Greetings, my story starts three years ago with a neck whiplash injury. It’s been a long journey. I’ve lost my job, partner, friends and family. I now live in a homeless shelter because I can’t work. I have crippling brainfog, fatigue and sleep disturbance. When I lift my head I can hear liquid noises, like pressurized squirting. Dr.Osborne in California diagnosed me with IJV compression/vascular eagles. I was getting nowhere fast in California and my symptoms were getting worse so I flew to North Carolina in hopes that Dr.Hackman could help me. Now I’m worried I should have got a referral for Fargen as he specializes more in vascular issues. I’m also worried I may also have CCI. Please offer some kind words or suggestions. I’m waiting on Medicaid. I’m thinking go with Hackman first as he’s fast, then go to Fargen or if needed? The adrenaline and brainfog have destroyed my life. I want to be one of the people that get better. It’s not fair I have to figure this all out.
You can use the search function on the site to look up members’ experiences with each doctor…
From what I’ve read on here, Dr Hackman is more experienced with ES surgery, and he does bilateral surgery so you would get it over & done with in one go, which in your situation would probably be helpful. Lots of members have had good results with him, some members have had surgery who had VES, if you get a consultation with him it would be worth asking about it.
Dr Fargen has done less styloidectomies, not many members that we know of have had their surgery with him, but as you say is a very experienced neurovascular surgeon…
I’m from the UK so can’t comment on Medicaid, I don’t know whether it would be possible for you to see more than one doctor with that? And I don’t know how long you’d have to wait for an appointment with him either, have you looked into that?
I think your plan of going ahead with a consultation with Dr Hackman is a good idea, see what he says & how confident you feel with him, then take it form there. It’s always a hard decision who you go with for surgery & obviously you don’t want to be needing a revision surgery!
If you are on facebook, the ES group is Eagle Syndrome Group and there is a Jugular Venous Outflow Disorders group. Fargen is talked about in both quite a bit. It looks like there is also a private group for his patients ‘#TeamFarJenn’
@KyleNeedsHelp - As @Jules mentioned, Dr. Fargen hasn’t been doing ES surgeries for as long as many of the other doctors on our list so is less experienced w/ them. He is a “stent guy” vs. doing decompressions. His specialty is stenting veins that won’t stay open. It’s my opinion that stenting a compressed vein w/o first fixing the cause of compression makes no sense. We’ve also heard on here, somewhat often, from members who sent their scans to his office & were told they’d hear in a month whether or not they’d get an appointment but never heard anything. That would frustrate the socks off me! It would be worth calling his office to see about a consult, but if you want to see a surgeon who specifically does styloidectomies & IJV decompressions, Dr. Cognetti in Philadelphia or Dr. Costantino in White Plains, NY, would be the two who are closes to you.
Again, as Jules said, I think meeting with Dr. Hackman & discussing your situation with him first, & even electing for him to do your surgery makes sense since we’ve got members who had IJV compression & who recovered from it once their styloids were shortened by Dr. Hackman. That could be your outcome, too.