Hello everyone, I recently had surgery to take out my left styloid about 3 weeks ago. Wondering how long it took everyone’s symptoms to resolve or if they didn’t at all, especially if they had ear pain. That has been my biggest complaint before and now after surgery thus far. I still have ear pain, some throat pain, pain in my trapezoid (this is new since surgery) and it hurts to yawn.
My surgeon echoed what I have read on the board in that I need to have patience since the irritated nerves take a very long time to heal. He says I may not know what my new normal is for 6-12 months.
Interested to hear what people’s experience with ear pain has been post surgery.
It definitely can take that long for nerves to heal I’m afraid…3 weeks is still early on, so hang in there & try to be patient…did you try nerve pain medications before surgery? If not, it might be worth trying now? The jaw pain is quite common from being intubated- sometimes doctors have to partly dislocate the jaw during surgery. The trapezius pain could be caused if the accessory nerve was irritated in surgery, or maybe from positioning in surgery, or if you’ve been tense because of the pain.
Hope that it does all improve soon for you!
That is one VERY THICK styloid, @Haggard! WOW!! I bet your neck is glad to have that thing outta there!! I applaud your surgeon for giving you a realistic healing time. So many tell their patients a couple of weeks or a month. I challenge those docs to go through this surgery & tell us when they actually feel good!!
It took 6 mos post op for me to have a good idea of “what my new normal” would be like. Symptoms came & went & came & went over that time. I continued to have symptoms healing through 12 mos post op & am even still experiencing some nerve recovery 9 years after surgery. The body is amazing in its ability to recovery after injury.
Keep icing your neck even though it’s a few weeks after surgery. I ended up taking my Rx pain meds for 6 weeks after my first surgery though I started spacing them out after 2 weeks & then cutting them in half & 1/4s further out. I guess I’m a bit of a pain wimp in spite of the fact I’ve always thought of myself as tough.
Had 3 surgeries so far L-R-L. The retraction of the SCM, assuming an external route surgery, causes a lot of neck and Trap pain. Should resolve by 80% within 90 days. Nerve pain can take 6-12 months for the nerves to calm down. That was a very thick Styloid, so there will probably be a lot of affected tissue that needs to heal but you should feel a little better each week. Try not to sleep on the surgical side and use ice intermittently. nSAIDS can also help reduce inflammation, which can help the healing process. However, do not use them all the time. Try to use them only intermittently. I take them usually about two hours before I go to bed to help keep the inflammation down when I sleep and then I use ice during the day to promote the healing process.
