My main symptoms are Ear pain and Ear Fullness and Tinnitus (both Sides), a constant Headache and noise sensitivity which means I rarely listen to music these days. I can swallow OK, but it feels uncomfortable in my throat so I don’t enjoy eating and drinking as much. Previous to my ES diagnosis, previous ENT doctors diagnosed me with Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.
For Me, The ES diagnosis now makes perfect sense, but the the strange thing I am trying to grapple with, is that all my symptoms came on immediately following Stomach surgery I had back in 2014.
My Stomach surgeon said it is purely coincidental, but I find that hard to believe. All I can think off, is that during my stomach op, something inserted into my throat, either a breathing tube or stomach dilator caused some trauma to my throat which triggered my ES.
Does anyone else have any similar stories ?. I would be interested to know if anybody else experienced something or an event that seems to have kicked of their ES.
All the Best, Sparky
My symptoms started about 3 weeks after I had an upper left molar extracted. I was diagnosed with a “level 2 tonsil stone” by an ENT and the pain in my jaw/teeth was attributed by my dentist to me clenching my teeth at night. I was also being treated by a neurologist for atypical facial pain.
Mine also started with tooth problems & a blocked salivary gland, although with hindsight I’d had the ear fullness & pain for years.
It’s possible I guess that the intubation during surgery might have caused a bit of inflammation, or shifted things slightly in your neck…but maybe the styloids were already elongated, the space in your neck is so cramped that eve a small shift can bring the styloids into contact with nerves or blood vessels.
Prior to the start of ES pain, I began having problems choking on food & water. I eventually saw a gastroenterologist for an upper GI to see if something was wrong w/ my esophagus. The UGI was clear so the mystery remained. A couple of years after that, I began having pain in the front of my neck. It was annoying but not debilitating. After a couple of months I found a hard lump under my jaw which when poked evoked the neck pain. I went to my PCP thinking I had a clogged salivary gland. He thought it was infected so Rxed antibiotics (which I didn’t take). Finally I saw my OBGYN & pointed it out to her. She said it felt calcified & sent me to an ENT who almost immediately diagnosed it as ES & sent me for a CT scan to confirm it.
I thought I had tonsillitis due to my throat pain and swollen tonsil. Antibiotics and steroids didn’t help at all so I went to an ENT who suspected maybe a salivary gland infection or blockage. Then I had a ct scan which showed nothing wrong with my salivary gland but my ENT noticed the styloid and my calcified ligament. Once the throat pain started I had pretty much constant neck, shoulder snd head/face pain (behind right eye.) I knew something was up as everything I experienced was on my right side.
Years previously I had been diagnosed with panic attacks and migraines (same pain behind my right eye) but my ent put everything together snd figured it out. So lucky to have found him!
My symptoms started with sharp shooting pain from my right ear up the side of my head. Then I developed a chronic sore throat and ringing in my ear. I was diagnosed with acid reflux and put on a PPIS which didn’t help me one bit. I went to another GI at Cleveland Clinic who said he didn’t think I had acid reflux and ran two days worth of tests…nothing. This doc told me to see an ENT and luckily I have a very good ENT near me. ENT ran CT with contrast and radiologist gave him the ES diagnosis.