Hello friend!!!
I have many questions.
Do you feel good about the work your doctor did? how much have you improved? What specialty does he have? Was it bilateral or only on one side? Can you tell me more about your story or show me where I can read it? Thank you!!!
Hi Aleana,
I do feel good about the work my doctor did. My symptoms went away about 95%. I had bilateral ES & the only surgery problems I had came from my first surgery. Once Dr. Samji started my surgery, he found my glossopharyngeal nerve was wrapped around my right styloid process so he had to unwrap it to cut the styloid shorter. Moving the nerve out of the way irritated it, & it caused the right half my tongue to be paralyzed for about 6 months. This made speaking clearly a bit challenging & also made eating a bit more difficult. Thankfully by 9 mos. my tongue was mostly normal again. I also got First Bite Syndrome on that side but not on the left when I had my second surgery.
Dr. Samji is a skull-based ENT surgeon who practices in San Jose, California. He has done several hundred ES surgeries in his career so far. He does not take care of IJV compression but has helped a few members who had ICA compression.
My story in brief -
Symptoms started w/ choking on food. An upper GI found no problems.
A couple of years later, I had about a month where I had benign positional vertigo then it stopped.
A couple of years after that a pain developed in the left front of my neck near my thyroid & after about a month I found a hard lump under the left side of my jaw which when I pressed on it, made my neck hurt worse. I went to my PCP who diagnosed it as an infected salivary gland (I knew it wasnāt. It didnāt feel infected). I subsequently saw my OBGYN who said the lump felt calcified & sent me to an ENT who diagnosed it as ES & sent me for a CT scan to verify his diagnosis.
After I was diagnosed, my symptoms began to ramp up. I had many symptoms but never experienced the āsomething stuck in my throatā symptom. I had facial pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, pressure behind my left eye, ear pain, skull base pain, heart palpitations, blood pressure drop when I exercised & heart would race, felt breathless & dizzy when my bp dropped, had pressure at the base of my tongue on the left side, & periodically had the sensation that I had just poured scalding water on the roof of my mouth. Iām sure Iāve listed these & maybe others in an earlier post which would have been in 2014.
I hope this helps. 
Cara,
I did meet with him. Did not get any medical advice. My sense for our meeting was that he wasnāt prepared with details; Example, no medical details were provided at all such as āDoes he do Internal Jugular Vein (IJV) decompression if needed?ā This question was actually raised by a forum member from this group. Answer? No he does not, a neurosurgeon is required. For my part, I was limited to a CT head scan and MRI results and did not yet have access to the vast information provided with this forum. Hence, I did not know what questions to ask. As others have pointed out, for his services he does not accept insurance. However, I did learn from another person who worked with him that he āMAYā be willing to do the surgery at a local hospital (which does accept insurance). But I had to ask, versus that information being volunteered by his office. So Iām not decided on the guy yet, and have opted to consult with Hackman in NC.
Lastly, in general I now take a hard look at ALL doctors after I was mutilated over 5 years by a dentist named bruce johnson in Montrose, CA. The guy kept my teeth in malocclusion for 5 years, causing tremendous harm including facial bone loss. I could not understand how people working for him (his staff) looked the other way as he harmed not only me, but other people Iāve come across either through forums like Yelp or through doctor visits in the area. In short, I was lied to extensively for the purpose of making money from me. Speaking of, other dentists to avoid in the LA area include Martin Gorman (Encino - bait and switch from ALF to DNA dental appliance, the DNA being useless to me and expensiveā¦-$20,000), Karla Thompson (Pasadenaāwanted me to visit a jaw surgeon in TX, bill me $3k for the managementā¦USC school of dentistry went on to tell me surgery was not necessary), Vincent Wang (Periodontist in Pasadena, I know of one young lady he mutilated and then washed his hands of) and Dr. Robert Perkins (Malibu- general dentist who tries to play orthodontist)