I’m starting to feel brave about going ahead with surgery. Have a few questions;
How long is recovery time and how long would I need off work?
How do I know if I have classic or vascular? Are the procedures and risks different for both?
I’ve seen people talk about internal and external surgery? Which do I go for? Is there a youtube link/instructions someone could give me so I could inform my surgeon on the best option (as he has not op orated on this before)
4. Does anyone know if this would be covered by health insurance? How long would I be in hospital for?
Thank you feeling nervous but brave (awake at 4am currently worrying I’ll never be rid oh this pain keeping me awake!)
The standard recovery time seems to be 2 weeks off of work. When I had my last 2 Eagles surgeries, I felt like I could have gone back sooner.
Vascular Eagles is when the styloids are compressing veins and/or arteries rather than nerves. The treatment is the same for both.
My surgeries have been covered by my insurance, but I know some on the forum whose insurance wouldn't cover it. I think it all depends on the code the doctor uses. Try to get your doctor to use a code that is covered. (There usually isn't a code for Eagles because it's rare, but they can usually use a code for a similar type of surgery.)
Internal vs external surgery is the subject of ongoing debates. Maybe best to read back in the discussions for a better understanding. The doctors who seems to be the most experienced in Eagles (like 50+ cases) use external, from what I know from reading on the forum for several years. External surgeries allow the doctor to see more and therefore get more of the styloid out. It's an easier recovery also. Internal surgeries I think are easier for the doctor and seem to be good if you don't need much of the styloid taken out. There is a higher risk of infection and a little longer recovery time, but you still should be able to go back to work in 2 weeks. Most doctors who have never done an Eagles surgery before use internal, so don't be surprised if that's what the doctor does.
I agree with everything that Heidemt said. My son was in the hospital overnight because he is a child, but most are outpatient surgeries in the US. My son was better both times in a few days, but it took a few weeks to be 100%. The second time he went back to school after 2 weeks, over did it and now is home with post surgical minor complication. He is on antibiotics. The longer you give yourself to heal, even if you feel better the next day, the better. 2 weeks is good, 3 weeks is better. Don't life anything heavy for at least a month. Every insurance is different, but ours was covered under many codes ranging from the anesthesia to the ICU. I looked up the insurance codes, but I see you are not in the states so they wouldn't help you anyway. If you want them, I will gladly share but our insurance varies so grately from country to country.
Emipie- There are a ton of different codes for anesthesia, ICU, etc., but the main code for the actual surgical procedure was 61605 Surgery Neuro (abbreviation on form)
61605 Resection or excision of neoplastic, vascular or infectious lesion of infratemporal