I just wanted to post a quick update.
Its been about a month and a half since my surgery.
The first few days were painful and uncomfortable. It was probably equivilant to a bad head cold except it was also slow and tedius eating anything. On the first day the stitches would hit the back of my tongue and gag me a bit if I fell behind on my meds at all. That was really uncomfortable but also it passed quickly. Really, the worst longer term symptom I had was that my tongue was really numb on the right side. I assumed it had to do with swelling affecting the hypoglossal nerve or glossopharyngeal nerve. But it felt like either the clamp used to hold my tongue was too tight or they accidentally cauterized the tip of my tongue. I had some swollen taste buds in a few spots and it felt kind of like i had burnt my tongue on hot food. It took about a week and a half or two weeks until it returned to feeling normal.
I wasnt needing the perscription pills to handle the pain much by day 2 and 3. But then on day 4 I woke up with a lot of pain in my trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles. It hurt to turn my head all the way or look down. Painful near the collarbone especially. If I woke up sleeping on my right side I would be very stiff and it would hurt to roll off of my side. I ended up using the hydrocodone mainly for that pain in my shoulder and eventually requested a refill on the perscription. I think the shoulder and neck pain kept up for like 5 days and then I woke up with the pain on the other side in the same spot but like half as bad and the right side felt normal again. The pain only stayed on the left for a couple days.
After the shoulder pain subsided, it still was uncomfortable to sleep on my right side for about another week because of the pressure near the surgery site.
But once the area near the styloid healed more and the swelling went down, I can now say I can sleep on my right side pain free! It had been years leading up to the surgery that I had dealt with an extremely nagging pain around the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles if I tried to sleep on my right side. My right hand and forearm are still a little off, but I think it is unrelated as i do a lot of repetative motions, but we will see if any more healing occurs.
As far as the feeling of something stuck in my throat… it is hard to say. I THINK it is better, I feel like when I swallow the muscles move easier and smoother without the styloid in the way or agitating nerves. But with the incision site still being raised and tight, it kind of feels like there is something in the back of my mouth still. However, my right tonsil feels like it isnt being pushed on and it feels like it is returning to the shape I remember it being before I had ES symptoms.
I think as the scar tissue relaxes and returns to its new position my mouth and throat will feel bigger and more open than before and without any of this tight / pulling feeling that I currently experience.
I think in another month and a half I will be able to get tonsil stones out that I havent been able to reach in years and not have a sensation of any foreign objects in the throat/mouth. I am excited to see how much better things keep getting.