Received the CT confirming vascular Eagle’s about a month ago. I’ve been taking a little more pregabalin than I had previously, it helps some. My physiatrist said he’s got nothing even though his PA’s trigger point injections did some good, but only lasted a day or two. I figured she was in the right spot, lets use some cortisone and prolong the relief…apparently that’s a no go.
My left styloid process is compressing my left IJV which causes compensation on the right side distending my right IJV and I have swelling in my right SC joint which became very arthritic. No ortho or neurosurgeon could explain the pain source until the CT.
I set up a patient record with Dr Cognetti today and fedex’ed the CT disc. I assume best case it’s going to be a year until I can be scheduled to get this fixed. Do I just take pregabalin, flexeril, occasional diazapam when I want to be social. Any suggestions are appreciated, I’m not a newbee to pain, but I am a newbee to some of my worsening symptoms.
@mlodufan - Welcome to our forum! I appreciate that you’re being realistic about the timeline to see Dr. Cognetti for surgery. If you’ve requested to be on his cancellation list, that might expedite your initial consult w/ him & in turn your surgery date.
There are a couple of other surgeons in your area who are also very experienced w/ styloidectomies & IJV decompression. Dr. Costantino in NY has been doing those surgeries for years & Dr. Liu in NJ was added to our Doctors List about a year ago. I think both of them have a shorter wait time than Dr. Cognetti. The reason Dr. Cognetti books out so far is that he gives priority to his cancer patients & only does ES consults one day/month (the last Fri., I think) & also only gives one day/month to ES surgeries. Other doctors give more priority to ES/vES surgeries.
Your nerve pain meds/muscle relaxant/headache med. regimen sounds good & is likely the best you can do for the time being. If you’re not sleeping with head elevation at night, add that in. It may take some experimenting to find how much elevation is optimal. Icing your neck can help too - 20 min on w/ a thin cloth between skin & ice pack to protect your skin. You can do this several times a day to see if it helps.
I don’t believe there is anything your physiatrist can do to help you. A few members have tried steroid dose packs, but just as with the injections, they only help for a limited time.
I’m sorry I can’t offer more helpful information. Here’s a post written by @Jules, one of our moderators, about pain management. Maybe there’s something there that I haven’t thought of -