Surgery March 12th

Hi everyone,

I am going for surgery next week even though the doctor does not feel my symptoms are Eagle related even though he and another doctor both agree I have Eagles neither think it is an issue. Why are these doctors not more curious and so sure of themselves? I am so hoping that my symptoms disappear but they have me convinced that I am crazy! I would love to go to Dr. Cognetti but with 4 busy children I cannot take the time away to travel plus I am so tired of doctors and afraid of being turned away. I had to convince my dr. To do the surgery but he agreed and I do know he is a top notch surgeon so I will go for it. I just do not understand why the doctors will easily agree that I have eagles -not the classic form but a naturally elongated styloid measuring 3.5 cm on contrast ct but not admit that my ongoing symptoms such as headache, face pain, sore throat, pain in my tonsil, tinnitus, synchopy, fatigue and weakness etc… Are not related. Aren’t they curious? Do they not realize that medicine is not an exact science? They also question why it is worse on left when it is bilateral the last time I checked people have slight anatomical variations on their left vs right side. Sorry for my rant I guess it is a combination of excitement and nerves.

Will you ask them to take a close look at were the tip of the Styloid is hitting while there in there .I wish I asked my Dr that, the styloid removal helped me a lot but I feel like something was missed maybe a area damaged by the styloid scraping it. Good Luck definitely post updates

Lifelongeagle:
I have sent you a friend request as I feel that what I would like to discuss with you would be too lengthy for this forum!

Best of luck with your surgery, Lifelongeagle. Your symptoms sound absolutely classic, and I came across doctors who were adamant that I did not have Eagle's Syndrome, or just didn't believe in it, period.

I had pretty much those symptoms on the left side, but on the right side I had faintness and slight nausea on tuning in that direction.

On having the styloid processes removed, both sets of symptoms went away.

I'm sure you will find the same.

I will definately do that! I am also going to ask for a picture of what was removed.



Deleone said:

Will you ask them to take a close look at were the tip of the Styloid is hitting while there in there .I wish I asked my Dr that, the styloid removal helped me a lot but I feel like something was missed maybe a area damaged by the styloid scraping it. Good Luck definitely post updates

Thank you so much I need all the encouragement I can get. I think because the doctors keep telling me I have eagles but it’s not what’s causing my problems I am in severe self doubt.



Cyrba said:

Best of luck with your surgery, Lifelongeagle. Your symptoms sound absolutely classic, and I came across doctors who were adamant that I did not have Eagle’s Syndrome, or just didn’t believe in it, period.

I had pretty much those symptoms on the left side, but on the right side I had faintness and slight nausea on tuning in that direction.

On having the styloid processes removed, both sets of symptoms went away.

I’m sure you will find the same.

Wish you the best.. I think I am on ther verge of finally getting my eagles syndrome diagnosis as well, more in another post. Please keep us informed how it went!

Hi Amy,

I have accepted your friend request and would love to hear what you have to say!


AmyBlue said:

Lifelongeagle:
I have sent you a friend request as I feel that what I would like to discuss with you would be too lengthy for this forum!

Good luck Lifelongeagle, I hope the outcome is a good one for you.

thinking of you as your surgery is tomorrow...sending healing thoughts and prayers for your surgeon to be wise and compassionate! Please keep us posted, rest & heal my fellow-eagle

Good luck with your surgery tomorrow Lifelongeagle. I hope you will find great relief!

No doctor ever recognized all of my symptoms as Eagle even when I were diagnosed with ES. They offered me surgery as a kind of last resort. They were not very optimistic. So I understand that you feel doubtfull. But you are diagnosed and my experiences are that doctors do not have any idea how it feels to live with ES.

I had bilateral ES with severe pain on my left facial side… Right side much lesser pain. I had many weird symptoms. Besides lump in throat and facial neuralgia my some of the others were an over-all feeling of strong unwellness and vertigo. Fainting lying down and numbness in my ear, chin and fingers. It got to the poiNone of my doctors, ENT or surgeon ment that theese symptoms were likely to be related to ES.

Today 5 months after surgery ALL of my symptoms are either completely gone or have become lesser as time has passed.

I hope the same for you.

2 Likes

Good luck on the Surgery just be clear with your doctor that you want to remove all of it. ask him not to trim it back get it all out if you can!

This is a very good point. I suffered for years because an experienced surgeon who never saw an Eagles patient before just broke off the tip of my styloid rather than trying to take the whole thing out.

mt83 said:

Good luck on the Surgery just be clear with your doctor that you want to remove all of it. ask him not to trim it back get it all out if you can!

Thank you all for your advice and well wishes I am nervously anxious for tomorrow!

lol heidemt that's the situation im in now he snipped off about an inch on each side during my surgery about 4 weeks ago. Luckily i do feel better but i get little random pains. They feel different to me so im not sure if its just the surgical recovery or just the styloids poking me in a new place. were you in the same situation? did you feel any different when they did the trim?

heidemt said:

This is a very good point. I suffered for years because an experienced surgeon who never saw an Eagles patient before just broke off the tip of my styloid rather than trying to take the whole thing out.

mt83 said:

Good luck on the Surgery just be clear with your doctor that you want to remove all of it. ask him not to trim it back get it all out if you can!

If they don't take it all out, they definitely need to smooth the tip so it does not stick you. Hope they know that. The good news is that they are willing to do the surgery and you feel that they are competent to do it. I had a consult with a cancer surgeon who does lots of skull base surgeries and he did not think I had a problem. I did not use him, but he agreed to operate if I wanted him to. So hopefully, this operation will help you and and they will learn something from doing the surgery. We all have to start somewhere and so do doctors.

Sending out best wishes for you tomorrow!

Praying that you get relief and for a speedy recovery :)

Take care,

Sheila

Leaving for the surgery now… I will let you all know how it goes. Today is the left side. I am so nervous but excited at the same time! Wish me luck!

1 Like

mt83, I will email you.

mt83 said:

lol heidemt that's the situation im in now he snipped off about an inch on each side during my surgery about 4 weeks ago. Luckily i do feel better but i get little random pains. They feel different to me so im not sure if its just the surgical recovery or just the styloids poking me in a new place. were you in the same situation? did you feel any different when they did the trim?

prayers for a great outcome.