7 days post op for styloidectomy and C1 shave with Dr Hepworth.
Anyone telling you that there is a cure for this disorder is lying to you. There isnt. The surgeons are lying. Anyone who says they are back to themselves is lying to you.
You are f**** Deal with it. Your life is over. And so is mine.
You are very early on in your healing. Probably still swelling and nerve irritation going on. I wouldnt give up hope yet.
There are many members who got relief from surgery.
What are your symptoms?
Right sided and occipital headache (9/10) wont respond to medication.
Intermittent blurry vision. Constant seeing of “stars” in peripheral. Walls and floor appear to be “bowed” or “curved”.
Two instances of “blackout” or loss of vision for a couple of seconds, occurred yesterday during periods of partial bending over.
Dizziness, constant, worse with movement.
Reduction of touch sensation in feet, especially the heels. Cannot lift a foot without feeling dizzy and imbalanced. Cannot feel my feet when I walk.
Hands, cold and loss of sensation. Intermittent “clawing” and parasthesia. Have dropped multiple items in the past two days.
Overall body, continued reduction of sensation to touch and temperature.
Cognitive - constant or near constant state of confusion. Constant state of rage.
My doctor told me initially, 7 days you will feel great, in two weeks all of your symptoms will be 50% better. They are all now worse, significantly. And he is now saying, maybe in a few weeks these might resolve.
I’m surprised your doctor was so succinct in giving you a short healing time. That’s not typical of him. He usually says months not days for recovery. I’m sorry he gave you an unrealistic recovery time suggestion.
There is a ton of inflammation post op from this surgery. It can take 2 months or more for it to resolve. As long as there is swelling, nerves, & the IJV can continue to be compressed. as the swelling begins to subside, symptoms reduce.
Additionally, your vagus nerve gets squashed when the IJV is compressed. It controls anxiety & temper so it may be your anger is based in your vagus continuing to be irritated by post op swelling.
Try sleeping w/ your head elevated at night (30º), icing your neck for 15 min every couple of hours, & taking it very easy during the days for the next 3 weeks & see if you don’t notice some symptoms recovery. You may also need to take a blood thinner for a while after surgery. We’ve had some members who had to do that while their IJV re-regulated post op.
Any chance you have your CT imaging? You seem to be experiencing stroke-like symptoms with all the dizziness and one-side body symptoms. I want to check your hyoid bone. A lot of ES surgeons miss it. Sometimes it’ll dig into the carotids (like for me which I’m getting surgery for). Will also cause symptoms similar to Horner’s syndrome in the eye.
They are 100% stroke like symptoms. Been CT’d 6 times. Can’t “find anything”
Do you have access to your head and neck CT scans? One with contrast?
If so, can you upload a screen recording of you slowly scrolling through the axial view from bottom to top? I want to take a look at the full lengths of your carotids.
I’m sorry that you’re feeling so rough after surgery, it must be beyond frustrating. Unfortunately we do often see on here members who are suffering post-op; it’s usually because they’re not aware of how long the recovery can take, which as @Isaiah_40_31 says is weeks & months and not days… So too early to call for you as yet- you’ll still have swelling, so if you’ve not been icing regularly I would try that, and also if you’ve not been sleeping propped up I would try that too. I presume as you’ve had a C1 shave as well that you had IJV compression? If this is the case, you could well have had intracranial hypertension, and after surgery it can take a while for your brain to re-adjust to the change in pressure, so this could cause dizziness, feeling off-balance, confusion, vision issues… The vagus nerve is very close to the styloids, and although surgeons monitor nerves in surgery, the nerves can still get irritated, so this could be causing a heightened emotional state, trouble regulating temperature etc.
We have had members come on before after surgery who are feeling lots worse, regretting it like you, & it’s very understandable that you’re angry, but I’ll share about one member in case it helps- he posted that it was a terrible mistake & how much worse he felt, that nobody should have surgery with this doctor… he didn’t come on much after that, & it put me off surgery. I messaged him a while later to see how he was doing, & he said he felt great, that the surgery had really helped, but he’d not bothered coming back on to share that! I don’t know if that put others off as well, but after hearing this, I saw the same doctor, & had surgery for IJV compression, which was successful. I know I’ve been lucky, but there are lost of members who have got their lives back through this surgery. So hang in there, and hopefully it will improve for you soon, I’ll pray for that 
I haven’t had surgery yet but I agree with you; the negative comments and reviews are off-putting, and I’m dreading my November appointment with Dr. Hepworth, but I know something needs to happen for me to have some relief. I’ve done most of the testing and am just waiting for that appointment to follow up. It sounded like at my initial appointment, he had a lot of suspicions about multiple things. He said for sure a jugular compression (he saw it on a previous scan done by my neurologist), and he said I’d need a deviated septum surgery as well because I’ve got an infection just sitting down there that we can’t get rid of, and a possible CSF leak. The interesting thing for me is, I’ve had sinus surgery and seen so many doctors who say its all normal that with negative reviews from others, my head goes right to “is this made up and they just want my insurance payouts?” I know, crazy, but after dealing with this so long, you start to convince yourself of all kinds of things. I also just seen my pulmonary doctor for my breathing and he thinks I hav le vocal cord issues of some sort and I told him and asked him if hes ever heard of this, his answer was no and when I explained it according to my own research he said it’d be impossible for eagle syndrome to affect my vocal cords and I’ve heard so many people on forums mention that it does and has. (My pulmonary doctor is a professor as well, so that’s scary that none of my doctors are in agreeance)
Anyway, Eric, I hope your recovery gets better as you heal.
@Angieleigh - A positive about Dr. Hepworth is that he will have your scan on his computer & will show you what he sees in it that is concerning/relative to the surgery he’s suggesting for you. If there is something you don’t understand or that he hasn’t gone over, ask him to show you more of the imaging to help give you more information about why he’s made the surgical plans he has. (This advice goes for any doctor.)
If you have any concerns about things discussed in your appointment with Dr. Hepworth, speak up or ask more questions before he leaves the room. Be your own best advocate. It’s also good to get a second opinion. Dr. Nakaji would be a good doctor to see for that if you’re able. He’s in Scottsdale, AZ. Getting another perspective can help clarify in your mind what your next step should be.
•Dr. Peter Nakaji, https://www.scottsdaleclinic.com
Scottsdale Neurosurgery Specialists - 602-313-7772
He didnt show me my scan, I asked for a 3D view. They said, “we don’t need one, he will be able to see everything once his is in there.”
I understand you’re worried @Angieleigh , and it could be a good idea to get a second opinion, if you’re able. But I wouldn’t worry that your pulmonary doctor doesn’t agree about ES symptoms, unfortunately doctors are taught in med school that it’s very rare, it just causes pain swallowing or a feeling of something being in the throat, that’s it, doesn’t affect blood vessels etc. Whereas there are now many research papers disputing that, & we know for sure it can affect the voice because of the nerves which can become irritated by the styloids… The vagus nerve is right close to the IJV, & so if you’re IJV is compressed that much more than likely you could well have vagus nerve compression, which can affect the voice, breathing & all sorts of other areas in the body…
I have had and still have many of your symptoms. They all sound like nerves are unhappy due to compression by Eagle Syndrome, tight muscles, brachial plexus issues, and probably other peripheral nerves. The eye problems are the worst part of it for me. I have to stop using Forward Head Posture to prevent visual disturbances and stop using computer so much. It takes up to 30 days for nerves to get back to normal in my experience after any surgery. I have had 4 surgeries on brachial plexus and my hand was numb for a week, then pins and needles, and eventually back to normal. I still have cold hands in the winter, but I think that is from vagus nerve and the Lyrica concentration decreasing in my system before next dose kicks in.
@jobby99 , it’s our experience on here that it can take the nerves even longer to heal; we’ve had members report back that they’ve still seen improvements even a year after surgery!