I have been confirmed with Eagle’s Syndrome. It was a pretty easy diagnosis because the ossified ligament can be felt through my neck. The past 2 days, however, I have noticed a tingling/numbness in my fingers/hand. It is predominantly in my left hand (the side with the most predominant growth).
I am extremely active and fit, so I don’t feel as though it is a heart issue, but after this strange diagnosis, I am not ruling anything out.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? I have extreme headaches and the usual symptoms associated with the disease, but this new intermittent numbness is alarming to me.
I am convinced the development of this issue is directly correlated to my use of Lupron Depot (a medication use to induce a medical menopause in order to minimize lesions caused by endometriosis). It was not confirmed that I had endometriosis, but the doctor encouraged me to try it for a year as a means to eliminate other diagnoses.
Because the use of this medication interrupted my normal hormone production, and ES is thought to be correlated to menopause, it is the only thing that makes sense. I have never had any of the other circumstances thought for causation (trauma, tonsillectomy, etc.), and the symptoms presented 3-6 months after I cycled off the treatment.
I am interested in participating in a study, however… numbness/tingling in hands?
CI used to get that same symptom from working under stress. My shoulder muscle would tense and pinch the nerve that reacted the same way.
Re: menopause - I haven’t seen any research that gave any connection to menopause or hormones. ES does affect more woman -but women are on average shorter than men. A normal styloid bone is the same size no matter the bone structure. Given there is less room for someone of shorter stature to accomodate a bone growth in such a nerve sensitive area it would make sense that there would be more women who get ES. If an article jumped to an erroneous conclusion of “menopause” because of age - it was not a medical conclusion but a anecdotal one.
The expert I visited told me that the syndrome is so rare - that it’s been impossible to get enough people for a true clinical study.
Re: Age, it would make sense that abnormal bone growth would take time to grow to the point of being a problem. But there are still people like me who throw off that assumption.
My medical records show my complaints of a bone in my throat starting at the age of 23. I had a radical tonsillectomy at the age of 16 which has been suspect.
Back to tingling - dealing with ES is stressful. Ask any PT and they’ll tell you people deal with stress in different ways and it’s tough to not injur some other part of you. I’m sorry you are going through this. There are some great people on this forum. You are more resourceful than you know. This is survivable and curable. My surgery with Dr. Samji will be at the end of August. Hang in there . I’ll pray for you
I hope your surgery went well! I also throw off the age assumption because I presented with symptoms at 33. I have my first surgery this Wednesday. CT confirmed bilateral elongation, but more significant on the left side.
@laurenday5 I am a high school teacher and I was out for 2 weeks with my first surgery. After 2 weeks of down time I felt ready to return. Once I returned [the first 3 days back] I felt ready to return to bed! I suggest easing yourself back into school [1/2 days for a few days - with planned rest after wards]
