Had my surgery in Stamford Connecticut 6 days ago with Drs Costantino and Tobias, both wonderful and kind surgeons, feeling and healing well, he removed the whole styloid, shifted things around, decompressed my jugular vein in two different places and removed bits, sorry not good with the jargon there was allot going on that he fixed, I’m gonna do the waiting game now to see how much is resolved and decide wether I need to go back and get the other side removed as well, so far other than headaches and swelling, my pain has been controllable with Tylenol only, my HR was elevated but final went down today, I lost some mobility in my left shoulder and my ears numb, so not so bad, feeling a little better every day
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Thank you for the update, @Millymay. It sounds like you’re off to a good healing start. Remember that symptoms can come & go for awhile & new symptoms can crop up as healing progresses. Don’t be discouraged by this. Forewarned is forearmed.
I expect as your swelling decreases over the next 6-7 weeks, so will your headaches & shoulder immobility & ear numbness, though the numbness may persist for a long time, but it’s really incidental in the big picture.
I’m glad the surgery is behind you now. Please keep us updated as your healing progresses.
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Glad that you through surgery, it sounds as if DrC has a good look around while he’s in there to remove any possible compressions! We’ve had a few members who’ve had shoulder pain and weakness after surgery, it might take a little while to resolve. You could use the search function to look at some of the discussions if you’re concerned about this, @akc has recently had surgery and has had alot of shoulder pain, a sling came in handy…
Sending you a hug and hope that you heal well 
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Hey all the best to you and your recovery! I sincerely hope that you have enough improvement so that you don’t need to have the other side done. Please reach out if your shoulder pain becomes unmanageable. I have accessory nerve peresis/palsy. That’s because my surgeon had to untangle that nerve from the jugular vein, unwrap it from around the styloid, and unwrap it from around the hyoid. And then give it a new home 
After that, it decided to go on vacation. I can’t blame it. For me it was unbearable at a certain point. My range of motion was reduced to being able to lift my arm out to about 25% at the side and close to but not quite 90% when I lift my arm in front of me. Just to give you context. I did find some tools that really helped. Let me know if you’re feeling like you need some support. If you notice that your shoulder is a little more depressed on that side than the good side then you might want something to help keep it up. And again, all the best to you in your recovery. And if you have the kind of reduction in range of motion that I have, it means you won’t be able to floss your teeth or wash your hair because the arm won’t get let your hand get up there. Also feel free to reach out as I’ve discovered some helpful things and quick tips that are obvious when you think of it but took me a bit to work out.
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Thankyou for responding I’ll take all the hints and healing advice I can get, I did have tos surgery on the same side 6 months ago so I’m a little depressed at going backwards with all the good progress my shoulder was making, thankfully it doesn’t really hurt more just feels like a dead weight, and like you say washing my hair, holding my phone are the two things I notice the most, did you do any pt for it? I’m assuming it’s a nerve so 3-6 months to let it heal Ugg thankfully it’s my left arm, the one I don’t use for much, although that was my stronger hand so opening anything now is a nightmare, but that why I have kids lol
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If you look at yourself in a mirror is your angry shoulder lower than the other? Sometimes you can tell better by looking at your collar bones and how they are lining if they’re kind of even working their way up or if one is more sort of sideways a horizontal. Yeah I understand the TOS Rd. I am bilateral ntos. I opted not to have surgery because the onset was so long before diagnosis that the chance of successful surgery was already quite diminished. And that’s one heck of a surgery to have diminished chance of success. But yes, this surgery has definitely flared the TOS on both sides, And that’s without the accessory nerve stuff.
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I should also have added that I am currently in PT. He is a TOS specialist so I am lucky that he knows all about shoulders as well. He has me doing slides 3 x/day and leaning over so that arm hangs down and in a relaxed way getting it to do circles in one direction for a while and then the other (so that it’s doing mini circles in the rotator cuff). The slides are with the forearm on a table, using my body to push it as far forward as I comfortably can and then back, and working that at all the angles that I can (mimicking lifting in front and out to the side and all inbetween). If I had more mobility or less nerve issue (and less severe nTOS) it would be sliding it up a wall I am sure. Again, I’m not sure how much more restricted you are now, but I would recommend PT - but only with someone who is specialized and if you have any doubt from a TOS perspective then stop (you are still fresh from that surgery!).
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I have an appointment with my TOS surgeon week after next so I’ll discuss it with him and see what he’d like me to do, I’m thinking I shouldn’t do pt this close to surgery let it heal a bit first, just keep it moving gently they gave me two exercises to do straight after surgery last time so I’ll do those the arm pendulum one and just pushing my shoulders back gently
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Arm pendulum! Yes, that’s what that first one is called I did not know the names for either of them. Jason, my PT, was very clear on the armed slides one that I must not ever create any discomfort when I’m doing it. It’s also very gentle one. But, six months out from TOS surgery… yes. Definitely ask your surgeon, And at just days out from this surgery, the arm slide on a tabletop would probably be too soon. I was not thinking about that. I started it Two ,weeks after surgery. But I was very careful to not slide too far forward that I was creating much of an angle with my neck. In other words I was trying not to let it bend too far forward since we are not supposed to do that after this surgery For a while. It was probably only two weeks ago that I started allowing myself to go as far forward as my arm would let me without thinking about what my neck might be doing, happy if it would end up parallel to the ground. (I am 7 weeks post surgery)
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