Hi Everyone,I am from Bangladesh. I am new here and hope that you all will give me your precious opinion.
I was firstly diagnosed with ES at the beginning of the month. I am having my symptoms for 5 months. Before diagnosis I went to 3 different ENTs and didn’t recieve proper treatment. Then, On 07/8 I went to another ENT and he was able to find out the main cause of my symptoms seeing my cervical spine Xray and suggested me to do surgery. I was struggling to find an experienced head neck surgeon. Then I finally meet Prof. Dr Khabiruddin Ahmed and he is a head neck cancer surgeon. My doctor will perform tonsillo-styloidectomy on 30/8. As he is experienced with tonsillo-styloidectomy, so I don’t have any other option. According to him, I may experience the symptoms later after operation. There is a chance of recurrence.
Now I am taking Pregabalin and sleeping 10-12 hours every day which gives me some comfort. Should I opt for the surgery??
Unfortunately with ES, surgery is the only ‘cure’. Injections into the tonsillar area can help, but don’t always work, & aren’t permanent. But there are risks to surgery, so it’s a personal decision whether your symptoms are affecting your quality of life enough to need surgery…but leaving the styloids in can cause more irritation to nerves & maybe leave them permanently damaged…
If your surgeon is experienced then that’s good- a head & neck cancer surgeon is a good bet as they’re used to operating in the area, & can often remove styloids as a routine to get better access to cancers. But I’d suggest that you ask him how much of the styloid process he removes- intraoral surgery can sometimes make it hard for the surgeon to remove as much as with external surgery, but many members have had successful surgeries this way. And it’s a good idea to check if the styloid is smoothed off afterwards to make sure there’s no ragged bits left to irritate nerves.
I hope this helps?
Hi @Ishratchy, so sorry to hear you are suffering with ES, glad you found this forum!
Getting a diagnosis so quickly is a good sign as some sufferers spend years going from doctor to doctor in frustration and pain. Surgery is the only true potential resolution to your symptoms; many have tried numerous pain nerve medications, injections and other forms of therapy without longterm success.
In my opinion the surgery is your only option for a longterm “cure”. I had my left tonsillectomy/styloidectomy May 19 this year; although there was pain from the surgery and time needed to recover, I was able to notice a difference in my symptoms almost immediately. I am 3+ months post-op and am just waiting for my surgery date for the right side in the next couple of months, then I hope to be able to say I survived a 5 year/multiple doctor journey with Eagle Syndrome.
Your medications may help now, but in my 5 year experience, they work for a while and then they don’t, and you move on to the next med to experience the same thing. I still have some nerve pain, but nothing like I was suffering from pre-surgery, it’s still early days for me and I hope over time I may experience 100% relief.
All the best on your journey, I encourage you to ask as many questions as you like to ease your fears on this painful and frustrating journey. The members on this forum are super supportive, have tons of help and advice and have your back because we have ALL been through it. Take care. 
Thank you, @Weezie65 for sharing your personal experience. I am really scared about my surgery. According to my doctor I will feel better after my surgery, but there is a chance of recurrence. I have seen many in this forum who went through external surgery. But my doctor can only perform intraoral surgery. I know both surgeries have positive and negative sides. So I am not confident enough. I have few questions to you, Do your doctor remove calcified ligament while surgery? How long it will take to recover after surgery??
Hi @Ishratchy, I’m not going to lie, the recovery from surgery isn’t easy; for the first few weeks there is quite a lot of pain, but healing pain if that makes sense. I suggest you plan to manage your pain with meds and rest, rest, rest to let your body heal. I was unable to eat for a while, so I relied on lots of fluids, tea and honey and water was about all I could manage.
You may find it hard to eat anything acidic while your throat continues to heal; don’t push yourself too hard, things may seem like they are progressing slowly, but you will get there eventually. My jaw was sore also from being clamped open during surgery, so soft foods only for quite a while. I was also very tired after my surgery, took me probably 2+ months to really get my energy back. But it will come back.
You will have white scabs at the surgery site, they will eventually fall off as the healing process progresses. Your surgeon may prescribe a mouth rinse, I recommend using it, I found it really helped with the pain and healing process. You will also want to have an ice pack on hand, apply it to your face/neck frequently to help keep the swelling down, I found this helped me a lot.
You may lose your voice at times as you heal, again, it’s all part of the healing process, so don’t be alarmed. I experienced relief immediately from some ES symptoms I was experiencing, and the post surgery pain for me was not the same ES pain pre-op. My surgeon was able to remove the whole styloid process, and removed my tonsil which incidently had tonsil stones.
I’m now about 3.5 month post-op, I still have mild nerve pain on my surgery side but all the other symptoms on that side are gone. I am having my right side done sometime in the next couple of months, I do not have pain on the right but do have tinnitus and vertigo/dizziness as my SP is compressing my internal jugular vein, so I’m opting to get this over and done with with the second surgery.
Sorry for the super long post, but I hope it gives you an idea of what to expect. I know it’s scary, but I am certain that if you are in the hands of an experienced surgeon you will be just fine. Best of luck to you.
Ishratchy - Would you please give us the name of your surgeon & his contact information so we can add him to our list of doctors from other countries.
Thank you! I hope you feel a little better each day! 
Prof.Dr. Khabiruddin Ahmed
Bangladesh ENT Hospital Ltd.
Web: www.benth.com.bd
E-mail : drkhabir1960@gmail.com
Appointment : +88 01717-250667, 02-9137324
Thank you so much!! I hope you’re seeing some really good results from your surgery.
I’ve added his name onto the Doctors List.