I had a bilateral styloidectomy with Dr. Trevor Hackman in January 2023. My surgery changed my life. My journey is posted in my profile but that was a few years ago. I’m not sure who can see it anymore. I haven’t been on the site very often since around 2024. I’m very sorry for that. Life happens (outside of Eagles). Dr. Hackman changed my life. Livingwitheagles.org changed my life. I would have had no idea what was happening without livingwitheagles.org. Specifically, Wendy and Jules.
I’m happy to answer any questions anyone has about Dr. Hackman, non classic Eagles symptoms (like I had) and how after 38 doctors and 4 years, with the help of this amazing site, learning to read my own CT scans, asking radiologists to do an addendum to include my elongated styloids, seeing a panoramic view from a dentist showing my elongated styloids, and of course, seeing a lovely styloid bone poking through my tonsillar fossa (when I knew to look for it), I finally diagnosed myself. I went to one more ENT just for the confirmation of diagnosis. I sent my scans to Dr. Hackman (who I found from this site), had my surgery in January, 2023, and all throughout my recovery I had this site, and these incredible people to help me through.
Life happens, and I’m sorry for not being here for everyone after going through Eagles Syndrome. I will do my best to be here for any questions or help I can provide.
Lovely to hear from you again! Please don’t worry about hanging about on here, it’s understandable that people want to move on with their lives- and need to after suffering with debilitating symptoms for sometimes years beforehand… really glad that the surgery helped you so much & that the site was useful too
Thank you for your happy message, Danielle! I’m so glad you’re doing well. We love it when “old” members come back to let us know how they’re doing now. I agree with @Jules - we know our members are anxious to move on with their lives after recovering from surgery. It’s good they can make up for lost time once recovery is realized.
We do appreciate your offer to continue to be here to help. It’s always nice for our members to get different perspectives on their situations.
I’ll try to remember. For the symptoms that resolved Quickly:
No more feeling like a knife was being driven up into my skull, brain fog resolved fairly quickly, neck pain and front neck pain resolved almost immediately, I could move my neck immediately without my styloids hitting my upper cervical bones and causing pain. I need to try to remember more. I didn’t have classic Eagles symptoms aside from the brain fog.
Jaw pain from surgery took awhile to resolve. Once it did, I noticed I didn’t have TMJ symptoms anymore. No more headaches from TMJ and no more pain in my jaw.
For the first month my mouth was partially paralyzed and my eye was black and blue from the nerve monitoring - that took about 3 months to go away. It’s a long recovery but I felt better immediately after waking up. I hope that helps!
Thanks Wendy! I always said I would stick around and I haven’t. I feel bad - this forum helped me so much at a time when I felt so hopeless and alone. I’m going to try to stick around. I don’t remember a lot after surgery other than the main things. It’s so weird. Thanks for your message
