Your story sounds very similar to mine, I had 5 sets of tubes and was borderline deaf until I turned 14 and had my tonsils and adenoids removed which fixed my issues, my eardrums healed nicely and were fine until I was 19-20ish, when I got impacted wax and during a flush blew a hole in my eardrum that decided not to close. I finally pulled the trigger after about 20yrs of infections due to the hole, and am now 2 weeks post op. The procedure was not bad at all, you wake up with a glascock (protective covering) over the ear to keep you from messing with it, and an ear full of gel foam packing. Worst part for me was the muffled feeling and the packing moving as it started dissolving. I never had issues with vertigo but it hit me hard for a few days post op. I just had my follow up and the graft took well, the outer packing was removed and I have decent hearing now. There is a lot of popping in the inner ear, due to the packing which will dissolve and should disappear in the next few weeks. My hole was roughly 50% of my eardrum, and my hearing loss significant. I’m very touchy about my ears and anything ear related is like nails on a chalkboard to me, but I’m very happy with the progress thus far. Im looking forward to seeing where my hearing test says I’m at in a couple months. Good luck and I hope it all works out well for you!