I've had the surgery done in March of 2017. I have no feeling in my chin/neck on both sides all the way down to the scars on my neck where they opened me up. It was a 5 hour surgery and I had 2 drains on the outside of my neck while being in the hospital for 48 hours. It was very difficult to swallow solid foods for a very long time and I still have difficulty with it at times. I often drink out of a straw because my swallowing mechanism doesn't seem to want to cooperate without that feeling in the area. About 4 months ago the pain in my left ear started coming back, at first a dull "earache", then the feeling of a match being lit deep in my ear and sometimes like someone taking a screw driver to my ear. I started experiencing the stroke like symptoms. I'm now waiting for the results of my CT to see if the part of the process that was left in is just slightly still "ticking" my carotid. This is certainly not a fun oddball disease to have to deal with and if anyone has questions about the surgey....I would be glad to help