@sarahmarie5 - You & @LisaMaria are sure giving Dr. Osborne some great challenges!! I hope it works out for you to have him do your surgery. 
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Woah!! Sarahmarie5!!! Those are FAT! Yes, you are tough! My husband thought I was showing him my cat scan! Wow, I canāt wait for you to feel life without those! From personal experience, Iād say do both at once! I felt a pull from my left side at my hyoid after the right was removed. And the night before the second surgeryā¦things started clicking under my chin whenever Iād swallow! I couldnāt get to the second surgery fast enough. It totally freaked me out! I was afraid it was gonna break my hyoid or something! Clearly my imagination was running wild but still, I wouldnāt want that to happen to you. Yuck! I really hope you can do both. Mine was $33,750 or something like that, each. That includes all the necessary appointments and such also though, which was nice to not have extra charges. Because I saw him every day for nine days straight. I was really wanting him to do all the bandage work because how daunting it was. And he gladly did it all. Oh! The other thing that makes doing them at the same time really important!!! He said people are generally symmetrical so getting in to my left side (the big long fatty) was a lot smoother because he could remember things about my anatomy from the right side that helped a lot. He said several times he was glad we did it all at once for that reason. He said waiting, itās likely that things about my specific anatomy fade from his mind. Obviously thatās something he can work with as he goes in blindly all the time, but having such a massive task ahead it was nice for him to know ahead of time a bit more about the situation by having done the straight forward side first.
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Hereās my left side, I mean this WAS my left side:
Sorry! I just realized I already posted this in this thread!
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oh my goodness, that was huge!
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They are big beasties for sure! Youāll feel better to get them outā¦ Not all doctors do bilateral surgery, some think itās too much swelling, but we are seeing more doctors doing this successfully now. Iām sure @LisaMaria will clarify this, I donāt know Dr Osborneās technique, but as head bandages have been mentioned, I presume these are probably to stop swelling? So thatās helpfulā¦
Getting it over and done with in one go is an advantage in some respects, especially if you have a long way to travelā¦
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So my biggest question @LisaMaria is that did you ever worry you wouldnāt be able to swallow normally again after surgery? I have been on a soft diet for nearly three years now, and that is my biggest worry.
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Isheep - Definitely. I also feared facial paralysis in general. With the size of my left one I had to come to terms with I was likely gonna walk away with problems but they wouldnāt be as bad as things could get if I left them in there. Obviously there are no guarantees so I kept my expectations focused on āI will be so glad when they are gone and not able to do further damageā. I was truly shocked when I realized my swallowing problems seem to be gone. I hope you get relief, choking on food is awful.
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@LisaMaria Did you happen to get the photos of your styloids after surgery? If not, Dr. Osborne may be able to provide them. I found seeing them after years of symptoms very validating.
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@lsheep , I didnāt have any issues with swallowing before surgery like youāre experiencing, but that was one of my biggest fears with having the op- as soon as I came round I tried to swallow and it was fine, such a relief! For some reason, detaching the ligaments from the styloid processes doesnāt seem to affect swallowing, chewing etc. 
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Thank you for sharing!! I am so hoping that will be my story too 
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Itās so interesting to me that something like a styloid can affect so much!
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