Hi Dobbs,
Thank you for sharing your whole story! I’m sorry for the early troubles you had from the anesthesia but glad you’ve recovered from those.
You are still VERY EARLY in your post op recovery. It can take several weeks to some months for symptoms to really begin disappearing. I agree w/ Dr. Hackman that your new post op symptoms are likely due to nerve irritation from the post op swelling. I actually had half my tongue paralyzed after my first ES surgery because my glossopharyngeal nerve was irritated during surgery. It took about 9 months to fully recover, but by 6 mos it had improved significantly. I would suspect your glossopharyngeal or hypoglossal nerve is the culprit for your tongue issues rather than your styloglossus muscle. A post op sore jaw & pain w/ chewing (& swallowing) are very common & can also last from several days to several weeks.
The post op swelling serves a purpose: it puts a fluid “cushion” around the injured area to help protect it while it heals. Unfortunately, that fluid cushion also applies pressure to the healing tissues which can be irritating & can cause new symptoms for a bit. Sounds like that may be what you’re experiencing.
I hope you don’t have First Bite Syndrome, but if you do, it usually goes away w/in a month or two. I had that but sadly mine stuck w/ me. Just got much less intense as the years have passed. Now that I’m writing this, I just realized I haven’t had it at all for awhile. I’m 7 years post op from my first surgery. That tells me that nerves do keep healing well beyond the predicted 1 yr mark.
Though Dr. Hauser helped you with your ES diagnosis, I recommend you do a Google search of reviews about him & his medical approach. Though he may have helped some people, others have not fared so well. I would hate for you to recover from one thing & end up the worst for wear from another. There are other approaches to helping CCI than prolotherapy. This is to say, do your homework before jumping into an approach that is considered alternative therapy.
Here’s a link to a current thread w/ a discussion about prolotherapy/Dr. Hauser: