Update after surgery with Dr. Hepworth (2024)
Hi friends,
sorry it took me so long to post an update. After I started to feel a bit better, there were (and still are) a lot of things that had piled up over the years of severe illness that I needed to sort out. On top of that, I have to use my limited energy and resources mainly for rehab and for trying to restore my ability to work again, so writing updates was not my first priority.
The short version: I’m definitely doing better than before – but I’m still far from being fully back to “normal life”.
I also want to stress very clearly that these improvements only became possible because of the surgery with Dr. Hepworth. Before that, my situation had been getting worse and worse over the years, with a continuous downward trend. Since the last operation in 2024, for the first time it feels like things are slowly going uphill again – as if the worst part of the valley has finally been passed.
After so many years of almost complete limitation from Jugular-Eagle-related issues and several surgeries in the head/neck area, my body is pretty deconditioned and full of old compensation patterns. The venous side of things has improved a lot compared to the pre-op situation, and many of the worst symptoms have eased, but there are still clear functional limitations in everyday life. I still can’t tolerate full physical or mental load.
Right now my “main job” is rehabilitation:
The main goal is to get rid of the protective/compensatory postures I developed over the years and to restore a more normal muscle tone and tension pattern throughout the whole body, especially neck, shoulder girdle and jaw area.
One additional piece that turned out to be quite important for me was hormones. Because of my persistent exhaustion, and after Dr. Hepworth suggested checking stress hormones, I had a more detailed work-up done. That led to a thorough evaluation of my sex hormones (including free testosterone) following Abraham Morgentaler’s concept. It turned out that I had a relevant testosterone deficiency, which may well be a consequence of the many years of severe illness and possibly also of the long-standing venous problems and pressure issues in the brain. Since this has been addressed, my rehab training finally seems to “pay off” much more: recovery from sessions is better, strength gains are more noticeable, and overall my body seems to respond more normally again. From what I’ve read, testosterone is i.e. also relevant for bone metabolism and nerve healing, which makes this even more plausible in my case.
Training (swimming and gym) is going better and better – I can do more than even a year ago – but it’s very clear that after so many years of dysfunction this will be a long-term project and will need a lot of consistent, intensive rehab work. I try to see it as a marathon, not a sprint.
I am extremely grateful to Dr. Hepworth and his whole team for making this turning point possible in the first place. And I also want to say a very heartfelt thank you to everyone - especially @Isaiah_40_31 , @Jules , @Snapple2020 , @vdm , @Mod_support, @KoolDude - here on the forum who has supported me over the years – whether through posts, messages, silently following along, thinking of me, or through your prayers. It has meant (and still means) a lot to me, especially on the really dark days.
So: I’m very grateful that, thanks to the last surgery, things have clearly improved and the general direction has changed from “downhill” to “slowly uphill” – but I also want to be honest that I’m still not “back to normal” and still working hard on recovery every single day.
Best wishes and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you
It almost always comes down to nerve compression and adhesions with me. Im pretty certain that is happening in neck but the positional vertigo with weird eye movement and hearing loss is another story. I dont think all the calcifications were removed in 2020 and we kinda know that surgeon doesnt focus at vascular compression at ALL!