I’m so sorry to hear about your Grandma! However am glad you were able to be there for her and that both you and her are doing well!! Thanks for reaching back out when you were able to let us know how you are doing. Really appreciate it!
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I had major carotid artery compression on my left side that gave me extreme fatigue and brain fog. I couldn’t walk a whole city block without sitting down due to dizziness. The brain fog was bad enough that I would often lose track of what I was saying in the middle of my sentences. I was diagnosed with transient ischemic attacks before surgery. I had the left side removed back in January and those symptoms were gone the moment I woke up from surgery. I was really lucky. I count my blessings everyday. I had mostly nerve and muscle pain from the right side. Hope that helps. 
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Wow, what a result! Thank you 
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I’m so glad you found an amazing ES surgeon close to where you live. We will be referring others to him! So great that you’re doing well.
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Hi @Bluemaple! My ENT gave me a referral to Dr. Hepworth but the insurance denied it and is sending me to Dr. Yen at UCD. I saw one of your SPs had a cranial nerve tangled around it and he didn’t cut as much off that side as planned due to circumstances. How are you doing now? Any post-op complications especially on that one side? I was hoping to get some insight from you regarding Dr. Yen since you seem to be the only forum member to have styloidectomy surgery with him. I’m nervous because I am a vascular eagle case with instability in C-1, my SP into my throat, tinnitus, pulsatile tinnitus, and headaches and ear pain that is uncontrollable. I don’t sleep most nights and don’t want to go to a doc who does some ES cases but a doc who specializes in them. Hope you’re doing well.
Heather
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There have been some posts about how to appeal if your insurance won’t send you to a more experienced doctor, might be worth fighting for this, given your tricky situation? 
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Here’s a link to @lilwider 's discussion, it was a fight, but the insurance company have agreed that she can see Dr Constantino for surgery:
I’m asking for my eagle syndrome familys help - General - Living with Eagle
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@Jules if I could kiss you, I would! You have a mind like a steel trap. I could not remember where to find this post to save my life. This is a BIG help. I filed my emergent appeal in this manner Friday but left a few things off that @lilwider brought up as well as all the great minds in that post. I will call my insurance company to add this missing info tomorrow. Thank you again!!! 
Heather
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You’re welcome, my memory is not that great though 
Praying you have a successful appeal too 
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@Jules thank you so much! Asking for help from heaven means everything to me. I wish you the best day.
Heather
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I’m here for you if you need me good luck with your appeal. Keep fighting do not take no for an answer
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I know like many others in this group, I wouldn’t be as far as I am without the help of others. The knowledge and experience is priceless.
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Hi Heather,
I’m doing great now. Almost all of my issues with the vascular compression are gone, or is at least reduced so much I don’t notice anymore. My compression was the styloid growing straight into the back of my throat pushing my carotid artery down reducing blood flow. I haven’t had any nerve pain on the left side at all since the surgery back in 2022. I will get the transient ache from the weather changing, but it’s not that bad and I can usually just ignore it.
As to how Dr. Yen is, I asked him for an external styloidectomy to ensure the best possible chance to remove as much styloid as possible to reduce compression for me. He was very receptive to what I had to say and was very reassuring for me. He told me that he forms treatments to people individually based on our symptoms. He told me has done quite a few styloid removals in all kind of conditions, both internal and external. As well as, severity of calcification. ie one patient he had had her styloid calcified to the hyoid on both sides like a horseshoe. He may not specialize in styloid surgeries specifically, but he is very familiar with the structures of the throat from his phd work. He told me he usually does surgeries for throat cancer, but he gets a ES patient from time to time.
I did not talk to him about any C-1 instability since it wasn’t the main problem I had at the time. I did talk to my chiropractor later on and worked out a few exercises that helped the instability I had after surgery. I had all of the symptoms you listed too and they resolved for me right out of surgery. I don’t think that is the average though. From what I read It usually takes a few weeks to a few months for symptoms to improve.
I hope your insurance works with you, but if they sill choose Dr. Yen DM me and I’ll try to give you information that might help you feel at ease.
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Thank you for the update, @Bluemaple, It’s great to hear your doing so well. I know @Heather will appreciate your response, too!
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@Bluemaple it is so good to hear from you! Thank you for your timely response. I sure do appreciate it. Wow, your surgery sounds exceptional. I’m trying really hard to have a good attitude while waiting and going in to see the surgeons. I think mindset is everything. My symptoms have had me bedridden for many days and the surgeons have told me I’m worse than what the scan shows. I’ve talked to 3 and they aren’t liking the vascular compression.
Does Dr. Yen work with a vascular doc in the OR by chance? My Kaiser neurosurgeon (Kaiser was the insurance in 2023-it’s now Dignity Health/Western Health Advantage) and vascular surgeon warned me to have surgery with an ENT/Vascular surgeon team duo or ideally an ENT/Neurosurgeon/Vascular surgeon team trio. The problem is, I can’t find any such teams except for Dr. Hepworth’s in CO. Kaiser Sacramento has it but because my styloids are long, Dr. Jian (my Neurosurgeon) said I would be wise to look outside of Kaiser and knew no one in the state who could handle my case. He was hesitant to handle my case due to still learning how to chase down calcification without injuring the patient. He is up and coming and I think on the right track as far as ES goes but he and Dr. Jian said their team is still learning about vascular Eagles and how to treat it where the patients get a relief from their symptoms.
It is SO GREAT hearing from you. I will DM you for more info about Dr. Yen. I really appreciate you and am thrilled to hear you’re doing great!
Heather
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@Heather I totally hear you on trying to have a good attitude while waiting. I think waiting is the hard part because I had been dealing with symptoms for years and it seems like a lot of the Drs I had to go though were just telling me they didn’t want to help. It was incredibly frustrating to have to learn so much about a disease that apparently so many doctors have never heard of. I guess it’s like that for most of us though and why we flock to this site for information and support. I will forever be grateful for it. I had to talk to I think 6 or 7 Ent/neurosurgeons from Chico all the way to Davis before I ended up picking Dr. Yen. I had some really strange ideas from one of the ents from Chico on what was causing my symptoms before my ct and mri, but I didn’t actually run into anyone that disbelieved me about the vascular nature of my issues with ES after my imaging. Mostly because if I stood up too quickly or took an elevator I would often pass out. Actually, my imaging showed my left side was pretty similar to your right side imaging you posted. For me it was both internal and external carotid compression, but a lot of symptoms overlap with vascular compression overall.
I’m not actually sure if Dr. Yen works with a Vascular doc and I am not familiar with Kaiser. If fact, Dr. Yen saw me when I had Medi-Cal. I can say most of the ents I had to see also pawned me off to the next doctor because they were scared of the complications that might arise due to the vascular and nerve issues that I was having. I remember two specifically told me that they were too far in their career to take on something as risky as my surgery. I think because the surgery is so rare and the neck is filled with such a high number or major nerves, arteries, and veins most surgeons won’t attempt it. Or at least that was my experience. Dr. Yen was really confident about the fact that he could do the surgery and had done it before. He also seemed pretty knowledgeable about the disease which helped me feel pretty happy about choosing him. I went back to my surgery notes and he managed to get to my problematic left styloid and remove it in about an hour. My left side styloid was actually broken in the middle and segmented with nerves wrapped around the base so I think that speaks for itself. I think having an entire team to do the surgery would probably be better, but he managed to fix everything I needed.
I hope that helps, 
Sarah.
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I’m glad that he helped you @Bluemaple , and so good that you come back to give support and info to other members
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Hi there,
This story is so lovely and I speak for many us that we thank you for sharing.
I was wondering if it was just a styloid removal, or, if your C1 was also shaved?
Thanks in advance,
Danielle
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