Definitely better out than in! Keep strong, I’m sure you’ll soon see improvements 
2 Likes
Elena,
THANK YOU so much for your courage. I had the first meeting with Dr. Hackman on 1/23, and was VERY impressed with him. This after having met with another doctor in LA (who shall not be named). I hope that your recovery continues wonderfully well. Know that others that continue to suffer what you’ve gone through appreciate you.
A question: Did you consider staying at the SECU Family House? I was given a flyer for it by the staff.
5 Likes
Hi @HappyBear and thank you for the kind words. Glad you were able to see Dr.Hackman, he’s indeed a wonderful doctor and person.
I did consider SECU but since we had a 3 year old with us it wasn’t ideal for my recovery, I wanted my own room to be able to rest and sleep during the day so we stayed at an Airbnb within about 12 minutes from UNC, that worked perfect for us.
3 Likes
@HappyBear - we have had members who stayed in the SECU housing & were quite satisfied with it.
2 Likes
THAT is wonderful to know! Thank you 
On a different note I just experienced severe shortness of breath and headache at a Costco while having a conversation with an employee. This from just talking…Bizarre. I think it’s the constricted blood flow to the head…Styloids have probably gotten larger since my images were done, July 2023 and are constricting the jugular veins more than the already documented 50%.
Could be that or the vagus nerve, it can get compressed by styloids too & cause lots of nasty symptoms! Hopefully surgery will help you
2 Likes
I get this excessive yawning feeling when I talk a lot. It’s like a strange hollow breathlessness that’s hard to explain. Sounds similar to what you describe.
2 Likes
I have battled the excessive yawning for years… would come and go and only way I understood it was my blood gasses would get ‘off’ …
I have shallowed breathed for years and am working on that problem.
I can’t quite tie it to my (removed!!!) styloid … unless my really tight scalenes pulling my first rib was part of the cause … and were the scalenes affected by the styloid (?). I am working on those as well and definitely it is better… just not sure how much better they will get …
5 Likes
Elena! So happy to hear your post op is improving❤️ those styloids are INTENSE. I’m so hopefully for you as you continue to heal, so will your pre op symptoms! Hang in there!
4 Likes
Jules,
I think you’ve a strong point; it may very well be the Vegas Nerve. My symptoms have definitely gotten worse. I’ve got to tell you, reading Elena’s post, and seeing her pictures helps to give me both confidence and more courage for my own surgery. It’s also further affirmation that Dr. Hackman IS the correct choice. I will include more information about my visit with him here Visit with Dr. Hackman in NC 1/23/2024 - #5 by HappyBear
4 Likes
Thought I would update on the recovery progress. Today is 3 weeks post op bilateral styloidectomy.
Swelling has definitely gone down considerably but not completely gone and still slightly fluctuates depending on the day. I’ve been slacking with icing and using more heat instead to help with muscular pain that comes and goes. Still too early to judge on the symptoms improvement - it seems like all the symptoms are still present, my worst ones were headaches and nerve pain, but I’ve had a couple of days where I might have seen some improvement although short lived, no consistency whatsoever and might be due to medication I’m still taking although I’ve cut down on prescription pain meds to one pill a day or some days none at all. Otherwise continuing Ibuprofen/Tylenol, Maxalt and occasional low dose Valium to help sleep at night. Thc/cbd balm helps with muscular pain. Lymphatic drainage that I’ve started doing with the help of YouTube videos seems to help some too. Still very frustrating not seeing any visible improvements but I keep reminding myself how early out of surgery I still am and to be patient.
I had my f/up with Dr. Hackman last week over the phone and got green light to remove surgical glue. Definitely not ready for scar strips yet but using salves and balms to help incisions heal. Dr. Hackman also approved doing PT or massage therapy if I feel comfortable with it but I decided to wait a little longer as the area is still too tender for any pressure to be applied to it plus from chin down is still completely numb.
Another positive is I started driving, not very long distances but still, it’s good to be mobile. I keep forgetting not to overdo things and on several occasions I paid for it dearly. It’s crazy how much our neck muscles are involved in absolutely everything we do and how hard it is to do anything without straining those muscles. Yesterday I went to dump the sewer in our camper and the simple act of squatting and pulling on a lever put me in a world of pain in my occipital area today. As if it wasn’t enough to learn my lesson I repeated the sewer maneuver today 
Ibuprofen, pain med, and a heating pad were my best friends. No more sewer dumping for this crazy lady for the next couple of months. 
I hope this helps someone looking at a timeline of healing post bilateral styloidectomy although everyone is different and not everyone will endure as slow a recovery as mine. I’ll try to update in another month or so. Thank you everyone for all the support and encouragement, it is highly appreciated 
5 Likes
Your incisions look incredible, @Elena! I know it’s VERY HARD to be patient when you want to feel better but your mindset is good & ES surgery recovery is definitely an exercise in patience. I was totally in the same boat as you with regard to overdoing things too soon after surgery. I just wanted to be done healing so I could get up & go so I pushed it & paid for it! Those setbacks are annoying but don’t let them discourage you. You will be able to get back to doing those “fun” activities (like dumping the sewage 
) gradually. Being able to drive now is a great step forward !!
3 Likes
@Isaiah_40_31 Thank you so much for the encouragement. It’s very tempting to start doing things immediately when you feel even a glimpse of “normalcy” and so hard to pull yourself back and tell yourself to sit or lay and do nothing My husband is already doing so much and I feel bad not contributing but on the plus side he doesn’t mind doing it all, of course he’s tired and stressed but never once has he complained about anything, I’m truly lucky. At the same time I’m not the kind of person who enjoys laying around doing nothing. Well maybe that’s not always the truth 
I must admit I have enjoyed binge watching some of my favorite 
shows that I wasn’t able to do prior to surgery. So here’s another positive
3 Likes
I forgot to add one detail - pulsatile tinnitus (whooshing in the ears) has definitely improved tons possibly due to swelling going down and I barely ever have it anymore, only when I overdo things and even then it’s nowhere near as loud and overwhelming/constant as it used to be. So one more positive to note
3 Likes
Hooray on reduced whooshing! That is something to celebrate. Before ‘meeting’ my styloid, I had gotten up to 2 hours a day walking on the treadmill (winter time)… It seemed for me the two hour mark was when my muscles started getting loose… and my goal was just that… give them oxygen and internal heat.
I wasn’t able to do it with my styloid position (something moved to start my problems… and I have an unhappy cervical spine).
I’m back to walking and realize carving out that amount of time with a 3 yr old is likely impossible! But an fyi on the muscles… mine were dysfunctional for so long… I am hoping to get them back to some level of pliability.
I was also getting botox for migraines prior to meeting my styloid. I stopped because I sensed that something ‘mechanical’ was the problem. While recovering I still have tight temporalis, jaw, suboccipitals and levator scapulas. I have passed on getting a treatment to see where things stand and am evaluating now…I may get another treatment to help pain while continuing to recover and work on my muscles. And FYI there is a botox savings plan where they rebate (it was $750 to $1000) on the botox per treatment … and that is typically 4 times per year.
As @Isaiah_40_31 said, definitely give all your muscles grace and time… but look to other things to help you through if need be.
All the best ))
3 Likes
Hang on to those positives, even if they’re small! The incisions look like they’re healing well…take care of yourself and hopefully there’ll be more improvements now that the swelling’s starting to go down. Hugs and prayers
1 Like
@Leah Your inspiring and encouraging comments are so appreciated, thank you for sharing your experience with recovery.
My 3 year old goes to full time daycare but it’s still impossible to walk on a treadmill as there’s no room for it in the camper I do go outside for short walks with the weather allows and here in NC it’s been pretty good compared to negatives back home. The last couple of days have been a struggle though as any sort of movement exacerbates the left sided neck/occipital pain that I suddenly developed (not sure if due to overdoing things or just a part of post surgical healing).
I’m so happy that Botox works for you but I personally am afraid of putting it in my body although I do know plenty of people get very good results both from cosmetic and pain relieving standpoints.
I started working virtually with a friend who is an LMT and doing lymphatic drainage daily as well as some breathing exercises. I have tried homeopathy without much success of replacing medication with it but oh well. This friend LMT is an ES patient herself and has never taken any meds, instead been managing with self massage and herbal remedies, even after her surgery last year, but she must be an alien as I can’t imagine handling the pain without medication.
I’m looking into trying medical massage at a local place I found but still hesitant as I don’t want to make anything worse in the early stages of healing.
Thank you for all the suggestions, hope you continue improving and feeling better
2 Likes
@Jules Thank you, incisions are definitely healing great although they still feel hard, bumpy and tight which is normal for the early stages of healing. I can’t complain about the way they look though, Dr. Hackman did an excellent job, the once’s by ears are barely visible already.
I appreciate the words of wisdom and positivity
2 Likes
Yes, very normal for incisions to feel like that, massage them when they’re healed enough & aren’t too tender…I used Bio oil on mine…
2 Likes
I found cut up lidocaine patches very helpful for nerve pain. Over-the-counter are 4% lidocaine and prescription are 5%. Perhaps they could provide you some relief. ))
3 Likes