In my experience, some symptoms are pretty the same on almost everyone. However, maybe because of the unique nature of each body, the majority of us experience our very own specific symptoms. It’s like adding salt and pepper to an awful dish. I had bilateral, both removed by Dr. David Cognetti. I experienced all you describe, plus a very annoying symptom: I couldn’t be under the sun for more than 10 or 15 minutes if the temperature was warm or hot. It worsened the inflamation and pain, and it also gave me fever. I used to end up in bed with cold compresses. I’m an avid rose enthusiastic, but after ES took over my life, I just simply couldn’t do it anymore. I encourage you to have surgery (I speak for myself.) In my case, it took way more than a year to be diagnosed and in the meantime I tried everything the doctors told me to do. Four different ENT’s saw me and came up with a bunch of different illnesses and stuffed me with antibiotics. One of them even suggested I was making it up. Then a young ENT took a gamble on me and we finally knew the nature of the beast. Until my surgeries, I felt like I was covering with bandages something that, putting it simple, was never going to go away. For me, living with ES was living in hell. The surgeries are not a walk in the park, but I was already experiencing excruciating pain every day, so what was the difference? They were both absolutely worth it. Unfortunatelly, I am heck of an incredibly uncommon case, because one of the styloids is growing again. But for sure, I’ll do it again if I have to. Nothing is worse than spending the rest of your life battling ES. This is my very own opinion based in my experience. I am aware that others prefer to take a different approach, and all are valid. My heart goes to you. I wish you the best in this journey.