Eagle Syndrome with Glaucoma symptom

Yes, if you have Glaucoma and the carotid artery is being compressed, then that can cause Glaucoma. I had that discussion with my Eagles surgeon because my eyes hurt before surgeries and I suddenly had Glaucoma. At first he said, no. Later he told me that he was wrong, he had a patient or read about it. If you have Glaucoma make sure you follow all the instructions and ask any questions you have. It is treatable. If the carotid compression is a cause and that is corrected, then you will always have Glaucoma, but you may not have a serious progression as long as you keep it controlled. I have been doing well for 9 years and hope to continue. Best of luck on your journey.

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Thank you for the excellent information @emma! Also thank you for dropping in to share your knowledge.

How are you doing these days?

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Just a follow up,

I am about 2.5 weeks post styloidectomy on left side, and 3 weeks right side. Last reported my IOP was sitting in the mid 30’s. My ā€œNormalā€ IOP (prior to the end stages of eagles) was around 22mmHg. (( we want pressures below 20)) Been tracking them weekly with a gradual trend downward. As of yesterday OD: 24mmHg and OS: 26mmHg! This is hot on my mind. I will be doing my best to educate my fellow colleagues and will be extra aggressive with my patients moving forward.

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That’s wonderful news, @vcp02! I’m so glad your IOP pressures are trending downward! I hope you’re feeling much better as these positive changes occur. :hugs:

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That’s great news, hopefully this will keep improving more! Good for you spreading for the word :hugs:

Do you think I need to stop doing anything in particular that might make it worse like with head positioning when sleeping?

I do not know. I am not sure that the carotid caused the Glaucoma, but after the eagles surgery, it has not progressed as long as I use my eye drops. I quit having eye pain immediately after the surgery and healing, I did get eyelid paralysis for about 2 months and this was painful because the cornea was very dry.), but this was manageable though a real difficult time. The carotids can reduce the blood flow to the optic nerve. I do not know about any head positioning because I did not know any of this while it was happening. I did not have dizzy spells. I did have pain upon lying down so I slept sitting up a lot I had a wedge pillow standing up not flat on the bed. I put a pillow and then a travel pillow behind my head and slept sitting up. This really hurt my hip, but I could not sleep lying down. I slept this way for a couple years before and after both of my internal surgeries. I also had severe acid reflux at the time. After both surgeries, my acid reflux diminished, and I was able to slowly remove the wedge buy lying it down then eventually removing it and just using two pillows then eventually removing the travel pillow.
I am not on the site much anymore.
If you have anymore questions about surgery. You can message me. I am 74 years old and had a birth defect of the jaw that I think eventually caused this. My recovery has been up and down with lots of extra issues that do not apply to everyone.I believe that my eagles surgery was successful, but it took some therapy to relieve the tightness and scar tissue. However, I will say that I am doing very well and feel better now than in the last 10 years if I take it easy and do not think that I am 30 again. I looked at your bio. Eagles was not able to be detected easily until after about 2017 when 3D scanning became available. It is still relatively new to the medical community. In 2012, when I was diagnosed, they could not see the dimensions of the thickness of the styloid. They did not find that. This forum has a tutorial for 3 D Slicer. In 2016 my husband and I loaded the data from a 2012, CT scan to our newest computer and used the tutorial to see the remaining stylod from a previous internal surgery. It was very vivid. Our use of the the product was not perfect, but we were able to take a Cell phone picture of the 3D image because we could not save it on the computer. That is when I was able to get the attention of my doctors. Only one doctor before was willing and did remove part of it internally and he only knew about it because he had it and his then retired partner had removed his. So we are actually lucky to be able to bring the real pictures to light. My remaining stub of the left styloid had what looked like a marble in the middle of the bone. My second surgeon who could do skull base surgery was able to remove it and it was not cancer. I am sorry that you have had 55 surgeries. in your life. I have counted more than 30 in my life so I can empathize with you.

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I think Emma stated it all perfectly. It truly just depends on the position of the calcification of the styloid. It is not just the length, but also the angle and the thickness. My major problems were all related to the ā€œshorterā€ styloid. Everyone is also a different size and shape. I’m so small framed I was treated like a pediatric patient. I am also hyper flexible, so for a larger man with limited movement he would have no issues. Its funny how our bodies compensate, like sleeping upright, I found my positioning changing before we knew the answers as well. Listen to your body and what feels right. Fixing the underlying problems aka Eagles will stop symptoms like Glaucoma, or increased intraocular pressure. I am now understanding many of theses diagnosis are truly a symptom of the internal cause. @emma Thank you for continued support on this network. I had no idea the 3D imaging was so new, but experience exactly that. Finally got someone to listen after that scan. Wishing you all the best .

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Thank you, @emma, as always for sharing your wisdom! We miss you in the moderator group but are glad you retired when you needed to. I’m also pleased to hear you’re feeling so much better than you have in 10 years. That’s fantastic! God is good!! :hugs:

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Thanks too from me @emma for all your help & support over the years, I’m glad that you are having better health now, it’s been a long journey for you! :folded_hands: :hugs:

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Yes, I was able to do the 3d reconstruction of my images all by myself. It is very helpful to see it vs. trying to describe it. I find my symptoms are worse with my head down and to the left. This seems to be a common theme with ES. I get more throat pain with chewing a lot. I can feel pain behind my jaw like it is pushing against something. Sleeping upright is helpful but makes pudendal neuragia symptoms a lot worse, which I also have to deal with. I had a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic who never answered any of my messages and didn’t relay the results of the MRI so basically ghosted me. Thankfully, I found a backup surgeon and already had a copy of the MRI disc to 3d reconstruct. The one thing that would make a huge difference would be to start including ES on the differential diagnosis list for throat and ear pain. It is said that on average it takes 20 years for new research to make its way into medical school texts. Hopefully, AI will be useful here and will find the links between diseases before humans decide to make them.

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@jobby99 - Based on what you just wrote about finding a back-up surgeon, does that mean you now have someone lined up to do the surgery you need?

Yes. I will let you know how it goes. I should be able to see some improvement by mid-October.

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That’s great news. Please let us know your surgery date & how your surgery goes. I also hope you have significant improvement even before October.

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