Hi! I was supposed to see Cognetti in February but was able to snag a new patient appointment for THIS Tuesday! YAY
Anyone have any advice for new patient appt?
My CTV showed severe bilateral jugular vein compression btwn slightly elongated styloid + c1. I have a history of CSF leaks from large sacral tarlov cysts as well. Surgery for this was last December.
Brilliant that you’ve got an earlier appointment!
We do have a list of questions to ask doctors in the ES Info Surgery Section, but they’re more for asking doctors to find out how successful their surgical technique is, but we know that Dr Cognetti has done lots of them!
As you have vascular ES, I would ask about whether he feels a C1 shave is needed as well as the styloidectomy, and if you have worse symptoms one side or another which side he will do first. If you have more compression one side, then you might want that one done first, but also worth considering is if you have a dominant IJV, as sometimes that can make more of a difference if that one is decompressed first.
You could also ask him if he finds any other compressions (sometimes people have compression from muscles, other blood vessels or occasionally nerves) if he will make sure that the IJV is decompressed.
I hope that your appointment goes well!
Thank you for your response! Its interesting because I have more vascular symptoms on one side and more classic eagles on the other.
My right side (dominant) is completely blocked off so I have more pressure, ringing, blurry vision, muffled hearing, eye/head pain on that side but recently the left started to have what more feels like nerve pain so we’ll see what he says.
@Twistyburrows - Super amazing that you were able to get your appt moved up so much. It does pay to get one’s name on the cancellation list for any doctor that keeps one!
Please let us know how your appointment goes.