Hi!
Trouble swallowing is a classic ES symptom, the pain in your neck too. There are many cranial nerves in the same area of the styloid processes, & if compressed they can cause pain. The accessory nerve for example can cause pain in the shoulder, & the Glossopharyngeal nerve can cause pain in the throat & ear. The Hypoglossal nerve if compressed can cause tongue dysfunction too.
There’s more info in the Newbies Guide:
Worth reading as there may be more that you don’t realise. Also Isaiah40:31 has found some info on Youtube, Two Minute Neuroscience videos which go through the Cranial nerves & their functions, which can be helpful to understand symptoms.
To get diagnosed with ES, a CT is the best way to see the styloid processes, so if you can get your ENT to get this done for you that would help- make sure it’s evaluated for ES so that they specifically look for the length & angle of the styloid processes & also to see if there are any calcifications on your stylo-hyoid ligaments. If you suspect that you may have vascular ES where the blood vessels are compressed, then a CT with contrast is good. ES doesn’t directly cause CSF leaks, but quite a few members have had compressed jugular veins, which can then increase the pressure inside the skull (Intracranial Hypertension), which can sometimes cause a leak.
We have several ongoing discussions about CSF leaks which you might find interesting, there’s info about testing which can be done for CSF leaks, like the nuclear pledglet test, that might be something you could ask for.
Here’s a link to to one of the discussions:
Hope this helps!