[00:12:56]I've put it in the corner there. Karen Hall.

[00:12:59]Up there. Many thanks for your message, Karen.

[00:13:02]Uh I really appreciate your support of the channel, and today you are subscriber of the day, so congratulations.

[00:13:10]Oh, where are we? Well, we're more than halfway through.

[00:13:13]>> [laughter] >> You will start to see Can you see a little bit of purply pink tinge just above the eardrum and underneath this dead skin now?

[00:13:24]Now, I'm still in two minds as to as to what that is, because it's inevitable that there's some granulation tissue in this, you know, which which is inflammatory. Uh it's it's the way when there's an infection or trauma, the body's got an inflammatory response, and that's to create this give produce this fleshy granulation tissue that's like got its own blood supply.

[00:13:46]You know, I think there is some of that down there anyway, or is that actually the old canal wall before it started to erode into the top left corner of this ear?

[00:14:01]The honest answer is I don't know, but I suspect probably both, to be honest with you.

[00:14:07]Cuz I think the the the skin on the left-hand side there, I don't think beyond that. So, that was the canal wall, I think. And it's obviously got got very swollen.

[00:14:17]Um and I think that's where it's That's the point where it started eating away, and then going up top left.

[00:14:24]Uh to form that that humongous cavity that you saw at the beginning of the video. You will get a look at that um at the end as well.

[00:14:33]Again, more oil gone in here.

[00:14:38]I hope you're managing to stick with it.

[00:14:40]I've got to tell you as I mean, I know I said there was probably some tears at the end of this procedure, and some of them were mine, but I've got to tell you, me hands and me shoulders in particular were in absolute bits >> [laughter] >> after this video.

[00:14:54]>> [gasps] >> Uh after after doing this procedure, sorry.

[00:14:57]Cuz it it is painful having your hands so so tense and your arms and your shoulders so tense trying to do this with really really fine movements.

[00:15:08]Um so, I had to go and see my um my little lady friend from Thailand, who uh probably I'll probably the one of the the main reasons why I still do my job is this is this lady. And then she used to be in the same building as me. She had like a She does a special deep tissue massage uh I think only she only her can do.

[00:15:32]Where she climbs all over you, these elbows and knees and everywhere, and she's just because you cuz your muscles really tighten up.

[00:15:40]And I believe you get lactic acid build-up as well, and the the power she's got in her hands is ridiculous to to to like unknot these and to stretch out these muscles again.

[00:15:52]I don't know how she does it, but she's a she's a wonderful woman, probably my favorite woman next to me wife.

[00:15:59]>> [laughter] [gasps] >> And I I generally see her every like every two I I should go every two weeks.

[00:16:05]It's more like every three or four, to be honest.

[00:16:08]But I do do find it hard finding time to get to it. Sometimes after a procedure like this, I think I've just got to go and I've got to go and see her.

[00:16:23]I think I might try the hook again in a bit, actually.

[00:16:25]Because now I can see a little bit of space between the edge of the canal and that skin there.

[00:16:32]I don't know exactly how soon it's coming up.

[00:16:36]I think it's fairly soon.

[00:16:39]But I'm I'm fully expecting to get a lot of a lot of abuse in the comments.

[00:16:43]"Well, you should have got that sooner.

[00:16:44]Should have done this. Should have done that."

[00:16:47]I got it out. What do you care? I got it out. It doesn't matter how.

[00:16:52]We got it out.

[00:16:55]And you can see it's springing again, can't you? Behaving like keratosis obturans again, as I said before.

[00:17:04]More oil again.

[00:17:08]And I'm just holding trying to build up pressure.

[00:17:11]Cuz that's what happens when you attach a suction tube. It It really builds up the pressure.

[00:17:19]Ooh, look at that.

[00:17:24]I actually thought that if there was going to be a cavity, it was going to be up in the top right of this, actually, because there was more um the more of the of the white mushy dead skin that you often find when you're discovering these cavities.

[00:17:39]We are getting somewhere now. This bit's thinking about coming.

[00:17:45]And I am pulling with all my might there. A lot of it is disappearing up the tube, so you don't see a lot of it actually coming up the ear canal and coming out of it.

[00:18:02]I'm getting frustrated just watching it.

[00:18:03]I don't know about you lot.

[00:18:05]>> [laughter] [snorts] >> So, yeah, what else what else can we talk about? If you've never seen the videos before, um what is it I can tell you about an ear? There's only so much.

[00:18:16]>> [laughter] >> Uh what else can I tell you about? What have I been doing today? Actually, today I've been in I've been in nerd mode today. So, what I've been doing Oop, there it goes, snapped off.

[00:18:29]I've been nerd mode. What do I mean by that? What do I mean by that? So, I've been trying to figure out Oh, here comes the hook. Let me quickly do this and I'll tell you about what happened in nerd mode. Um so, I I can see that there is a little fold there that I can hopefully just get beyond. I don't want to go behind it cuz I don't again, I don't know what's there.

[00:18:48]There could be a a giant ball of granulation tissue, there could be a growth, there could be a anything behind there. So, I don't want to go too deep because I'll see that there might be some uncontrollable bleeding. So, all I'm trying to do is is separate that particular bit of skin from that from the edge of that wall.

[00:19:07]And again, I'm being really really careful cuz that's we already know that there's something down there.

[00:19:13]And it's too soft to dig it in, but the fact that I've uh flattened it out a little bit, I've give it a really good soft mushy surface, and you can get a much better grip with suction in that type of surface. So, yeah, nerd mode. What what have I been doing?

[00:19:27]I may have told you you'll If you watch YouTube regularly, you might have heard a lot of creators saying, "I don't know what's happened.

[00:19:34]It's I'm just not not getting the the growth that we used to. Not getting as many views. It's sometimes even going fewer or losing subscribers or less."

[00:19:43]And I think I got to the bottom of it because I saw a few videos.

[00:19:48]Um cuz this is what I do. I I go into a wormhole when I start wondering about stuff.

[00:19:54]And I saw review videos that people are using um AI tools like a Gemini, but I think mostly ChatGPT if they want to find something out.

[00:20:03]Which what people used to do and lots obviously still do. If you want to know how to do something or the answer to a maybe a bit of a complicated question, people would find a video on it on YouTube cuz there's going to be one.

[00:20:17]There's There's There's a video on how to do anything, isn't there?

[00:20:20]on YouTube. But apparently the growth in people asking uh these AI apps um people the growth between between that is almost the exact opposite to the fall in the views in the in the YouTube world.

[00:20:39]So, there's got to be a a link there.

[00:20:41]And obviously the less people that are using YouTube, whether they're looking for your content or not, they might have found your content after doing something else after after looking for a a how-to do this video.

[00:20:52]Um and to think that that's that's the reason why.

[00:20:58]Uh along with a few other things.

[00:21:00]Too many shorts on it as well. Too many shorts on YouTube and that's uh if you want to see less of them, you can press your three buttons at the top right of your screen and click uh show fewer shorts.

[00:21:13]Because I think the >> [snorts] >> the powers that be uh in YouTube think that people only have an attention span of 30 seconds, so they're deciding to show them more shorts rather than long-form content like this.

[00:21:26]But that's that's another thing.

[00:21:28]But another wormhole I fell into was the thumbnails.

[00:21:33]And I found out loads of stuff because it said a a lot of people these days actually use these There's an There's an AI tool actually in the YouTube app that we use to upload stuff. It's called YouTube Studio.

[00:21:47]And there's now a new uh AI tool in that and you can ask it stuff. So, you ask it stuff like what kind of title should I call this video?

[00:21:58]Or what should I put in the thumbnail?

[00:22:00]What should I put in the description?

[00:22:01]So, whatever you can see in the description down below, I haven't written it.

[00:22:05]I gave it the uh I gave it a a short idea of what the video was about and it writes the description. And it also comes up with a title.

[00:22:14]It all comes up with the suggestions.

[00:22:15]Few suggestions of titles and I say, "Yeah, I like that one. I don't like that one."

[00:22:19]Um it it even will tell you as far as what color to use the writing on your thumbnail. Your thumbnail is the picture that you see before you click on a video.

[00:22:29]Here comes one big chunk.

[00:22:31]The most satisfying one is to come though.

[00:22:33]Um it even goes as far as saying which font to use, which contrast of colors to use.

[00:22:39]And also I always used to put my me on the side that I am now in the thumbnail picture and the picture of the ear, which is usually like a a still image of what you what you're going to see in the video on the other side.

[00:22:52]And now it said, "You should do it the other way around."

[00:22:54]Because people generally pay attention to things from left to right. And the most interesting thing uh about your videos or your thumbnail is is not me. It's the It's the ear itself.

[00:23:07]So, they said, "You should put the ear on the left-hand side of it and you on the other side of it."

[00:23:12]So, if you notice the difference in the thumbnails, that's why. Because AI told me to.

[00:23:17]>> [laughter] >> And if this isn't I believe it is right.

[00:23:20]It said people will be more drawn to that color, they'll be more drawn to that formation. Right.

[00:23:25]Here's the really satisfying bit. So, this is the last bit of dead skin that I'm going to pull out of this cavity.

[00:23:32]And I'm going really slowly for a couple of reasons. I don't want it to break apart.

[00:23:38]And I also know that this is going to be the money shot and you're all going to enjoy watching this, so I slowed it down a little bit.

[00:23:45]And just look at this ball of dead skin.

[00:23:48]Now, that's been It was longer than I thought that.

[00:23:51]And you'll see when I go back in just how far back that cavity goes.

[00:23:57]Again, this is a um a similar uh clip to what you saw at the very very beginning of the video.

[00:24:06]There is a couple of more bits that I am going to try and get because I can see there's a little bit there.

[00:24:14]Can you just see it there? Just around the corner. It's difficult to get to this.

[00:24:18]And it's almost impossible to get to it without catching the ear a little bit, which I think we might have done there. And tiny little bit of bleeding.

[00:24:28]But that bit had to go, that's for sure.

[00:24:30]So, yeah. This You can get We'll get a good good old better look at this now.

[00:24:35]So, we can see the eardrum now.

[00:24:37]Whether we can see all of it, I don't think so.

[00:24:40]So, uh it's probably a combination that of of bone, possibly granulation tissue underneath it.

[00:24:50]But all that in the top left corner has been artificially created by this huge ball of skin that's been ever growing in there and artificially creating it. Obviously this lady's going to need a scan to see just how far back that goes. It was physically impossible to get like uh the right angle in here. Cuz imagine you've got endoscope is straight, ear canal straight. And it's up there it was physically impossible without having an angled endoscope to actually look any further up there than we already than we already are doing.

[00:25:21]I am just trying to see if it's possible to reach that bit of dead skin there.

[00:25:24]And it really wasn't.

[00:25:28]There was just no way it was possible to reach that.

[00:25:32]So, we're going to have a another look in here.

[00:25:36]Now, I wouldn't be surprised this lady obviously needs extensive surgery.

[00:25:39]Um maybe explorat- exploratory surgery as well to maybe see if there's any hidden cholesteatoma as well. They They'll You'll see the scan first and foremost and then they'll they'll make a plan of what to do.

[00:25:54]And don't forget if you have enjoyed this video, then please feel free to subscribe to the channel. I would really appreciate it.

[00:26:00]Or click a like button, that costs nothing.

[00:26:04]Uh if you want to even see if you want to see more of this type of stuff, um you can consider becoming a member of the channel as well, which I would appreciate. Uh but if not, just feel free to subscribe to it, like to it, hype it. Anyway, I hope you found that interesting.

[00:26:17]Um by the way, I've not told you what the background of the day is. This is just outside my sister's house in the Scottish Borders.

[00:26:24]So, I took that picture. The fact that it's a picture that I took has nothing to do with the fact that uh I may have had a couple of copyright complaints about some of the other backgrounds I used.

[00:26:32]Nothing to do with it at all.

[00:26:34]>> [laughter] >> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that. But for now, take care of yourself and I'll see you soon.

[00:26:38]Ta-ta.

[00:26:46]>> [bell]