@JustAGuy - If you were to get a CT scan w/ contrast that more clearly shows your IJV compression, perhaps you could get another opinion from Prof Elliot. Sometimes doctors just kind of wave their eyes over & dismiss imaging that’s not the type they prefer. If you provided him w/ imaging that definitively shows the level of IJV compression you have, you might get an invitation to visit him. Just speculating here, but it’s worth a try.
With IJV compression/IH, it’s very common for barometric pressure changes to cause symptoms to increase. Exercise increases blood flow & since the deoxygenated blood isn’t able to leave your brain via your IJVs at the rate freshly oxygenated blood enters through your internal carotids, your IH increases. The increased IH sounds to be giving you POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) symptoms i.e. feeling weak/faint when you change from sitting to standing or lying to sitting.
Sudden urinary urgency can be related to the vagus nerve being irritated. The vagus nerve lies w/in the carotid sheath w/ the IJV & internal carotid artery. In particular it snuggles next to the IJV right where the styloid/C1 compression occurs so when the IJV is crushed, so is the vagus nerve. The vagus is the largest of our cranial nerves & affects a significant number of bodily functions from skull base to pelvis. Thus when the IJV is decompressed, so is the vagus nerve & the symptoms it’s causing tend to subside over time just as the blood flow through the IJV normalizes over time.
Your left styloid is quite thick along w/ the calcification of your stylohyoid ligament is immensely long & your right one is long & quite curved bringing it close to your mandible. I have a hard time understanding how any doctor you’ve seen could have missed this in your imaging or been dismissive of it at least contributing to the symptoms you have. It’s downright scary that the evidence of CSF leaking you have from your eyes, nose & down your throat has also been dismissed.
Your cervical spine is very straight thus has lost its natural lordotic curve. That brings the styloids & cervical spine closer to nerves & vascular tissues in your neck. A straight cervical spine is referred to as military neck. This can be corrected by doing gentle PT exercises but it takes perseverance & time. With your potential CSF leak(s) & IJV compression, it might be best to wait on cervical spine correction until after your styloids/C1/IJV compression have been dealt with. If that continues to be a long time coming, you can explore the information in this post:
I’ve annotated a couple of your images, too. The thing I noticed is that you have decent space between your styloid & C1, however, the transverse processes (TPs) of your C1 vertebra are shaped differently than others I’ve seen. They’re slanted (which I’ve marked) & look to be flat vs more rounded. I’m wondering if it’s due to the slant that they are digging into your IJVs?
