Perhaps this question has been answered so I apologize if it’s repetitive. I’ve struggled with trouble swallowing for years off and on but for the first time I experienced a feeling of being strangled and a weird pressure at the base of my throat. It felt like I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds and it was scary. I woke up today with tightness and constant throat clearing and just overall uncomfortable. I imagine I did something to my neck while gardening yesterday. Does anyone use anything that allows relief from these scary symptoms? I wanted to call 911 that’s how scary it was. Now it just feels like I can’t clear my throat. I need to work on figuring out the plan for my surgery this week, but it’s probably going to be a while before I actually go forward with it. Has anyone gained relief from this strangulation feeling?
The strangulation feeling comes from either vagus nerve or glossopharngeal nerve (or both) irritation caused by elongated styloids. It’s very uncomfortable for sure! I don’t know that anyone has mentioned a solution for that, but I’d suggest icing your neck on both sides for 20 min, a couple of times today, as you’ve probably got extra inflammation pressing on the nerves from your gardening work yesterday. Leave about 2 hrs between icings, & make sure to put a thin cloth between your skin & the ice pack to prevent ice burns. Gel ice packs are the best for this as they conform well to the shape of the neck. Pharmacy type stores sell these in various sizes. You may also want to try sleeping w/ your head somewhat elevated tonight to see if that helps at all. If you can take Ibuprofen, you could try that since it’s an anti-inflammatory.
Have you talked to a doctor about surgery yet? If so, do you have someone in mind to do your surgery?
I appreciate you responding. I’m going to try the icing right now and take some ibuprofen. Gosh what a journey this is. Seems like everyday is different with peaks of really good days and nothing worrisome, then bam, doomsday. Thank you so much for the advice. I saw dr Pannell (neurosurgery for vascular) at ucsd and he said my jugulars look fine on my ct and that to further test my carotid he’d have to do more invasive tests and said if I’m already pretty set on surgery, to just focus on that. So far the only surgeon I’ve sought out is Dr Osborne and that’s mainly because he’s 1.5 hours away from me, however his office did get back to me and my insurance will only cover 6k. Gonna try and see what options I can get into with changing to an insurance he accepts, perhaps appealing my insurance and then if all else fails seeking out a surgeon I’d have to travel to.
Yes, that’s the mystery of ES…good days & bad days, symptoms come & go & can go from annoying to feeling catastrophic in minutes. It’s really frustrating.
We’ve had a number of discussions recently about insurance plans that won’t cover or will only minimally cover ES surgeries. I know Dr. Osborne is particularly frustrating because he’s such a great surgeon but seems to be a provider for so few insurance companies. If you can hold out & change plans to one he’s on, it would certainly make your life easier not to have to travel so far, but if you can’t, there is a surgeon on our list at UCD who’s done surgery w/ good outcomes for a couple of our members -
•Dr. Kaicheng Lawrence Yen, UC Davis Health Department of Otolaryngology, 2521 Stockton
Blvd, Suite 5200, Sacramento, CA 95817, 916-734-5400 tel, 916-734-6774 fax, Assistant/Receptionist - Ivy Hamilton, 916-734-1759, Kaicheng Lawrence Yen, M.D., Ph.D. for UC Davis Health
I’m sorry I don’t know of anyone else in So Cal who has as good of a reputation as Dr. Osborne. Dr. Samji (San Jose) did my surgeries. I had good outcomes, & he is experienced, but there aren’t as many people from our forum seeing him anymore, possibly because we have so many members w/ IJV compression now, & he doesn’t do vascular decompressions.
If you do have carotid compression, it’s much easier to take care of than IJV compression because it occurs further from the skull base & often resolves on its own once the styloid pressure is taken off of it.
@Samk13 do you happen to have your CT imaging on hand? I can help you look through it if you do. I’ve become quite good at assessing IJV compression, particularly in the axial view.
Yeah I’m learning that now. I started out really hopeful he’d be the one, because I had a consult with him and he’s amazing, but it’s discouraging. That’s ok, I’m going to try and keep a positive outlook while I research options.
Thank you for sharing Dr. Yen’s info, I will definitely see about him too, I guess many opinions with this type of surgery is better.
Thank you for putting me at ease. I guess now that I know maybe jugular isn’t a problem I can feel less anxious while I wait. This is all great info! Thank you
I never had that symptom, so can’t comment from personal experience… It can be from nerves being irritated by the styloids- usually the glossopharyngeal nerve, which is commonly affected & is involved with the gag reflex. But the vagus nerve also controls some of the muscles around the voice box & the throat, & the hypoglossal nerve controls the tongue & they can get irritated too. It may be worth trying some nerve pain medications to settle things down, like amitriptyline or gabapentin? Maybe a muscle relaxant medication might help too as you say you’re throat is tight? And try either ice or heat to relax the muscles as @Isaiah_40_31 says.
