@eastmas1 would like to know if anyone else in the 70+ age group on here has had ES surgery.
I’m scheduled for right side May 9. Very nervous as I m 73 and don’t know anybody as old that did surgery.
I’m sure we have had members the same age as you who’ve had surgery, Dr Hackman is very experienced so you should be in good hands. It’ll be good to get the nasty spikes out!
I attempted to ask members but trouble navigating. So skipped it. I find this site difficult for an old lady. Can you pose the question. I’m feeling so poorly , just no energy for anything.
| Jules
March 27 |
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I’m sure we have had members the same age as you who’ve had surgery, Dr Hackman is very experienced so you should be in good hands. It’ll be good to get the nasty spikes out!
Hi! I am 64 and just had my second surgery, my first being at age 53. I did better the second time around because I was much more prepared. Being as healthy as you can prior to surgery helped me. Eating right, exercising and preparing my home all helped to make my second surgery easier.
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ModSupport have done that for you 
@ann, I would love to hear more details on how you prepared. My first surgery is scheduled for June 22nd. I am 59 years old. How did you prepare your home? How did you eat right? Thanks for sharing!!
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Hi! After my first surgery I was extremely weak because my pain had been so extreme for many years. So for my second surgery I made sure I was more prepared. I upped my cleaning eating focusing on lowering inflammation by eating cleanly as I could. I am now gluten free so I mostly eat good proteins, fruits and veggies. The older you get the more protein you need to keep your muscles strong. I also swim, bike and walk each day. Then I focused on getting my home organized paying bills, cleaning, having soft foods prepared and getting supplies for after surgery. I iced for the first few weeks after surgery and prefer long reusable small ice packs you can get on Amazon. I made little scarf holders out of a bandana so the ice would not go directly in my skin. I made 4 of them so I would always have a clean one on hand. I purchased a sun protective scarf from a company called Coolibar so I could keep my scar out of the sun when in the car or going for walks. I also recommend wearing slip in shoes, button down shirt and a zip sweat shirt day of surgery. I stayed over night and packed only a small bag with hand lotion, tooth brush, hair tie, wide tooth comb, several different kind of masks to choose from, a protein drink, phone charger and extra battery pack to recharge my phone. At hospital I started sucking on ice chips as soon as I was in recovery which helped greatly and continued ice chips until my throat was back to normal. I also used throat spray that they sell at drug stores to sooth my throat. Good luck with surgery and just understand it is not a straight line…you can be progressing each day and then need to rest for a day. I am 6 months out and back to normal.
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I was 64 when I did the 2nd one in Dec 2020. I did pretty well and it was uneventful.
I think it depends on your level of health at the time, weight - if you are overweight, you are at higher risk, the doctor, length of time under anesthesia and type of anesthesia used. Other medical conditions. Im assuming they are doing some pre-surgery testing blood, possible EKG, chest x-ray?
Your risk for your age will be the anesthesia. Although I didn’t have a pre-anesthesia work up for Eagles, I did the year before so I knew I was in good shape. If your doc has not ordered a work up, you may want to seek it out yourself and speak to the anesthesiologist. If your having it at a big center, they would likely require this pre-anesthesia work up just to determine your level of risk and whether you needed extra in the way of medications depending on other health conditions. Evaluate you for all your risk factors. This would help maybe alleviate your nervousness? Some centers have nurse anesthesia people that can do a work up for the anesthesiologist a couple weeks before surgery.
Your risks will be the anesthesia.
I had pelvic reconstruction a couple years back and woke up in really bad shape in ICU. It was a longer surgery. Had terrible time with post-op pain and out of my mind. I will share that it is suspected someone in the OR was diverting drugs and I may not have gotten all the pain medications I was supposed to.
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Definitely valuable info from Ann as well. I so agree with you bopper on this one. All the details are so helpful for others. Any thing we can do to have our body in a healthier state as we age and before surgery is great advice.
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I will be 70 on May 13, this horrible situation started in January of 2021. But we now think it began slowly 5 years ago. Strange sharp ear pain, headache only on the left side. Ear ring or head noise, facial sensitivity, all on the left side. Now since last Jan it’s all the time. Rude doctors, quack treatment with questionable meds. Finally met Dr Annino, had a cat scan with contrast that showed compression of the IJV, styloid is 3.4 cm. This Monday we (my great wife) and I sit with him and discuss surgery I hope.
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Dr. Annino is an excellent surgeon & has helped a number of our members, however, we do have a member who had IJV compression for whom Dr. Annino did ES surgery. He did not shorten this member’s styloid enough so the compression is still there. Our member is now going to have revision surgery done by Dr. Hackman in NC as Dr. Hackman cuts the styloids back to the skull base, which in most cases relieves the IJV compression.
I’m not telling you this to demean Dr. Annino in any way but to suggest that you have a very direct conversation with him about whether or not he feels he can shorten your styloid enough to relieve the compression on the IJV. This is not a surgery you want to go through more than once if that can be avoided.
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Thank you for the advice. I will ask him about that specifically. Was the member the only one here that this happened to? It’s kind of odd that a surgeon would do surgery with this being obvious from the cat scan. I’ve had total knee replacement 3 years ago and said I would never do that again! Ha! After this experience I’d do it again with no meds. I’ll let you know after Monday.
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It’s just that quite a few doctors on here take the styloid back near the skull base, but not right back to it, which is often enough to cure symptoms, but sometimes the styloid can compress the jugular vein right where it exits the skull base, & so if not fully removed the little bit left can still compress the jugular. If you can go through your scans with Dr Annino hopefully he can see where the styloid is compressing the vein & whether he’s confident he can remove up to that part. Let us know how you get on…
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Sadly, one of the most experienced surgeons on our list doesn’t pay much heed to IJV compression so even some
of his patients have needed revision surgeries done by other doctors who are more knowledgeable about vascular ES. We try to let our members know who the best doctors are to help with that, but some are unable to travel to them & must see doctors near where they live & take their chances.
Well on Monday of this week I had my second meeting with Dr Annino, he showed us the ct scan with the contrast which clearly showed the styloid compressing the IJV. He then stated that is the likely cause of most of my symptoms. Headache, throbbing, ear noise, etc. His approach is to remove the styloid as much as possible past the compression area. So May 17 is the day. Wish me luck.
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One more note, the compression is roughly at the mid point of the 3.4 cm styloid.
Really pleased that you have a date for surgery, & not too far away! Good too that the compression isn’t right at the skull base! A belated birthday present! Will make a note of the date & will be praying for you 