Surgery

I am looking for personal experience of people who opted for the surgery instead if the machine. I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and was given a prescription for a machine. I told the doctors there is no way I can go on a machine. I am in the military and that would be a career endure. I would gladly consider surgery but not a machine. Has anyone experience bad luck with the surgery.

Petsh wrote:I am looking for personal experience of people who opted for the surgery instead if the machine. I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and was given a prescription for a machine. I told the doctors there is no way I can go on a machine. I am in the military and that would be a career endure. I would gladly consider surgery but not a machine. Has anyone experience bad luck with the surgery.

unlike the other active duty members that are on cpap?

anyway, you're in the wrong place, this is a CPAP HELP forum... go to apneaboard and find a place.

Surgery has consistently proven to not work in a majority of cases - you may feel fine for a few months, but then your need for Cpap returns and you'll have gone through the surgery for nothing. Things like turbinate (nasal) reductions or septum deviation correction sometimes help your nose, but don't help (or cure) apnea, and the UPPP or similar surgeries are not 'the' answer. Why you feel Cpap would be a career ender in the service is beyond me... do you really believe no other service members ever used a Cpap? There are probably a lot more who should use it, but I understand that if you're young and vain you may be willing to chance serious health issues (or worse) to appear macho, but how macho is it to drive down the street, fall asleep and kill a child? Many here have found that having a 'Darth Vader' approach, a funny one, works well, even in bed, where after all you can do whatever you normally would til lights out and partners would rather have live 'Vaders' than dead ones.

If you cannot deal with a little mask and some air, HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE MILITARY?
Please consider a career that has lower requirements, as you are not military material.
I would rather have my freedom defended by people with courage and motivation.

Using a cpap machine in the military is not a career ender. There is at least one company that specializes in military cpap patients. They even make up special deployment packs for military personnel that have all the supplies you will need while on deployment. The military may not provide the surgery for possible sleep apnea treatment. This surgery may or may not work. I had the surgery (UPPP) done several years ago. I did not bother to have another sleep study done to see if it corrected my problem. Since I did not snore, I just assumed it fixed everything. Obviously, it was not a complete fix as I am using a bipap machine. My nephew had the same surgery, and it had no effect on his sleep apnea. Untreated speed apnea will more will more likely be a career ender than going on the machine.

Petsh wrote:I am in the military and that would be a career endure.

I don't condone surgery but will try to esplain what he means. He hasn't explained what his job is but if it requires him to go to a combat zone he will be eliminated because you just may not have the luxury of power for an unknown period of time. In fact you prob will not have a shower or a bed to sleep in.

So he may be saying he likes his job and wants to continue. Now that doesn't mean surgery will work.

Hopefully he will explain what his job is and with any luck if cpap disqualifies him they will offer him a different career. But these days any job that doesn't require deploying to a combat zone is normally outsourced to contractors.

HTH

The deployment packs they provide include battery and adapter for the machine.

Petsh wrote:I am looking for personal experience of people who opted for the surgery instead if the machine. I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea and was given a prescription for a machine. I told the doctors there is no way I can go on a machine. I am in the military and that would be a career endure. I would gladly consider surgery but not a machine. Has anyone experience bad luck with the surgery.

WHAT "SURGERY"?
If you're referring to UPPP, the success rate has been about 40% and then only for a few months. Even with UPPP surgery, you're eventually going to need to use CPAP or Bi-Level therapy........and maybe even at higher pressures than without the surgery.

You might as well just resign yourself to using the therapy. Lots of people in the military have used it. Quite a few have been on the forum at various times in the past. Lots of other folks in other professions use it, too.......like firefighters and EMTs.

Here's a forum search on "UPPP". Read to your heart's content.

search.php?keywords=UPPP


Den

.

"I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea" is a pretty generic statement. It might prove helpful for you to scrutinize the details of your sleep study report before making a decision. Here's some things to look at...

How severe is your sleep apnea?
How low are your oxygen desats?
What pressure was prescribed?
Did you get substantial sleep and all stages of sleep during your study?
Is there a positional component to your events?

If you are reasonably sure your test was thorough enough to catch your worst case scenario, consider these things. (If your test was lacking in sleep time or stages, you don't really know how severe your apnea might be.) For sleep apnea that is moderate to severe, I'd be suspect of anything but CPAP being fully effective. Only known 3 people personally who had surgery for it, and none of them found it fully effective over the long term. However, if your apnea is mild and/or mostly when supine you may want to try to get it to an acceptable range before going to a machine. Taking measures to stay off the back would be a starter for mostly supine events. Some have reported using a generic cervical collar helpful, as droping the head and tucking the chin can change the airway. Maybe even a dental device if your results are mild. CPAP is the gold standard, and you don't want to "settle" for something that will be detrimental to your health in the long run. But if my AHI was, say for instance 7, I think it would be reasonable to try some self-help measures to get the numbers to an acceptable level. Without knowing your specifics, couldn't say much more.

Hi Petch,

I would like to hear more about your situation and why you feel using a cpap machine would end your career in the military.

I don't know how things work with military doctors but most US sleep apnea surgeons would not operate on someone until they had given pap therapy a try for at least 6 months. Something to keep in mind.

chunkyfrog wrote:If you cannot deal with a little mask and some air, HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE MILITARY?
Please consider a career that has lower requirements, as you are not military material.
I would rather have my freedom defended by people with courage and motivation.

Wow CF, taking a shot at someone in the military when you don't even know the whole story other than what he posted? SMH.

And by the way, he didn't say he was afraid of wearing the mask. He said he feared wearing one would end his career which may not be accurate but that is a totally different issue.

49er

Pet
My son is in the military and was deployed last year. He spent 8 months in the middle xxxxx and had no questions asked about his cpap machine... and by the way he was not the only one with a machine there at the same time as he was. You will not loose your job, stop making excuses and use the cpap machifne.

nanwilson wrote:You will not loose your job,

That totally depends on what your job is and sometimes the branch of service. We do not yet know what the OPs job is or any other circumstances. I doubt in the case you are talking about that they are carrying about all this cpap equipment in a backpack in a combat zone. Or that they hired someone else to do it.

Like a civilian company there are a wide variety of jobs to support the military operations going on around the world and certainly there are those positions where you could have a cpap but if it leads to diabetes (esp from none use) you will be done.

I am sorry this was put on the wrong place I will look for someplace else to post this. However "guest" hit the nail on the head. My job would be to be first in and set up a place to out plains can land. Good grief there has been times you were getting very thirsty to just find someone who would give you a bottle of water. Until we set up electricity there is non. I would be kicked of off mobility in a heart beat. Not all jobs are the same in the military nor are the branches. Years ago you would think the Air Force would never go anyplace with out a bed and all the amenities every one would expect. Not that is far from the truth.

The OP is not registered, provides almost no information, and has only posted once.
Sometimes we have to make compromises for our health, and other factors.
Your dreams need not die--just have to be rewritten, so you can be the best you can be--
with the hand you are dealt.
PS, "speer", you have the SAME IP as the OP--please do not pretend to be another person.
You are busted.