I’m glad that you’re seeing a very experienced doctor for your surgery, but a shame that you need it!
There’s lots of info in the Newbies Guide Section about surgery, and there’s also a suggested shopping list of things you’ll find helpful, here’s a link:
ES Information- Treatment: Surgery - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
The past discussions can be useful too, if you search for something like ‘what to expect after surgery’, it should come up with lots of posts to help prepare you, some members have put some quite detailed stories on about their experiences…
But in brief, have ice packs ready as you’ll need to ice your neck regularly to help with swelling, & extra pillows as sleeping propped up will help too, if you’re not already. Chewing is sometimes uncomfortable, so have soft foods or smoothie ingredients ready …
It’s important to keep up with pain meds regularly, if you leave it & pain worsens again it can take a bit longer to get it under control again. (Stool softeners are recommended depending on what meds you’re on!) You may get first bite syndrome after surgery, it’s quite common, the nerves to the parotid gland get irritated so it’s common to get sharp pains in your cheek when you first eat. Drinking plenty can help a bit with this, it usually wears off. Days 3-5 are the worst for swelling so you may feel at your roughest then, the recovery from ES surgery is very up & down, so if you feel things are going backwards a bit, don’t panic! Nerves can take up to a year to heal, so improvements are often gradual and can be very slow…
I hope that all goes well, have you got a definite date?
1 Like