I thought I would post a pic of my surgery incision 10 days post op. I still have quite a bit of swelling under my chin and on one side of the incision from the hematoma I developed but my chronic sore throat is gone. Yay! I really had no pain post op and only took Ibuprofen for the hematoma/swelling.
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Your incision looks REALLY GOOD, @beachlady! I can see it’s still swollen. Gravity makes all that fluid flow to a low point & accumulate there. It will reabsorb into your body over time & will become a distant memory.
Really glad your throat is feeling better. 
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Looks like it’s healing well! 
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This looks awesome! I am 6 days out. I hope mine looks that good!
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Hello,
I am 1 week post op now and I guess everything is going ok. It took a LONG time for me not to feel fuzzy from the anesthesia though. Around 5 days! Pain is minimal from incision but there. I’m just icing it still. I have my follow up tomorrow so I am going to drive to the store today to make sure I can drive the 45 min to my appt. Thanks for asking!
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Glad that you think things are going okay…I hope that your drive for your post-op appt goes okay. it’s a long way! I couldn’t drive comfortably for 2-3 weeks!
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Thank you so much for the message! I just got back from driving around to run some errands. It definitely was painful and I had to take extra precautions while backing out of a parking spot but I did it!
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I’m in Jules camp & had to have someone take me to my first post op follow-up appt. I was loopy from my pain meds & didn’t want to take the chance of trying to drive. I’m glad you’re doing so well! Just a suggestion - taking a friend or relative with who can help with driving if you need it wouldn’t be a bad idea. You will likely find you still get tired easily. That was my biggest annoyance. My stamina was gone for a couple of months post op even though I was very fit & active almost up to my surgery date.
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Yeah, I have no choice. The doctor made the appointment. My BF has to be out of town and all my friends work. I am on my own.
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Will pray for a safe trip for you & all the energy you need! 
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Noelleinaz,
It took me a good 10 days before I felt not fuzzy. I have always had that issue after surgery though. I’m not sure if it’s from the anesthesia or just healing. Also, I am having a little issue turning my head when I drive due to tightness from the incision and whats left of my hematoma. I am putting heat compresses on it because Dr. Bunnell said ice for two day’s then heat to get the blood flowing. Doctors have different methods though I’m sure. I hope you feel better soon.
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Glad you are doing well….everyday hopefully you will take a step forward to good health!
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happy healing! I did not know where the surgery site was for external ES surgery. Were they able to access the base of skull from that incision? I have not had surgery and am starting to research surgical techniques. best wishes
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Bmcdiddie,
Thank you.
Yes they were able to go back to the skull base in my surgery and they sawed off most of the calcified styloid but they left a filed down little nub because they didn’t want to damage any facial nerves. Dr, Bunnell said they go in externally like mine so they can see everything better and have better access to remove the styloid. I have had no pain and did not have to take any opiates. I did take 800 mg ibuprofen for about 8 days though to help with swelling and the hematoma that developed which happens sometimes they said. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat! I haven’t felt this good in years.
Good luck to you and I hope you feel better soon!
It’s strange how varied the surgical techniques are; you’d think that it would be a standard procedure! Mine were mainly behind my ear & just a bit down the crease of my neck.
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There are videos on YouTube of ES intraoral & external surgeries. If you’re feeling brave, you can watch them. 
Surgeons are careful during external surgery & put the incisions in neck creases, or as Jules noted, more behind the ear so they are virtually invisible when healed.
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Congrats beachlady! So glad you are doing so well. It took me a long time for all that swelling to go down. I also had a few issues turning my head while driving too. 
It seems to always take me 2 weeks at least to get that fuzzy brain feeling from anesthesia out of me. I dont know about anyone else but my daughter and I have both had the experience of having nightmares (about 10 days out) as the body works this out of our systems. She has had to wake me up several times after procedures because I was screaming or yelling in my sleep.
I had a massage person do some light massage around the incisions site after about 3 weeks.
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Snapple2020 -
Interesting you mentioned about post anesthesia nightmares. My dad had quadruple coronary bypass surgery years ago. It took many hours. He said he had nightmares on & off for a month afterward & knew it was from the hours he’d been under anesthesia. I feel fortunate that I did not have that problem after my ES surgeries, but maybe that was because they were of shorter duration.
Snapple2020,
That anesthesia really does a number on me all the way around. 
My daughter just had her wisdom teeth out yesterday by a max facial surgeon and they told me to use vitamin E oil and lightly massage my incision since I had the hematoma. They told me this may help prevent keloids as well. I have a keloid from gall bladder surgery and I am hoping to prevent one on my neck. Dr. Bunnell told me the hematoma would take a month to dissipate. I wish I would have known about the possibility of the hematoma because it scared me when it swelled so much under the incision and I thought it was a blood clot. I didn’t want to go to the ER since Covid cases are spiking in FL again. We are so densely populated here. We have over 23 million people living in Florida now and we are the third most populated state in the country. My home county has over a million people and it’s is only 38 miles long. Being a long distance patient does have its disadvantages but I would 100% have this surgery again no doubt.
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