Are you having the surgery on the NHS or privately? If it’s NHS then you’re lucky to have that and given waiting times I definitely wouldn’t want to postpone it!
Re the pain, nerve pain medications can help, but they can take a couple of weeks to build up enough in the system to help, so that’s possibly not worth trying? It would be a shame to postpone surgery and pin your hopes on those helping as sometimes it can take trying several different ones to find one that does work. Ice or heat can help, muscle relaxants help sometimes, lidocaine patches or gel have sometimes worked but I don’t know if that’s something we can get in the UK.
It’s a shame that surgery has come up & you were planning to travel to Australia! Pain wise I think that would be doable- I had both my surgeries with Mr Axon, and didn’t need anything stronger than paracetemol after the first couple of days, obviously it’s a long flight so is uncomfortable anyway, maybe for the flight you could keep up with regular doses of paracetemol, take a neck pillow with you, and I think US members who have had to fly home after their surgeries have taken some sort of pack with them and asked for ice from the flight attendants to fill it & used that for swelling. I did have high intracranial pressure from IJV compression, and flying did aggravate that, do you have any vascular symptoms?
Re recovery from surgery, there’s info in this section, including a list of suggested items to get ready:
ES Information- Treatment: Surgery - Welcome / Newbies Guide to Eagle Syndrome - Living with Eagle
Mr Axon uses a drain after surgery to reduce swelling and the risk of infection, for me that was actually the worst bit as it was uncomfortable & a bit awkward to sleep with the first night- you’re kept in until that’s removed the next day. I had neck stiffness, and couldn’t open my mouth wide which is quite common, so had to eat smoothies/ soft foods for the first week or so, but I didn’t have that at all after my second surgery, so it does vary. I was quite numb around my ear & jaw, but that gradually disappeared, I just have a little patch of numbness now. Because my neck was stiff I couldn’t drive for a couple of weeks (maybe 3, I can’t remember!) afterwards, but again I didn’t have that after the other side was done. After my second surgery my ear felt very blocked, almost like concrete was poured in it, & I had reduced hearing, but that went after 2 weeks, so was obviously just an irritated nerve.
Mr Axon moves muscles out the way rather than cutting them like some surgeons do, so I think recovery from surgery with him is on the easier side…
I hope this helps!
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