Hello, I originally came across this issue after trying to massage my jaw for TMJ, pushing on the inside of my jaw I felt a bone in the back of my throat near my tonsil. (right side).
Symptoms -
Massive brain fog
right side of face nerve pain/ache
tongue control is off (slurred speech, always biting tongue , cant talk as fast)
Easier to talk with higher pitch voice
POTS symptoms, passing out completely and falling
neck pain mostly Right side
Collarbone/sternum pain, right arm/shoulder feels like its not aligned right at all
Can never seem to hold head straight, always craned
Vision issues
occasionally Feeling like im drunk, poor walking coordination
I got my CT scan done today, here are some key views
While you wait for the experts i can tell you that right side looks like the IJV is getting more smashed than mine. My symptoms are not as severe as yours. It seems post after post is showing up here with jugular veins appearing to have issues which make me think more common than ENT doctors realise. Try rotating your pics around to various angles and different settings such as black and white.
The Blender 3d software can really help figure out what happens when you turn your head but i have no hope in figuring out that program. If you are tech savvy you can turn radiant files into .stl and then import to Blender. This can show what happens when you move neck 15 degrees and so on.
@aluminum - The first & third images look like your head is in an extreme chin tuck & in that position, it looks like you have bilateral IJV compression w/ your IJVs being squashed between your styloids & the transverse processes of C1, however, the right does look worse than the left to me, too. It also looks like you’ve developed collateral veins which are extra veins the body creates to help w/ the outflow of blood from your brain when the IJVs aren’t doing their job as well as they need to. Your cervical spine is very straight in the pics you sent which can also exacerbate ES nerve & vascular symptoms. This seems to be a problem many of our members have. Restoring your lordotic neck curve could be helpful in relieving some of your symptoms however, it takes time & consistency. There are YouTube videos with exercises to help or you can try PT. You should be very careful if you choose to work with a PT since you do have some vascular compression & don’t want to make the symptoms worse.
IJV compression would explain your massive brain fog, PTS, vision issues & “occasionally Feeling like im drunk, poor walking coordination”. Your other symptoms are more the type we see when nerves are being irritated by the elongated styloids. Your right styloid is definitely longer than the left but the left is thicker. Remember that styloids don’t have to be exceptionally long to cause problems. Other physical attributes such as thickness, angle of growth, how curved, pointed or twisted they are can also weigh in.
Since you’ve uploaded your images to dicom library, you should be able to manipulate them in the ways @JugularEagle mentioned using the menu dicom library gives you at the top of the page w/ the images.
Thank you! Pointing out the lack or lordotic curve is especially helpful, as it looks like restoring that would angle the styloids away for the C1. Just doing 1 exercise with a towel was a relief
This post is not meant to discourage you at all since you got relief but I do want you to see something. I looked up what you might be doing with the towel on youtube and came across two PT guys called Bob and Brad. Before they even get started with the towel they bring up the dreaded maneuvers that PTs like to recommend but that MSK Neurology warns about on Youtube.
I also have the neck issue and went through PT with those maneuvers and had to stop for the reason explained by MSK Neurology.
Everyone’s body is different and chin tucks and rearing your head back might work for you but they were a disaster for me. I cringed when I saw Bob and Brad recommending it almost like I have PTSD from what happened to me.
So while there are certain things that PT people do for the neck curve problem we also have the elongated styloid problem.
You might want to watch some of the videos from this Youtube user. He is known to some people here. This video appears to be about someone with normal styloids so imagine how it could be so much worse for us.
Thank you for bringing this up, I actually felt some fainting sensations after doing it a few more times, so I’ve stopped haha. This is a great resource thank you!
Yes, I just had to warn you because your situation looks worse than mine and I know what normal PT for the neck did to me. I think it is worthwhile to read the comments on his video. You can get information from them as well.