Hi All; after looking at my own views and having them analyzed for 25 years and all the different views that have been posted here, I wanted to post my x-rays but couldn't scan them--thanks for the idea to take a picture using the computer screen as the backlight.
Any x-ray or CT should be the catalysit for action but no matter what views we bring, it seems we don't have the thing that is causing our pain even though it is right there. My point is a good x-ray or CT is enough.
here are some of mine that are very definitive and the names of the views that were taken.
Here is one that shows my left post-op (1990) and right pre-op in 1999. I just want to show how short the right one is (leftside) and how many breaks there are in the left one (rightside). It was broken at least twice and healed leaving little knuckle masses of bone.
This is one view of an XR Mastoid Series done after surgery #1 to show the styloid had not been touched-something else had been removed by mistake. This is the tip and the first break along the length of a 7cm styloid. It's shadowy because its only partially bone, but an x-ray can be held up to light to show the styloid-in a CT it can not and as I've been told you are at the mercy of the computer generating the image.
A good x-ray can be better than the best CT. My final Ct showed my styloid to be .9cm longer than the right one and the x-ray showed it obviously wasn't and my finger felt it wasn't and when the surgeon cut me open he was surprised to find 3cm to remove.
My direct x-rays and panorexes showed the best images as to the real length of the styloids.
But as has been discussed here, no matter how good the pictures, we don't have "it".
My primary likes the x-ray direction since it exposes you to less radiation and I've had too many of both--plus many MRI's that showed my carotid artery was not shaped right but not why.
