Hi & welcome!
You’ve done a good job with your images! I agree that your styloids both sides look longer than average, and are certainly pretty thick, which can contribute to symptoms. It doesn’t look like there’s any calcification of the stylo-hyoid ligament, but your hyoid bone processes look fairly long too- sometimes these can interfere with blood vessels and nerves as well. On the left it seems as if there is some compression of the Internal Jugular Vein, the C1 process is against it too- sometimes the IJV is squashed between them, removing the styloid does give space but not always enough so a C1 shave might be needed too. Yours doesn’t look as compressed as alot we see on here though in my non-medical opinion…
You certainly have symptoms of ES & IJV compression, so it’s certainly worth looking into- as it’s more than likely vascular ES, you would be better getting a referral to one of the doctors on our list who is experienced with that. Sadly many doctors are still quite ignorant of ‘classic’ ES, & even more so of vascular ES. It does look as if your C1 is a bit off centre too, like you say. Some members have had chiropractic adjustments for instability, and it can help temporarily, but it would need to be done by someone who understands VES, as they could do more harm than good, it could be potentially dangerous… Ultimately though the only real cure for ES is surgery though…
So here’s a link to the doctors list in case you’ve not seen it yet:
Doctor Lists – no discussion - Symptoms and Treatments / Doctor Information - Living with Eagle
I don’t know if you’d be able to get a referral out of state & be able to travel, as the most experienced doctors are a little way away from you?! Dr Nakaji in AZ, Dr Hepworth in CO, and Dr Costantino in NY are the best doctors, also members have seen Dr Hui in Hawaii, hopefully someone will help me out with this because I can’t remember if he’s done more diagnosing & vascular investigations as well as the surgery! Some doctors do telehealth appointments so you could do that rather than an initial visit, & you can look up past discussions about the doctors using the search function. You might be able to get diagnosed by a local ENT, there’s one on the list in WA: Dr Neil Futran UW Medical Center, Seattle 206- 598- 4022 (successful intra-oral surgery) http://www.uwmedicine.org/bios/neal-futran , but the surgery for vascular ES if you consider having that done would be better with someone with more experience.
I hope this helps & that you can get a diagnosis & treatment!
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