Glad that there’s definite improvements you can see, hope that this continues! God bless!
Weezie, buddysmom- how are you both doing?
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Hope your jaw pain improves soon, Snapple…your poor son 
@Jules @BFresh Sorry haven’t posted for a few days, here’s my update:
9 Days post op -
- Can open my mouth wider but not fully and not without pain
- Still on soft foods only, every swallow is painful
- Can see the white scabs on my tonsils, and it looks pretty red and raw in there
- Still have significant ear and throat pain - hope this subsides in the next few days
- Get tired easily but I have been taking things really easy and my husband has been a gem taking care of me
My exciting news is that many of my symptoms have completely gone or are much less noticeable, my dizziness, vertigo & balance problems essentially gone, neck pain, head pain/tenderness, head pressure, headaches gone, sneezing fits gone, excessive sweating & clammy hands gone.
I am still in a lot of pain in my ear and throat, the only other negative that I have at this time is my tinnitus is much, much louder in both ears, hopefully that will eventually lessen or go away completely. All in all, I am so very thankful at the prospect of getting my life back once I am fully healed. Thank you all so much for your support, so very glad I found you! 
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Hi Weezie!
I’m sure your ear, tinnitus, & throat pain will decrease & hopefully disappear as the swelling in your throat goes down. There are so many little nerves attached to bigger nerves in that area that any amount of swelling will put pressure on them & cause some sort of symptoms. It sounds like you’re doing a great job of listening to your body & follow its lead. So glad your husband is kindly caring for you. That’s great news!
How fabulous that you’ve already seen so many ES symptoms disappear! Given time, hopefully, the remaining ones will all be gone as well. 
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Still early days, I’m sure the pain will settle as Isaiah says as swelling goes down. Great that you’ve seen improvements in the ES symptoms! 
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Day 17 - Just a quick update, honestly not much improvement from last time. I guess maybe things are marginally better but I still have the white scabs that fall off and reform. This weekend I had a crack in the skin after a scab fell off, that was a painful experience - like a papercut at the back of your throat. Here’s the interesting part:
Met with my family doctor today to check in and he printed and reviewed the surgery report with me. My CT scan said my right styloid measured approximately 3.7cm. The surgeon removed my right tonsil and went to expose the styloid… he ended up having to make a 6cm incision! It goes on in lots of technical surgical detail about flaps and muscles and mucosa and stuff and then… get this… turns out my styloid was 5cm long! He removed the whole thing thankfully but wow!! I was really surprised at the discrepancy, that’s 1.3cm different from the CT scan and there’s no way it grew that much in 6 months.
My doctor said the area looks healthy and is healing well, it just needs more time to heal.
Hi BFresh,
It’s not uncommon for a CT report to record a particular styloid length & then for an ES surgeon to find it’s actually a bit longer than the report says. I believe that styloid measurement is more of an estimate than an accurate number. It may also depend on who’s reading the scan & how they measure what they see. I know Dr. Samji never trusts a radiology report & always measures the styloids himself once he has a CT scan in hand. Even then, we have had members for whom he did surgery, where he’s remarked the styloid was longer than expected. No one’s perfect, eh?! 
Does seem to happen often, something to do woth the medium…hope that you heal quicker & that you see more improvements soon…
Hi @BFresh, wondering how you are doing today? Have your symptoms resolved with the removal of your SP? I’m not surprised your SP was much longer than the CT report suggested. When Dr. O’Connell showed me the photo of my SP that he removed it was longer than all the CT reports had said it was. Go figure huh!
I’m 15 days post op now, still have throat & ear pain, my jaw hurts when I try to open my mouth fully, still hurts to eat but improving bit by bit every day. While all my most disturbing symptoms seem to be gone, I still have a mild case of positional vertigo on my right side, and find I am extremely tired/tire easily all the time, hope this passes eventually. Otherwise, I am 100% happy with the results of the surgery and look forward to getting my life back after 5 long years! 
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Hi Weezie,
Post op fatigue will last awhile. Mine took 2 months to go away, but when it did, I felt like a totally new person! I did have nerve pain that lasted close to a year & First Bite Syndrome that has stuck w/ me since my first surgery. The happy news is that it hasn’t bothered me for a week or more. I think this is rather miraculous as it says that my nerves are still healing close to 6 years post op.
I feel like I should know this, but did you have bilateral surgery (or even bilateral ES) or only unilateral? I’m having trouble keeping good track of our members’ situations these day. Maybe I need to start a spreadsheet. 
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Hi @Isaiah_40_31, I just had my left SP and tonsil removed, although I had bilateral elongated SP’s; my right was measured longer than my left, but the left one was causing the most issues for me. As I am recovering from surgery for the left, I am aware of symptoms that I believe the right SP is causing, I hope to have that one removed at a later date and be free from all this…eventually. 
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Thank you for the update, Weezie. I had the same situation but my doctor felt it was more important to remove what I thought was the less symptomatic side first because it was thick & growing straight down. Between surgeries my remaining styloid continuously proclaimed its remaining presence in my neck. 
Nearing three weeks post surgery and I definitely feel stalled out in terms of recovery. @Weezie65 my only symptom was pain in my tonsil/throat area sometimes also in me ear. That definitely has not resolved and is currently worse than it was pre-op. That’s the frustrating part for me. I’m impatient and annoyed. I still have scabbing and raw red skin back there but it’s starting to feel like the old nerve pain I’ve have the past couple years.
To be honest it’s a bit depressing, I was hoping to see more improvement at this point and am fearful the surgery wasn’t successful. I know that’s probably putting too much pressure on myself and not rational but it’s just where I’m at right now. Sucks.
So sorry that you feel stuck- recovery from ES surgery unfortunately is a long process, & nerves can take a year to heal. Patience is needed, there will be ups & downs. We’ve had members who are very down after surgery, but have come back months later to share that they are much better…so keep the hope that things will improve; it’s far too early to tell if surgery has worked or not. Thinking of you, & praying for you…
Hi @BFresh, So sorry to hear you are feeling stalled and your pain is worse for you right now, as things heal I’m sure it will get better. Be patient, that nasty bone caused a lot of havoc in there and it will take time for everything to heal up.
The pain after surgery for me was way more intense, I still have quite a bit of pain in my throat and ear but it’s different than the pain I had 24/7 with ES, if that makes sense? Since I had many other symptoms besides pain, I guess it’s easier for me to declare surgery a success.
I hope as each day passes you will see some relief, be patient, get plenty of rest and don’t be so hard on yourself, thinking of you and keeping my fingers crossed. Take care. 
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Sounds like alot more good than bad overall. Geez weez, that was one long styloid!
You and bfresh had tonsils out so I dont have much room to complain. Im about 6 weeks out and still having same TMJ / jaw pain. Last week it was particularly painful and I started digging in to TMJ muscles as I felt like I was getting locked up and clenching and unable to relax in jaw, ear pain. It seems to have helped a little. I still cannot open jaw or bit sometimes without pain. I feel a little bit stalled myself.
Ive been getting some massages weekly mostly in shoulders, other areas to try and knock down the constant tight muscles (SCM,etc) caused by the styloids,etc. Progress is slow. My massage person said it still is swollen on the removal side. I probably should be icing it more and will. Hope you all progress and the negatives remaining symptoms subside.
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Hi BFresh,
I’m also sorry your pain is not resolving but as you’ve read, healing can be a slow process. Additionally, you have bilateral ES & since you only had one side taken care of, the other side could be contributing to the pain you currently have. I speak from experience when I say that I had bilateral ES & after my first surgery, my remaining styloid went crazy w/ the symptoms it was causing even on the side I’d had removed. Crossover symptoms are not uncommon. It may take removal of the second side before you truly get relief from the throat pain.
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Thanks for the perspective and support, it’s a long difficult journey with better days and worse days. Just need to stay positive, believe in my body’s ability to heal and take it day by day. Thanks.
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Thank you for detailing your journeys so thoroughly. It always amazes me when new symptoms are mentioned that I would have never thought correlated to ES.
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