I have been living with eagle’s syndrome for over 11 years. During my junior year of college I was struck with many painful and concerning symptoms mainly on the front right of my neck and jaw. I met with numerous doctors and my parents even took me to the Mayo Clinic and at every turn I felt dismissed and was told I was too young to be having health problems. My 2015 neck CT scan radiology report even said “Calcification of the bilateral stylohyoid ligaments (Eagle syndrome). This could be a source of pain.” yet the ordering ENT dismissed that and told me something to the effect of ‘If eagle’s syndrome was causing you problems, you would be chocking on your food, and I don’t do surgery for that anyway.. it’s probably too risky’. When we asked Mayo clinic about my eagle’s syndrome findings, they said its rare and likely not causing me any problems. Mayo clinic prescribed me sleeping medication (trazadone) and recommended I get help for anxiety. They most likely just thought I was a hypochondriac.
My symptoms were enlarged/swollen and firm right side neck, lymph node pain, jaw pain, ear pain, and some pain radiating down into my right shoulder. My parents recommended I try alternative medicine and I got into acupuncture, massage, herbs, and exercise. For a short amount of time I did take SSRI medication which allowed me to stop thinking I was dying, but I gained weight and felt foggy so I eventually quit after a few months.
For the next 11 years I have tried to manage or ignore my symptoms. I finished my engineering degree, got a job, studied and achieved my professional license and got involved with various sporting programs and social activities. I’ve also had a couple great relationships but had to disclose I do not want to procreate because its already very difficult for me to manage my symptoms and stress. My symptoms have persisted and some new ones like 2 molar failures on bottom right jaw and stiff/restricted rear of neck.
In the last few years my neck mobility has become more restricted, especially turning right, so I began an intensive chiropractic treatment plan this at the start of 2026. My neck and head were basically fused and turned slightly left. Over the last few months mobility has improved but it has also added some pain and soreness to rear of neck vertebrae and the adjustments don’t hold long and sometimes I would get stuck back worse. One day it suddenly dawned on me that perhaps my eagles were pulling me out of alignment so I mentioned it to my chiropractor. Next I stumbled into some youtube videos from Dr. Hauser at Caring Medical Florida showing the relationship between elongated styloids and jugular compression and listened to some of his patient testimonies about their improvements following styloidectomies. I also watched Dr. Middleton’s videos showing ct scans in 3D and wanted to go back and look how mine compared.
I went back to My Chart records to look for my 2015 neck CT scan. I downloaded RadiAnt DICOM modeling software which converts CT scan files into 3D model and saw my very large calcified stylohyoid ligaments and used the cut tool to remove the front of face for better visualization. I continued watching and learning more about eagle’s syndrome and began to realize these structures surely explain my symptoms. I found Dr. Osborne’s docuseries on eagles patients and watched in complete awe the miraculous stories of healing and how I related to so many of their symptoms. I knew he was the doctor I needed. I met with him via Zoom a couple weeks ago and explained my symptoms of which he said certainly makes sense, all except my neck swelling which would be rarely caused by eagles, and we reviewed my 2015 neck CT but he wanted an updated scan for surgery safety purposes. I am meeting with him again next week to review the new scan.
I had my updated neck CT scan this week and got the report back. My condition has worsened severely since last scan. Now both stylohyoid ligaments are fully calcified and the radiologist noted “There is compression of the right internal jugular vein between the right styloid process and the right transverse process of C1” which is evident by the enlarged jugular vein and explains my swollen right sided neck all these years. I’ve attached a screenshot of the new scan below.
I have alot of emotions now and mixture of validation, mourning, and hope. I really hope Dr. Osborne is my doctor and that I can get his help soon. I long for the day I can live without these rods in my neck making life so hard. So this long winded post is my introduction to the Living with Eagle’s community and start of documenting my journey.
The image uploader is not working for me (new member restriction?) and when I paste a link it denies that also. So to make the following link work add the https before it. It may work without the https for some devices.
://drive.google.com/file/d/1UM2-syX-jNSL8Cw9P8S-iTmS2LE8QKPd/view?usp=sharing