Very early days, I hope that you can find something to help the ear pressure before you have to fly… 
This is the kind of head pressure, ear pain and ringing I had prior to surgery it’s just amplified. it comes and goes. I know it’s still really early so not expecting to feel great but I am hoping that this is something that goes away and not a sign that I’ll need additional work to relieve the pressure in my head. The rest of my body seems to be healing as it should. Today’s update is pretty much the same as yesterday. I’ll probably have more of an update after my appointment tomorrow. Slept pretty well but woke up once with pain. I didn’t take any medicine and was able to fall back to sleep. I had some lightheadedness after coffee this morning. I requested a wheelchair for the flight tomorrow. Probably better to play it safe. Thanks for continued support.
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I still haven’t seen photos of my styloid. I was kind of hoping they’d post them to the portal so I could see the nasty little thing.
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Make sure to ask about the styloid pictures when you have your follow-up appt. tomorrow. Hopefully someone took a picture/pictures! I had to ask the nurse to bring mine in immediately post op so I could snap a photo of it in the lab jar that contained it. Didn’t get a very good pic, sadly. It also looked much smaller than I expected based on how long it looked on my CT scan. 
Allison said Dr Hepworth would have photos on his phone and to ask him next time I have an appointment with him. For some reason the hospital only sent over one of the three pages of my procedure report so nothing really to report there. They said I should be able to get those in a few days. My appointment went pretty much as expected. They cut the stitches out holding the flap over my wound and also cleaned about half of the stuff they had in my nose protecting the leak location. I am feeling a little better today and in regards to my symptoms they said wait 6-8 weeks to re-evaluate and see where we’re at. I kind of figured that would be the response but she said everything is healing nicely and my symptoms are nothing out of the ordinary. Headed home today and looking forward to seeing my kids, dog and my bed.
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I really want to check the scans and compare the measured length the length removed. I feel like what they removed was longer than what was reported on my scans.
It’s very common for the styloids removed to be longer than measured in a CT because the CT slices have small spaces between them so the styloids can’t be measured accurately via imaging.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. We had to wake up at 5am to make my appointment in Denver and normally a rough night of sleep would make me have flare-ups before my surgery. I didn’t notice the extreme pain/pressure in my ear yesterday. I also slept through the night without waking up. It’s so nice to be home and in my own bed. It was probably the most active day I’ve had as far as walking and moving around. I’ll try to post a picture of my scar today.
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Glad that things seem to have improved a bit & that the staff are happy with your healing so far…good to be home 
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HOORAY for the healing benefits of going home! You had quite an ordeal between traveling & a couple of major surgeries. I’m so glad you’re seeing positive changes now. A good night’s sleep does help a lot with that!
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I actually worked a little yesterday. I’m a photographer and had a two hour shoot planned(with a backup shooter if didn’t think I could do it). I had my assistant load my car, drive to the shoot and carry everything in so all I had to do was pretty much instruct people and press a button. Probably pushed it a little but so far not feeling any negative effects from doing more. Ear is still ringing pretty good and some crunchiness in the ear/jaw area on the side they operated but the sharp pain/pressure I was having is gone. It’s staying at a much more manageable level. Maybe a 3 in pain.
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That is AMAZING!! Glad you’ve gotten such good results already. During recovery pain/symptoms can come & go so don’t be alarmed if you have some difficult days following good ones. Eventually the good days become dominant. 
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Probably more of a financial decision than working because I felt good 
. Unfortunately when you’re self employed there are no paid sick days or vacation. Still headed in the right direction though. I kind of figure even if the surgery doesn’t fix my symptoms it was necessary. A compressed jugular and cranial leak can’t be good things to ignore.
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Here’s the scar pic to add to the library. I’ll see if my wife can get a better shot when she gets home. It’s kind of hard to do a selfie shot of your neck.
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Been there & done that w/ the neck selfie pictures! Your incision looks outstanding! Totally understand the self employment issues. Good for you for being prepared w/ a worthy assistant…just in case!
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I really think once it flattens out it’s going to heal up nicely. I’ve been taking collagen and have the scar gel sheets but it really doesn’t look that bad now.
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That looks really good! Hope you can take it easier the next week & don’t have to work too much!
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It’s still really early but for those that had TMJ symptoms before their surgery did you do anything after to treat the TMJ or did the symptoms just go away? I met with a TMJ specialist during my journey and he made appliances for me to wear at night and during the day. I typically wear the one at night because it helped prevent teeth grinding but I gave up on the daytime appliance when I didn’t see any improvement. My TMJ type symptoms are a little crunchiness in that joint area. I thought this could be the styloid hitting my jaw but with it removed now that’s not the case. I also have pressure in that ear and tinnitus but those might be related to something else.
Hi @stuuke ,
In my experience lengthening of the styloid(s) with or without ligamentous calcification can be a factor in TMJ dysfunction. It is prudent to work on normalizing your jaw opening mechanics, looking for smooth and symmetrical opening and closing. One easy and safe way to do this: place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, keeping it there slowly open and close your mouth. If you have pain or crepitus (crunching) stay in a smaller range to avoid these symptoms and gradually work into a larger range always keeping the tip of your tongue at the roof of your mouth. This can be done 10 repetitions 3 times a day as needed. I am a PT, this is a commonly used home exercise and is safe and effective. It is also very helpful with first bite syndrome when done immediately before eating.
Keep the inflammation down with ice as needed. Hope this helps!
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Yesterday was a little rougher but still not bad. I think I either read it here or it was Alison that said 7-10 days is the peak of inflammation so not surprising that I felt a little worse. I’ve also been more active so just the increased activity or massaging the jaw area might have flared things up a little bit. Today was more in line with how I felt last week. I still have some ringing in the ear, crunchiness in that joint area and pressure but not too bad. Wednesday will be 2 weeks from the surgery.