You mentioned Catheters in the ET....on doing some more reading it seems this is just shoving a tube up the ET into the middle ear in order to force ventilation.
If you have fluid in the ear then this might be a good technique....it would allow it all to drain out and fingers crossed it might not re-appear. A myringotomy could also help.
If you have patulous ET then you will get a bunch of additional symptoms...the tube is open all the time so you'll be able to hear your own voice loudly in your head when you're talking and will have great sensitivity to sounds so I'm told as there is an open path between the outside air and your middle ear.
My ENT specialist was very dubious about ET surgery....I'm aircrew so I need to make sure my tubes work as well as they can and I'm very reluctant to mess with nature. As I sit and type this, my jaw feels very tight and is aching quite a bit. I'm convinced that is is aTMJ issue for me at least...WG do you have any jaw tension??