I had a CT scan 7.7.22, and the discovered my ES by accident 
It is messured to be between 7-8 cm on both sides.
Ive been waiting for surgary since then and now, i finally have a date to look forward to.
13.3.24 1year and 8month waiting time about to be over🙌
So, for those of you who has already done surgary. What do i need to be preparing for?
Your styloids are CRAZY LONG, @Erik85!! WOW!! I’m sorry you’ve had to wait for so long for your surgery. That is terrible!! Will the styloids be shortened by external surgery or intraoral?
If your surgery is intraoral (through your throat) you’ll have a very sore throat for up to a month after surgery so popsicles, ice chips, cold drinks, etc. will help to sooth the pain along with the pain medications your prescribed. Icing your neck may be somewhat helpful, too, 15 min. ice on & 45 min. ice off. Use a thin towel or washcloth between your skin & ice pack. You can use the ice for several weeks but after the first week you can also try heat on your neck. We recommend gel ice packs or gel packs that can be frozen or warmed up because they will conform to your neck shape.
Also w/ intraoral surgery you will want to have soups & soft foods ready (mashed potatoes, smoothies, hot cereal, apple sauce, yogurt, etc) because swallowing solid food will be very difficult at first.
If your surgery is external then your jaw may be stiff so it will be hard to open your mouth very far for a week or two so a soft idea is also a good idea to have ready. Some people can eat normally right after surgery, too.
Get yourself a wedge shaped pillow so you can sleep with your head elevated for several weeks after surgery. This will help reduce the swelling in your throat & neck. My surgeon recommended 30º of head elevation when sleeping. It’s hard to get used to sleeping nearly upright but it did help a lot to reduce my swelling.
Ask your surgeon for a 10-14 day course of steroids (Prednisone) to take after surgery as that will also help reduce swelling. Some doctors automatically prescribe it but many don’t.
If you take opioid pain medications post op, you’ll need to take a stool softener & laxative every day so your bowels don’t clog up. DO NOT wait until you have a problem before starting the laxative medications. They need to be started the day you start the opioid meds.
This information is a good start. I expect other members will add things I forgot.
Thank u for the good advices🤩
The doctor told me its gonna be intra oral, but i find that more scary from the outside.
They actually found The ES while doing a full body scan CT, while looking for a cancer near my kidney. No cancer found thou😂
Good that they didn’t find any cancer!
Intra-oral is a bit more painful a surgery to recover from, so be prepared for that…I think @Isaiah_40_31 has covered everything, but there’s info in the Newbies guide Section, here’s a link:
ES Information- Treatment: Surgery - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
And one of our members suggested a ‘surgery shopping list’ , which might be helpful:
Surgery shopping list - General - Living with Eagle
