New here say a month. Post op TOS 28 days and prepping for Eagles on June 29th

General
2

Hi @Tuesday,

You did a great job posting so it looks like you have it down. I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. It’s hard being in the medical profession & knowing how things should be done but not having the privilege of experiencing a “perfect” surgery yourself. As you know, any surgeon can experience unexpected setbacks when doing a surgery that seems straightforward. It’s hard to know what will be encountered in any surgery until the incision is made & the “inner workings” of the body become visible. I hope your recovery from the TOS surgery continues to progress. What a difficult time this has been for you!

Are you seeing Dr. Lentsch for your surgery? It looks like the last posts we had about him were 2 years ago. Our members who had him do their surgeries seem to have had good outcomes. We are biased toward the external surgical approach for several reasons:

  1. The nerves, vascular tissues, styloids & stylohyoid ligaments can be visualized & monitored to reduce the chance of injury
  2. Better styloid access so more of it can be removed
  3. Lower rate of post op infection
  4. Slightly quicker post op recovery

The cons we see with intraoral surgery are

  1. The nerves, vascular tissues & styloids are not visible. Calcified stylohyoid ligaments can’t be removed (though we had one member who said she did have hers removed intraorally).
  2. Styloids can’t be removed to the skull base so more is often left behind which can be problematic for some people
  3. Higher risk of post op infection
  4. More painful & slower recovery

I am not a doctor but base my opinion on the several hundred members on our forum & their experiences w/ ES surgery. We have many members who’ve had successful intraoral ES surgeries but also a number who have not because the styloids weren’t shortened enough. In the hands of an experienced surgeon such as Dr. Lentsch, either approach should give you relief of your symptoms. Giving him your vote of confidence & accepting his opinion as to what is best is the best approach for sure.

The pain & choking feeling you have in your neck could absolutely be from ES as those are common symptoms. I don’t know if you’ve looked at the detailed posts Jules made about ES symptoms but in case you haven’t read them here are the links. There are many more discussions on this topic which you can find by clicking on the magnifying glass icon & typing “symptoms” in the search box.