Hey, @Pcrowe, thanks for asking! It went well! Dr. Annino is nice and very professional.
It was evident from the get-go he has a lot of experience treating ES. We went over my history and symptoms, and he went through the CT Scan with me and quickly recognized everything I mentioned in my first post and the ligament calcification mentioned by @Isaiah_40_31 in the images prior to me pointing them out to him, despite the fact that two other ENTs and a Radiologist claiming my CT scan was 100% normal.
He even caught a thing I didn’t see. My greater cornu on my right Hyoid bone is in between my carotids which is not normal, and he will be reducing the size of it as well since it’s a risk for vascular symptoms. My right side is my symptomatic side, so we’re going that side first, and he said he could do both through the same incision.
He explained how he does the surgery and monitors everything during surgery and would remove the styloid above the IJV compression as close as possible to the skull base but explained that things get tight at the top and decides how far up he goes during surgery based on what his judgment, the ligament, and the piece of Hyoid bone.
When my previous surgeon suggested surgery, I had a lot of doubts and asked for time to think about it. With Dr. Annino, I felt comfortable enough to schedule my surgery by the end of the consultation.
My surgery is scheduled for March 17th. I’m still nervous, but the consultation helped to ease my nerves a lot, thanks to Dr. Annino for sure. My symptoms have been bad this week, so I’m excited to be free of these awful symptoms.
I hope everything goes well with your son’s consultation and he can get some relief from any symptoms soon!