Do i need middle ear surgery? about a year ago i caught a cold that developed into bronchitis. during this time, i had a build-up of fluid behind my right eardrum. even after i recovered from the bronchitis, i still felt something behind my eardrum and it

If : If you are cleaning blood out of your ear, it is likely to be from the external auditory canal (unless you had a perforated eart drum). I hope that you are not putting objects in your ear canal. This could lead to infection and/ or injury. You could have intermittent fluid buildup in your middle ear which could be impacting your hearing. If you are strongly concerned that your doctor is incorrect, you could request a consult to see an otolaryngologist. Take care.

Sometimes : Sometimes fluid in the middle ear can last a long time. The thin, serous fluid can turn into thick mucous. If there is chronic inflammation, the bones in the middle ear (ossicles) and become stiff. All these things can cause a prolonged hearing loss. Simply looking in the ear is sometimes hard to discern fluid/mucous, or persistent inflammation. If you have been having problems for this long, i would recommend a full hearing test, that will look for hearing loss from nerve problems (sensorineural), loss of vibrations, (conductive) or both (mixed), and will also look at the pressures in the middle ear with a tympanogram. Good luck.