I got tubes installed twice. The second time, they didn't take them out for like, 6 years, so it left a little hole in my ear drum. That eardrum proceeded to rupture. Three times. I love my ears.
Most recently, I had excrutiating pain in that ear, along with extremely thick, dark brown (almost black) pussy-wax draining out of it, and headed to the doctor. He started cleaning it out with the waxvac. So, he gets almost all of it out and gets to my drum, and he's like "oh, huh!" Apparently, there was some sort of "granular tissue," basically, MY EARDRUM WAS TRYING TO EAT A HOLE THROUGH ITSELF. So, he was cleaning the wax off of that (which is one of the most excrutiating pains I've ever experienced), and then I had to start injecting an ointment, about the consistancy of petrolium jelly, directly into my ear canal. I may not have had it as bad as you, Mr. Works, but I'm probably quite close.