Please help, weird symptoms

I had my intra oral surgery on August 4th on my right styloid. The doctor was able to get most of it.

Since then I am having pain in the back of my throat and roof of my mouth. When I turn my head I can feel something poking the roof/ side of my mouth on both sides. When I yawn it is really bad also. I also feel like sometimes it is pressing on my larynx or somewhere near where breathing is. I’m sure a lot of it is anxiety but it literally feels like the pressure on my throat is making my airway smaller.

Ibuprofen seems to help a bit or I just wait it out and it gets better. I’m a teaching and I use my voice all day long and it’s getting hard to do my job.

I know I do have calcified stylohyoid ligaments. Could this be what’s poking me?

I am literally at my wits end. My husband is having major knee surgery in a week and will need 6 weeks to recover. I will be taking care of my son and teaching all day all alone. I don’t have time for this!

I left a message with my surgeon but last time he said he didn’t know what the clicking and pain is.

What other type of doctor could I contact for help?

Any other treatments I can try?

Thanks for listening!

Hi there. I had my intra oral on 7/20. I also feel like something is pressing or squeezing my throat. I have a poking feeling in throat as well. I also have calcified stylohyoid ligaments. I have pain in back of tongue and am still taste bud challenged. still very tender at jaw bone. when i yawn it is still painful too. I am taking ibuprofen has i thought that it is still healing. i go to doctors soon for followup.
My husband is also having knee surgery soon with 6 weeks to recover. :slightly_smiling_face:

What?!?!?! You are like my twin hahaha! The ibuprofen helps but it is ripping apart my stomach. I have severe acid reflux and my stomach is so sensitive.

I’m not glad we are in the same boat but I’m glad to have someone who understands my rant. Please let me know what your doctor says/recommends.

I am just so over all of this!

If the calcified ligaments are still in then they can cause symptoms as well. Also do you know how much was removed, and if the end was smoothed off? There have been members who’s styloids were just snapped off leaving a rough end to still cause irritation. I guess the only way to find out is to have another CT scan and to see if anything’s worsened since the op, but it’s still early days since surgery- some of the poking in the throat symptoms can be caused by irritated nerves, which can take a good 6 months to settle and heal, even up to a year. (If you google ‘globus sensation’ the explanations show that often there isn’t actually anything in the throat, but the nerves are irritated giving that sensation.)
Really sorry to hear that you’ve got so much on your plate at the moment, as you say the anxiety probably makes it worse. I do have a relative who tried acupuncture when she had trigeminal neuralgia following an operation and stress, and it really helped her, don’t know if it’s worth a try?
Thinking of you, and sending you a hug…:tulip:

I’m so sorry you are dealing with this. I am 6 weeks post op but had the external surgery. Why didn’t your surgeon remove the calcified ligaments?

Not sure. He never mentioned it. Can you take it out with the intra oral surgery

Probably not so easily, I guess.

Jules,
thanks for the information of the “globes sensation”. Looking forward to my followup with doctor on september 5th ( 6 weeks post-op)

agordon726, Jules is correct in what he said…After I had my ES surgery intra-oral, it was really rough. First of all, my salivary glands went berserk and I had to walk around with a cloth at my mouth to keep saliva over producing and dripping all over my chin. That took a little over a month to finally get it under control.

Second, I had so much anxiety because of the pain and I still had the fear that not all of the styloids had been removed. I had the sensation under my tongue and sometimes in the roof of my mouth. I felt that I had made a mistake in having the surgery, at some point…It was horrible during this time. I am a diabetic and that made it even worse because we don’t heal as fast as others.

I just took it one day at a time, that’s all you can do. As for the surgeon, why not take the ligaments out. Those do become calcified!!! That’s what makes you feel like there is something poking you. Why would any doctor not do that??? I hope that you will heal and that the sensation will leave. It is so miserable to live like that.

I also had that Globus sensation at times. Not for long, though. All I can do for you is pray that you get through this.

So sorry that you are having to deal with this…I too, suffered with ES for 17 long…years. I had the surgery about 2 weeks after I was diagnosed at Univ. of Oklahoma. Some of my symptoms after the surgery were an over production of saliva and that took 1 month to finally stop. I also had problems with a poking sensation for a little while probably, for a couple of months.

It takes time to heal because the are is so raw after the surgery. I also had so much anxiety and thought I had made a mistake having the surgery. But, I was also going through “hell” with the sensation on the roof of my mouth and poking under my tongue.

I will tell you, I prayed allot. That’s how I got through it. Pursue your healing with everything you’ve got! My life is allot better, but I do have some other health problems so, I just do what I have to do. It is so hard to work when you feel horrible. I couldn’t work very much. I had to get on FMLA at my job because I missed so much work.

Thanks Hadassa. (I have a student named Hadassa but with an h on the end of her name). That was really comforting to know I’m not alone in all of these symptoms. I’m trying to wait it out, not stress, and the gabapentin is helping some. I’m getting a CT Scan in one week to see what is going on. I’ll try to take it one day at a time. It’s just hard when I use my voice all day to teach.

How long until your symptoms eased?

Agordon0726, sorry I missed your reply…It took me about 3-4 months to totally recover after my surgery. It was a slow process because with every new day, you keep thinking, to yourself if you really are healing??? After being in pain all those years of not being diagnosed and suffering with pain every day, you continue questioning, “Is it really healed”? Just hang in there and pursue you healing.

I had intra-oral surgery 2 years ago on my left styloid process. The Dr was only able to clip off the tip of the SP due to the facial nerve. I got no relief from this. In the beginning I could feel the scar tissue was tight and it hurt to open my mouth wide and to swallow. Over time it stretched out and got better. I just scheduled an extra-oral surgery with Dr Samji in San Jose, CA. His plan is to remove the whole SP and the ligament. Hopefully this will resolve my problems. Good luck.

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