Why do some people still use CPAP?

sorry for like a rude/ignorant question, please be kind

what I mean is, is everyone not fit to be cured by surgery?

BTW I am new to CPAP and I feel like I can't live with it forever.

Again sorry for stupid/offensive question

Lennyz wrote:sorry for like a rude/ignorant question, please be kind

what I mean is, is everyone not fit to be cured by surgery?

BTW I am new to CPAP and I feel like I can't live with it forever.

Again sorry for stupid/offensive question

People choose CPAP/APAP/BIPAP/Xpap because it doesn't involve going under the knife and not everyone is cured by surgery or weight loss. Surgery is also extremely painful and a good ENT surgeon would recommend against it because it is by far the most painful thing ever! People go to ex ordinary lengths such as lapband surgery to lose weight but little do they realize, that lapband surgery can make it worse because you'll have loose skin. Unfortunately the thing with weight loss is that it's a slow with weight resistance and some light cardio to help lose weight and of course increasing protein intake, good fats and vegetables. But even then,that does not guarantee you being cured of sleep apnea. I have lost 40Kg and I still get on the high end of hypopneas which make me feel terrible!

1) For surgery, the definition of success is a reduction by 50%. So, unless you start out at less than 10, you will still officially have sleep apnea, even when the surgeon tells you that the surgery was successful. For somebody like me, with 79+ events per hour, they would consider me successful with an hourly rate of 40, which is still severe.

2) A lot of people who have surgery have success for about a year or so, then need cpap again. Total fail.

3) Surgery is considered successful 50 % of the time. That means that 50% of the people get a 50% reduction. The others don't.

4) The surgery and recovery is very painful and often leaves people snorting liquid out their nose. Not very pleasant.


For most people who stick with cpap and get their settings dialed in for comfort and therapy, success is quite attainable. I went from 79+ per hour to less than 2 my very first night.

You have self proclaimed your question to be rude, ignorant, stupid and offensive but yet you posted it anyway, without first searching the site for the plethora of posts on this hotly debated topic.
Are you saying it's rude to ask others to save you research time by using their time to answer your question?
Are you saying it's ignorant because you have not armed yourself with any information on your own, or asked your doctor?
Are you saying it's stupid because you are not capable of researching this yourself? In which case we'd be more than glad to assist you.
Are you saying it's offensive because of the inference that everyone here is choosing a substandard option?

If you are sincere in your question, I do apologize, but this post bears all the hallmarks of a bait post, which seem to be running rampant on this forum lately. Hopefully your post isn't getting collateral damage. In a nutshell, surgery does not work for everyone nor is there a guarantee it will provide an acceptable degree of relief. CPAP is non invasive. Those that surgery did work for will not be here frequenting a CPAP help forum.

Lennyz wrote:sorry for like a rude/ignorant question, please be kind

what I mean is, is everyone not fit to be cured by surgery?

BTW I am new to CPAP and I feel like I can't live with it forever.

Again sorry for stupid/offensive question

Hi Lenny,

In my own situation, because I greatly struggled with pap therapy over several months, I did look into the Inspire Procedure which I didn't qualify for. I considered going for the MMA jaw advancement procedure which a sleep doc told me in a PM who I felt was objective had one of the higher success rates. But since it was grueling, I chickened out. I wish I hadn't.

However, if you are adjusting to pap therapy as many people on this forum have, there is no reason to consider surgery. But if you are struggling, why not post about your problems so folks can help you? Some of them may not be so hard to resolve while others could take some time.

If you're still adamant about having surgery, most sleep surgeons will not operate until you have given pap therapy a minimum of 6 months. If they are willing to operate without an adequate trial, I would be very suspicious.

49er

Lennyz wrote:sorry for like a rude/ignorant question, please be kind

what I mean is, is everyone not fit to be cured by surgery?

BTW I am new to CPAP and I feel like I can't live with it forever.

Again sorry for stupid/offensive question

Some people's heads might grow back. Jim

Surgery--no not an option for me. Trial and error of cpap is the way to go. May take a life time--but I will get there. You can do it too.

Lennyz, no, not all of us are fit to be cured by surgery. I'm sure if there were a simple surgery that would in fact cure us that more of us would have it. I've been using cpap for almost 3 years and I'm ok with it.

kteague wrote:You have self proclaimed your question to be rude, ignorant, stupid and offensive but yet you posted it anyway, without first searching the site for the plethora of posts on this hotly debated topic.
Are you saying it's rude to ask others to save you research time by using their time to answer your question?
Are you saying it's ignorant because you have not armed yourself with any information on your own, or asked your doctor?
Are you saying it's stupid because you are not capable of researching this yourself? In which case we'd be more than glad to assist you.
Are you saying it's offensive because of the inference that everyone here is choosing a substandard option?

If you are sincere in your question, I do apologize, but this post bears all the hallmarks of a bait post, which seem to be running rampant on this forum lately. Hopefully your post isn't getting collateral damage. In a nutshell, surgery does not work for everyone nor is there a guarantee it will provide an acceptable degree of relief. CPAP is non invasive. Those that surgery did work for will not be here frequenting a CPAP help forum.

WOW! Paranoid much???

Stink Bait!!! Jim

When I asked about surgery, two doctors answered the same:
Weeellll you know, this would be using scalpels quite near to your vocal cords and all the nerves growing in that area, quite some people have a weird/different/really quiet voice after that, try cpap first and see if it works.

Lennyz wrote:sorry for like a rude/ignorant question, please be kind

what I mean is, is everyone not fit to be cured by surgery?

BTW I am new to CPAP and I feel like I can't live with it forever.

Again sorry for stupid/offensive question

Try to find 1 person that was cured by surgery. They certainly will not be on this CPAP board.

The point is that, properly set up for the individual Cpap just works most of the time for most of the people, though figs. show many as having 'failed' Cpap. We believe most of those would have done better (and still can) if they'd had some advice and help getting set up, the kind this forum provides. Surgery cannot usually be undone if it causes new problems and keeps Cpap from working (because the surg. did not get rid of OSA), so while I think you might have been saying you're sorry to have asked a surgical question on a Cpap forum, I don't think you're rude or ignorant and asking is better than not asking.

Why do some people still troll?

What surgery are you referring to? UPPP may or may not be effective and has a very painful recovery. My nephew had it done, and is still on CPAP. I had UPPP, deviated septum and turbinate reduction done about twenty years ago. It helped to lessen my apnea symptoms for several years. I started having symptoms again about four or five years ago, and am not on a bi-level machine.