Facial palsy with ES?

[bkerea66]

I haven’t had “palsy” per se but one of my first and noticeable symptoms likely caused by my elongated styloids was a tingling on the left side of my head and face. It would range from the very top of my head down to the tip of my chin and everything in between. At its worst it would also cause my eyelids to twitch. Last year during a massage my therapist turned my head a bit too much and my head exploded with the worst tingling I’ve ever had. Unlike many here, I have had no noticeable pain related to this condition. It’s also puzzling that my episodes come and go, such as now, as I have had almost none here recently.

[Isaiah_40_31]

The tingling is most likely coming from your trigeminal nerve which is one of the cranial nerves frequently irritated by ES. I’m glad it’s more calm recently. It makes sense that it could have flared up when your massage therapist turned your head as that likely caused your styloid on that side to poke into the nerve more which elicited an immediate negative response.

[vdm]

@vdm

I guess, during the anesthesia the body is totally relaxed (they inject a lot of muscle relaxants too), plus the neck is stretched/rotated/extended during the surgery forcefully stretching the muscles around, plus there is a lot of movement during the transfer from the operating table to the hospital bed possibly stretching out/mobilizing a lot of muscles too, and finally intubation requires certain position of the jaw which, I speculate, again stretches out certain muscles that may be occupying that very tight space near the skull base when they are hypertrophied (e.g. digastric).

Apparently, in reality there is such a thing called manipulation under anesthesia

Manipulation under anesthesia

Royal Orthopaedic Hospital - Manipulation Under Anaesthetic (MUA)

spinal_manipulation_under_anesthesia.pdf

Manipulation under anaesthesia (MUA) | Nuffield Health

Manipulation Under Anesthesia for Spinal Pain

Manipulation Under Anaesthesia for Stiffness Following Knee Arthroplasty

Manipulation Under Anesthesia | Orthopedic Medical Center

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/manipulation-under-anesthesia

• Manipulation Under General Anesthesia - Medical Clinical Policy Bulletins | Aetna

• manipulation under anesthesia - Google Search

[vdm]

@Elena

I’ve been wondering about the genetic component too, my father had headaches, migraines and nerve pain in the face, he also had 2 strokes and died from the second one. My mom told me after the first stroke he had some sort of surgery on his neck supposedly to fix congenital carotid artery abnormality that helped with the nerve pain in his face. I’m not sure how accurate this is but me having similar issues can’t be a coincidence. But again I’ll never know. The search continues…

Sorry for your loss…
People in some FB groups speculated about Eagle’s running in families as there were cases when the mother and the child would have elongated symptomatic styloid processes. Though it’s not certain whether it is due to some primary hereditary condition, or something else (like hEDS) is the actual hereditary condition frequently causing, among others, the Eagle’s syndrome.

[Elena]

I didn’t have a true palsy either just the sensation of it on the left side of the face. I have also had a the tingling you’re describing all over my face and head on and off. Interestingly I also experienced cessation of symptoms (not ) for a period of time between having kids where for almost 2 years I was able to live a normal life. I still had strange on and off symptoms on numbness/tingling in my face and even limbs. One interesting symptom I noticed only happened when I was at the gym and did one specific exercise. It was an abdominal exercise where I lay on the floor and simultaneously brought upper and lower body together upwards and when I did that I would get that familiar tightness/numbness in my left cheek, side of my left hand and side of my left foot (!). If cheek sensation could be explained by connection to the neck the hand and foot part is a mystery and when I mentioned this to any neurologist I saw they looked at me with square eyes

[Jules]

I had tingling & numbness on my cheek, as well as pain along the jaw, I think it was the Trigeminal nerve as @Isaiah_40_31 says. After surgery the tingling has gone, except for one exercise I do to help my neck muscles.