BB16,
I AM SO SORRY to read about your mom! I have been there except my dad beat my mom by 6 months. My sister & I did Mom’s end of life care w/ hospice assist. Couldn’t have done it w/o their help.
My situation occurred after I’d had my ES surgeries, but waiting for a loved one to pass away is very tough no matter the timing. My heart & prayers go out to you for all you’re going through now.
Interesting about the call from the TMJ doc. My personal feeling is that you should leave your teeth alone until after your styloids are gone. Sometimes minor bite changes occur once the styloids are out, & the irritation they’ve caused has settled down. It would be better to pursue taking care of that later, but by all means discuss the possible cyst w/ Dr. Chhetri.
Bless those doctors who are willing to help us when we aren’t giving them our business for surgery. I was just in today for a cortisone shot in my hip (need both replaced but putting that off as long as possible). The doctor who did it will not be doing my hip surgery but did kindly offer to give me cortisone shots while I wait. He said it would be a couple of days before I had pain relief but it was almost instantaneous. I hope you find the lidocaine/cortisone injections help you in the same manner mine helped me!
So, so sorry to read about your Mum, thinking of you & sending you a hug I hope that you can get all the help you need to care for her…
I do agree with Isaiah that your teeth might be best left alone- we’ve had lots of members with jaw pain who’ve had unnecessary dental work done, I did too, but at least it was just a filling…
I hope that you can get the steroid injections done, & once again, thinking of you.
My calendar says you’re having/had surgery w/ Dr. Chhetri today. Please let us know how it went & how you’re doing when you feel up to it. I’ve been praying for you.
My calendar showed that too. Unfortunately, I needed to postpone the surgery due to the fact that my mother was placed on hospice after finding out she has a glioblastoma in her brain. I would not have been able to recover correctly.
My local ENT is going to do steroid injections on the 16th.
Thank you for the reminder. I recall you mentioning your mom’s health & surgery postponement but forgot to take your surgery off my calendar. I’m so sorry to learn that your Mom has a glioblastoma. I had a friend who died from that same type of tumor 20 years ago. I hope you’re able to have some quality time with her before she’s gone.
The stress of your mom’s situation has likely caused your symptoms to flare a bit. I’m glad you’re getting the steroid injections. That will help keep you comfier.
Please keep us posted about your surgery date when you have a new one.
So sorry you need to postpone this! I hope her passing is peaceful and glad you can be there for her.
You will find hopefully the steroid injection to help. It took about a week for it to kick in with me. Alternately, I was 1st prescribed oral dexamethazone which worked like a charm 1st time around I had a major ES pain flair (before ES diagnosis). It didn’t work as good when I tried it again.
I have a cyst in my sinus and its been there for years. ENT /ES surgeon most likely saw it on scan.
I chose to have styloids out before getting appliance for TMJ and now looking at possible other orthodontics. Im not sure having an ortho evaluation prior to ES surgery would serve you at this point?
I hope you get some relief while you take care of your mom.
Had my injections this morning. Did not realize how much more involved of an ordeal having the styloid area injected is compared to the orthopedic steroid/prp injections that I have received in my knee, groin and wrist. Injections were done at am outpatient surgery center and I was put out under general due to my insanely strong gag reflex. So far so good. He used fluoroscopy for guided imagery and injected from the skull base to the tip on both sides. I will find out in a few days how much it helped, but just from the numbing I’d say my tinnitus has decreased as well as the feeling of ear pressure/fullness. Having a hit of a sore throat from being intubated, but expect that to go away in a day or so.
Re: the sinus cyst… Neither Chhetri or my local ENT (the one who injected me today) are concerned at all both stating it’s a benign retention cyst and quite small.
I’m so glad you hd the steroid injections. Thank you for the procedure description as I also had no idea that it was so involved.
You may be a bit sore from the needle pokes over the next few days, but as you said, it may take a few days (to a week - my addition) for you to realize the benefit of the injections.
Sucking on ice chips or sipping ice water might help your throat feel better quicker, too. Some people also recommend eating popsicles for that. I’m not a proponent because of the high sugar content as sugar itself can cause inflammation, but that’s just my conservative side showing up.
BB, glad you got some injections!
Amazing what you went thru to get them. Mine was in the office sitting upright by a neurologist but I don’t have a gag reflux. I was thankful for the numbing too. Even if brief to have no pain. Unfortunately I metabolize nerve block meds fast and only get about 4-6 hours of relief.
It seems I remember it took about 1 week for the steroids to really kick in fully (I have connective tissue/absorption issues) so Ill be curious what you will experience. Everyone is different and I imagine the dosage impacts how quickly it works. I am glad you are getting some relief from ear pressure. Hope you are getting relief by now.
Glad your retention cyst is not a problem. Ive had the same thing for years and its always called out on my scans by radiologist. They always say its nothing to worry about. I will admit I still dont like for it to be there and mildly concerned it may cause a problem…but I got other more serious issues to worry about.
Injections were actually helpful. The relief was quite subtle and I did not truly appreciate the difference until it wore off in late November/early December. The reason I did not notice it was most likely due to the fact that the numbing helped so much. Because the numbing and injections were helpful my local ENT put me on gabapentin and I think it is helping.
When we brought my mom home from the hospital on home hospice at the end of August, both the hospital and hospice did not think she would make it past September (the reason I canceled my scheduled surgery in September). Like in life, my mom does things on her own time and is still hanging in there. She is very comfortable and well taken care of.
Because my mom is in such good hands, I opted to be placed back on the surgery calendar. I will be having my surgery on 1/13/22.
That’s great news all the way around!! I’m so glad your mom is doing well. Great care & being surrounded by loved ones makes a huge difference. I’m really glad you feel comfortable taking care of yourself now. I’ll put your surgery date on my calendar & will be praying for you that day.
I agree, glad that you’re mum is well cared for, and that you feel able to have surgery now…Good that the injections helped you in the mean time too. Praying for you
4 hours until I need to be at the hospital. This waiting to leave is hard. Part of me just wants to leave right now and get this over with, but I know that is not how it works. Hospital is 2 hours away and I had dreams last night that we got stuck in traffic and were late or we showed up to the hospital and were told that due to COVID all elective surgeries were canceled.
I will try to have my wife post an update after surgery…
I woke up this morning thinking about you & today’s surgery. I’ve prayed, too, and will be happy to hear how everything goes for you. Since it’s past operating hours now, I expect you’re on the other side of surgery & now your body can start to heal.
Surgery started later than expected. They took me in at 4:30 p.m. Surgery took 3 hours. After recovery and the 2 hour drive, I didn’t get home until almost midnight, and my wife forgot to do an update.
I’m resting right now, but I’ll update with details later.
I hope that you can get all the help you need to care for her…
