Hi all,
I haven’t been on here for quite some time. I had unilateral styloidectomy in November 2024 but continued to be in a lot of discomfort and pain for most of last year. I took it upon myself to travel to Australia last year to get second opinions and met with Dr Elliott and Dr Rau (neurosurgeon Elliott works with). Despite categorising the jugular compression quite high due my C1 TP, Rau was more convinced my issues stem from hyper mobility. Elliott wanted further testing which I did not complete as I was paying out of pocket and also did not want to do the catheter based arterial imaging suggested.
Anyway, while over there I was a complete mess. I was in and out of emergency hospital with severe chest pain, cervical pain and had blood pooling in my legs when I stood, as well as all of my other Eagles symptoms. I had to extend the trip out to 4 weeks just to feel well enough to get on the plane back home. I think I mentioned this before, but whilst trying to recover from this acute episode I was introduced to a physio who uses the Neubie machine for vagus nerve resets and general muscle manipulation. This was my saving grace - it not only relieved a lot of the acute tension in my neck and dulled symptoms, but it also confirmed that once the tension was dialled done that the real source of pain was coming from my opposite hip.
My body had done so well to compensate for a bad hip that I wasn’t even aware the hip was the main problem. I’ve definitely had issues with my lower back/glute in the past from a sports injury as well as bloating and pelvic pain but been told in the past it was gyno related. I had also suspected my hip might be a problem after I had read about @Isaiah_40_31 ’s story but two specialists were convinced my hips were normal and this slowed down a diagnosis.
While I waited months to see a new orthopaedic specialist I started to recognise that when I would get pain or symptoms in my neck, it was because I wasn’t putting my weight evenly across both hips - favouring the better one.
Fast forward to today and I am now 4 weeks post right hip arthroscopy for a severely torn labrum, FAI impingement bone reshaping and capsular plication because of instability. I’ve been using ChatGPT to help me through everything and it’s funny because without giving much detail, it competently linked the calcified ligament in the neck to the hip issue via the twisting of the torso/head to compensate for the pain and instability of the hip.
MSK neuro has a great article about how eagles syndrome is a postural condition and from my experience this hypothesis seems to be valid. I know @Isaiah_40_31 ’s was connected to her hips too, so just thought I’d put this out there for anyone who can’t find a cause or resolution to symptoms. It might not be obvious to check your hips/knees etc because you don’t have pain/symptoms or simply because you’ve managed to live with the small inconveniences that they present, but these can be much larger than we realise. Our bodies are so good at finding ways to cope and distributing loads to other parts of the body to manage.
I still have some Eagles symptoms such as today realising I have visual snow when I tilt my head with only my affected eye open. I’m hoping with some quality rehab for the hip and then improving my posture compensations I will be able to be much closer to recovering from all of this.
For all of those still going through the worst of it, be patient with yourself. You are amazing for getting this far and persevering despite all of the setbacks the global health system presents. It has taken me 13 years to get to this point and I’m still optimistic that there will be a time that I feel good again 
though there’s much in between those two points that can also be affecting health in unimaginable ways. I’m so glad you found the link for yourself & hope & will pray for the hip surgery & ensuing PT to give you immense improvement in the way you feel. I hope your body is so happy to have a fixed hip that it heals quickly so you can enjoy more active time w/ your son.
