I have been reading on this site for nearly 3 weeks now and there is one thing that worries me a lot. Out of all the people that underwent styloidectomy, seems like only half actually got relief from it. The other half seems to still experience the symptoms of es. I am at the este of getting my diagnosis and i feel deep down i side that i Will need a surgery to overcome all of this but i am extremely worried that it might not be as successfull as i expect
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@Richard123 - The thing to consider when reading posts on this forum is that people who get good results very often never come back to post about it. They just get on with their lives, thus it’s the people who have longer or more difficult recoveries who do come back for support & reassurance. I feel confident in saying that well more than half the people who’ve been on this forum have had good surgical outcomes, however, that doesn’t mean that every ES symptom went away. It means that after some months of healing their ES symptoms have reduced/resolved enough they can get on with & enjoy their lives again.
Having surgery w/ a very experienced ES surgeon is one of the keys to the potential for a good/great surgical outcome. If vascular compression is a part of the equation then having surgery w/ one of the surgeons who is experienced with that is critical vs just having a styloidectomy(ies) & hoping for the best.
No doctor can guarantee a good outcome because each human body responds differently to surgery & recovery & many of us have other things contributing to our symptoms besides ES & sometimes that doesn’t become obvious until the styloidectomies & healing from those has occurred, but at least at that point, ES can be ruled out for the most part.
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Thank u for the encouragements. Some days are tougher that others. It is very complicated to get surgery when you have to go Out of the country. Costs go up with flights, hotels and more. Follow ups are something to consider too. I am looking for dr Liu because its only a 6 hr drive from Montréal. I heard good comments from him. I thaught about going to turkey but my wife said…no way.
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We have at least one CA member who came to the US for surgery w/ Dr. Liu. She (@Hamela) was the person who introduced us to him, & we’re so thankful she did!
I’m very sorry you can’t get the help you need in your own country. That’s not as it should be. I completely understand your hesitation to travel so far while concerned that you might end up feeling worse after surgery. I feel confident that seeing Dr. Liu for surgery will provide you with at least some symptoms relief & hopefully lots more than just “some”.
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It’s quite an old post but it might be helpful:
Surgery for Eagles is usually successful! - General - Living with Eagle
Quite often both sides can need removing before people notice the full benefits and I think also it’s good to remember that we’re seeing more members with very complicated medical conditions- quite a few have Ehlers Danlos which causes hypermobility and therefore instability, other vascular compressions across the body, POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia syndrome) which causes dizziness, heart rate issues etc, TOS which causes some similar symptoms to ES, MCAS which causes allergy type symptoms, and many others…which means that recovery can be slower and more difficult, and also that the ES surgery may well not be the only surgery which is needed, and it might take a long process before things improve, like peeling the layers on an onion.
Personally, I got my life back after surgery, I was feeling pretty ill before my surgery and improved so much afterwards.
I hope this helps!
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Hi @Richard123 - It is also helpful to remember that many people (me, included) have other issues besides elongated styloids. Having styloids removed does not necessarily fix all of the various medical issues everyone has. Dr. Hackman, who did my revision surgery to remove both styloids to skull base, was very specific about which symptoms would improve and which likely would not. Of course, I was overly optimistic that all things from my neck up would be fixed 
. The surgery was very helpful for me, because I would start to faint when I turned my head or looked down, which had a huge impact on all aspects of life except sitting still or sleeping. Styloid removal completely resolved that issue and eliminated some very bad headaches that were caused by fluctuations in intracranial pressure. Dr. Hackman was 100% correct on the items he said would not be fixed for me, as well. Hopefully, Dr. Liu will provide an opinion about what he can help you with, to better help you decide how to proceed.
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Agreed, Dr. Liu is an experienced neurosurgeon.
He does offer Telehealth to start with. He is kind, smart, and very talented.
A
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