Thank you both for the kind responses
@Jules @Isaiah_40_31 I understand what you said regarding gastritis and that does makes sense. I basically tried different diets to see if I could get any improvement or even worsening of specifically the throat symptoms which is my main issue, but none of the diets changed much. From low acid to purposefully supplementing with betaine HCL (stomach acid), the throat felt more or less the same, leading me to conclude it is unlikely coming from the stomach/acid/gasses. I agree it is still a possiblilty though, I’m just working with my best guesses to try and get to a resolution
Regarding the weight/muscle, I know this is a bit of a far-fetched theory and also very specific to my body but to me the idea that going through a drastic body transformation (going from size XL to M) could very plausibly cause the positioning of the styloids to change relative to other neck structure. If they were touching a bit of muscle or fat in the past vs a nerve now, that might be the difference between having the fish bone sensation as I did previously and a constant sore raw throat right now.
It’s also very interesting that I get the most / only relief during the process of eating and chewing gum. Drinking liquids does not have the same effect. I have read a few other posts on the forum where people mentioned chewing gum gives them relief. I thought this might be due to saliva production, lubricating the throat or swallowing providing relief however if that were the case you would expect sipping liquids to have the same effect, why does chewing gum or eating help?
Below a theory from AI:
''Changing the position of the styloid relative to nerves.
The styloid process is a fixed structure attached to the temporal bone, but the surrounding tissues move relative to it. When you chew, swallow, or move your jaw and tongue, the position of soft tissues changes around the fixed styloid. Some positions may produce nerve compression. Other positions may relieve it.
If your resting position happens to place a nerve in close contact with the styloid, the nerve gets irritated chronically. The continuous movement of chewing might keep nerves out of the static compressed position, or at least vary the contact point so no single area is continuously compressed.
Reducing muscle tension in the muscles attached to the styloid.
The stylohyoid, styloglossus, and stylopharyngeus muscles can be chronically tight. Chronic muscle tension on or around the calcified structure creates pain even when nothing else is happening. Sustained activity like chewing might paradoxically relax these muscles compared to their static tense state — somewhat like how walking can reduce stiffness in chronically tense back muscles.‘’
This also leads me to believe that changing the structures around the styloids through weight gain could ‘permenantly’ change the styloids contact points, the thing that chewing might be doing temporarily. As you said, worth a try! Building the weight back will take time but I’ll keep the thread updated if anything significant changes
@Isaiah_40_31
Thank you for taking the time to have another look at my panoramix x-ray, it is really good to hear how confident you are in the fact that that there is calcification, and mind you this X ray is 2 years old. During that 2 years I’ve unfortunately had terrible posture through working long hours and a lack of weight training. Dr. Osborne did not really give the X ray much value, I understand that for him the gold standard is CT and he wants the full picture. Do you think getting another panoramic X ray now would be of use, as we can compare to this older one? This is very easy for me to get and low radiation
In terms of doctors I have seen an ENT in the past who agreed I likely have eagles syndrome and would be willing to do the surgery however he has very little experience with the surgery which is why I wanted to consult a Dr who has seen many ES patients and treated them, to reccomend surgery (or not)