Sides reversed, surgery side (left styloid) appears on right side of photo.... not such a great success here.
What symptoms do you still have and how did your doctor explain it?
I'm Female - no face shaving. Thanks for responding!
Hi again,
Who was your surgeon and what did he/she say about why the styloid wasn't completely removed? It seems like you may have a tricky situation? Has anyone else had to have the same type of approach with the ear? Sorry that you are still in pain. Are you considering any other steps?
I heard about a lady who had her surgery done in Virginia and her scar is quite large.She also had drains for a week. Nothing like that with Doctor Cognetti. One of my scars is 2 inches and the other is 4, only because I had scar tissue from previous unrelated surgeries. No drains, not even big bandages. Both of mine were external as well, but my incisions are in the front part of the neck. From the back is more difficult because there is more muscle to cut. As I said before, just one and a half weeks to recover and I was set to go. I feel sorry for this person! That must be awful!
symptoms I still have are literally everything but tension, deep gnawing and aching pain. I had moved states by the time the pain came back, I couldn't feel that area of my face for up to 6 to 7 months post surgery so I am considering other steps, well surgical ones, however not until I have the money to travel to see someone who actually knows what they are doing....
My 1990 and 2002 surgery scars are along the jawline between jawbone and neck hidden by crease in neck.
the 1990 surgery had no issues post op-just complete relief of pain. Rested for about a week and traveled 3 weeks later for x-mass. This is because it was done right.
The 2002 and 2003 incisions were fine--but in 2002 the doctor removed my hyoid bone and in 2003 the new surgeon removed 3cm of a 6.5cm process. so in both those cases I was dealing with a torn out throat and the ES pain until it was completely removed last September-intraorally.
That hurt a lot for weeks-getting hit every time I swallowed or sneezed. The pain was described to me as an adult tonsillectomy. I'm 5 months from surgery and it seems pretty good has the swelling went down and the scar tissue softens up.
I'd go for external-they heal better, less chance of infection and they can get a better angle to remove it. Make sure they know what they are removing and that they know to cut it back to it's original length about 1cm-or at least past the ear area where it caused the most pain.
Sounds like a good plan Shaw.
I had surgery exactly one week ago- and im back at work today. Granted I work behind a desk on a PC most of the time. But its Do-able. I would give yourself a week at the very least.
Wow! That's great!
Hi JCW,
I just had the surgery through the outside of the neck 2 weeks ago by an ENT Surgeon in Dallas, TX. You can check out my pictures to see what the incisions look like after 1 and 2 weeks going through the neck. There is a lot of swelling and bruising that takes some time to heal. I think it really depends on the surgeon and how they perform the surgery and also how quickly your body heals. My recovery was pretty slow (at least for me), I had to take 2.5 weeks off from work. I will be returning to work on Thursday and I can say I don't feel 100% yet, maybe 70% recovered. This is mostly because I had a complication with the intubation and my jaw has locked/become dislocated, for which I will have to see another MD on Friday.
Hope this helps a bit and good luck to you! Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions! :)
Meg did they remove all of the styloid or just trim it down also which dr?
Hi mt83,
The surgeon removed all that she could possibly get; the left side was segmented which caused some problems. My surgeon was Dr. Chan at UTSW.
mt83 said:
Meg did they remove all of the styloid or just trim it down also which dr?
Most CT's and Xrays that I have seen, actually all of them were segmented - i believe that's how they grow. Mine were like that also.Did they tell you about how much they cut off?
Meg said:
Hi mt83,
The surgeon removed all that she could possibly get; the left side was segmented which caused some problems. My surgeon was Dr. Chan at UTSW.
mt83 said:Meg did they remove all of the styloid or just trim it down also which dr?
I am reading a lot of highly confident commentary about both Dr. Samji and Dr. Cognetti. I just FedEx'd my CT Scan disk to Dr. Samji's office for his review and am trying to get a surgery booked and over with before the end of June since that is the end of my medical benefits year. My question is this: doo any of you have knowledge about each of their level of experience? Has one done a particularly larger number of this procedure than the other?
I know that Dr. Cognetti has done around or more than 20 surgeries because I asked him and he told me so.
Alaska Eagle said:
I am reading a lot of highly confident commentary about both Dr. Samji and Dr. Cognetti. I just FedEx'd my CT Scan disk to Dr. Samji's office for his review and am trying to get a surgery booked and over with before the end of June since that is the end of my medical benefits year. My question is this: doo any of you have knowledge about each of their level of experience? Has one done a particularly larger number of this procedure than the other?
When I saw Dr. Samji in December, I think he'd performed around 35.
Thanks so much for this information JCW.
that photo!!
Hi optimistic,
Different doctors use different approaches for closing up the incision, but a more popular & perhaps more common way is internal sutures which don’t show from the outside which makes the incision look far less gnarly.
Hi Isaiah
That is some scar, are many surgeries performed with a cut like that?
I know how staples feel as I had 58 of them in the leg but on the face where there is less flesh and more sensitivity the chap must have been in agony