A member quite a while ago did a survey; if you can open it here’s the results:
I think pain swallowing, feeling of something stuck in the throat, pain turning head, ear & facial pain seem to be the most common symptoms from what we see on here.
Some members have managed symptoms without surgery; the steroid/ lidocaine injections into the area have helped some members, others have managed with nerve pain medications. But usually symptoms seem to worsen with time & people do end up having surgery. It’s a personal decision, I left mine for over a year & was okay with that, but then I started getting vascular symptoms & feeling very ill, so the time was right to look into surgery.
If you have vascular symptoms, then I don’t think personally that these should be left, because there are risks.