I got my ct scan today. I been dealing with lightheadness dizziness pain when swallowing ( some days are manageable some days are hard). What do you guys think about my ct scan?
Hi Khalil, sorry to hear about your symptoms, lots of folks here will relate and can get you good info. If possible, load your images into Radiant Viewer, creates great 3d images from CT scans. Which you can rotate and zoom in on, and then screenshot. This website has been crucial for me the past month or so and I am hoping to get treatment from an experienced doctor soon.
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I do hope you do. And yeah I’ll definitely look into the 3d imaging for it. I know it can show the styloid much more clearer.
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And I’m also I’m guessing you need a pc to download radiant viewer? Will it just ask me to input the CT scan after I get it? I know where I took it they give out cds I think.
@Khalil5oo - RadiAnt Viewer is for PC & Bee Dicom Viewer App is for Mac. Both will convert your CT images into 3D & both are free, I believe. You will need to load your scans into the computer then upload them into RadiAnt or Bee.
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I’m not at all technical myself so can’t annotate your image, but it does look like what could be the styloid like a needle straight down , if it is then it is a bit elongated…also either your hyoid bone is quite long or it’s a calcified ligament, I think more than likely it’s the hyoid process…
Maybe the others can comment, but your neck looks quite straight to me (military neck), which quite a few members have- when the natural curve of the neck is lost it can sometimes aggravate symptoms. One of our members @vdm has posted about this & exercises to help:
List of my favourite resources on YouTube to learn anatomy - General - Living with Eagle
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Your report diagnoses bilateral styloid elongation so it’s clearly possible that your symptoms are being caused by your styloids. I’m surprised the radiologist didn’t note that the elongated styloids are consistent with an Eagle Syndrome diagnosis especially since that’s the reason you went for the scan. I’m glad you’ve been diagnosed though & surgery to remove those spikes should help relieve your symptoms.
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Wow that’s crazy. That’s what I was thinking. So a styloidlictoemy should take care of the symptoms you think?
I think it would at least reduce many of them if not all & probably resolve some if not all. At least that was my experience!
What doctors should I do it with does it matter who? One local ent doctor offered to do it for me
Here’s a link to the doctors list in the Doctors Info Section:
Doctor Lists – no discussion - Symptoms and Treatments / Doctor Information - Living with Eagle
There’s one doctor on the list in your state, Dr. S Nalwa, 512 S 28th Ave, Wausau, WI 54401, (715) 847-202, https://entwausau.com
I had a quick look using the search function but couldn’t see more info about them…
We do also have some suggestions of questions to ask doctors to help you decide about their experience/ surgical plan if you do see a local doctor, here’s the list:
- How many ES surgeries have they done and what was the success rate?
- Whether they’re going to operate externally, or intraoral- through the mouth. Whilst some members have had successful surgeries with intraoral, external is better for seeing all the structures, to be able to remove more of the styloids, & also there’s less chance of infection.
- You need to ask how much of the styloid he’ll remove- as much as possible is best- & anything left needs to be smoothed off. The piece needs to be removed too- some doctors have snapped it off & left it in! If the styloid is only shortened a bit it can still cause symptoms.
- If your stylohyoid ligaments are calcified, then any calcified section needs to be removed too.
- There’s usually swelling after surgery; you could ask if a drain’s put in to reduce swelling, or if steroids are prescribed. It’s not essential, but can help with recovery a bit.
- Will it be a day case surgery or will you need to stay in?
- Obviously ask the risks- we know from experience on here that temporary damage to the facial nerve is quite common, and also the hypoglossal nerve and the accessory nerve. These usually recovery very quickly but in some cases members have needed physiotherapy. There is also the risk of catching a blood vessel or having a stroke, but these are very rare.
- Ask if the surgeon monitors the nerves- this should be done to see if there’s stress on the nerves to avoid damage as mentioned above.
- What painkillers will be prescribed afterwards.
- Ask about recovery- most doctors either down play it or are genuinely unaware of how long the recovery can take!
Nobody knows exactly which symptoms will be alleviated with surgery, & there are risks to any surgery, but your styloids & calcifications sound quite long so hopefully surgery will help!
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Ok thank you! I talked to dr. Nalwa assistant she called me this morning. She said it will take up to a week for her to get the scans and call me back to see if the styloids are long enough to operate. I wanna try to get those 3d scans myself, once I get my scans in I should be able to do it. I’m really hoping this will help and alleviate some symptoms. Pain wise it’s tolerable most days. It’s the brain the fog and lightheaded feeling that been driving me crazy and I know those can be symptoms as well. It’s like I’m living in a cloud everyday but some days are better it’s very weird to explain. This all started getting worse when I was feeling right side neck pain around this time last year turning my neck but crazy enough that mostly went away the neck pain. I feel like massaging (trigger point massage) can be good tool to be used for now.
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@Khalil5oo - I’m glad you got a call from Dr. Nalwa’s office. I feel a little skeptical about her if she is relying only on styloid length as a reason to operate. Styloids don’t have to be long to cause symptoms. There are other physical features such as thickness, angle of growth, how curved, pointed or twisted they are that can factor in even if the styloids are short.
The fact you have brain fog is also a concern since that’s a primary symptom of internal jugular vein compression as I’ve mentioned before. When you get your call back, you should let the office person know you have that symptom & suggest your styloids may be causing IJV compression & ask if that’s something Dr. Nalwa can operate to resolve. It would be good for you to try to get an appointment w/ Drs. Costantino, Hepworth or Nakaji, too, for a second opinion.
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I really recommend doing it. I am not very computer literate and I just did mine. I look at mine and wonder how I haven’t severed a carotid artery in the various mishaps I have had. You can view mine to see just some of what you can get at with Radiant. I am still experimenting with it.
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@Khalil5oo - Here’s the link to @JugularEagle’s 3D images:
I couldn’t get an appointment with dr. Hepworth for some reason it was saying he switched offices or something. I’ll try to talk to dr.costantio. Will they be able to see if the ijv is being pressed? The brain fog is so debilitating and hard to explain. Feels like a hangover but worse like no thought going through my head sometimes like I’m not grounded best way to describe it. I been through a lot mentally before and this just feels different. I feel so detached and lost. My pops keeps yelling at me to get a job and he doesn’t understand I want a life too, it’s honestly harder not to work . I’m a strong person but being 24 and feeling like this without an answer sucks. It’s too many ups and downs and the ups is just me being slightly functional lol.
It is rough to be feeling rotten at your age, and to not have family support doesn’t help. You could maybe show him some of the research papers or discussions on here so that he can see it’s not something you’re imagining or being a hypochondriac about?
With a CT scan with contrast, then the blood vessels can be seen, so hopefully any compression should show up…
Dr Hepworth’s contact details are:
Dr. Edward Hepworth, Denver Sinus Care/Western Sinus and Skull Base Consultants
3150 E. Third Ave, Ste. 300, Denver, CO 80206
•Office number - (720) 899-9489 (8/1/24 beyond)
•FAX number - (720) 953-5151
email: info@denversinuscare.com
Dr Costantino is very experienced with VES too…
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I’m really sorry your dad isn’t being supportive, @Khalil5oo. It’s very rough having an “invisible” problem that show no external symptoms like a breathing issue or a bad cough or fever. I second what @Jules said about finding a research paper that validates your symptoms as being related to ES. Here’s a link to our research paper list and to a great post written by Jules that talks about symptoms of vascular ES & backs them up w/ references to research papers:
True that and I did do a ct scan with contrast. My local ent said there wasn’t compression but he did offer an ultrasound to see if there is when I turn my neck. I didn’t get my ct scans yet but dr.Nalwa assistant said she was working on getting it. When I went to the appointment 5 days ago thats what the local ent looked at.
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