Surgeries

I had several surgeries at the same time to improve my sleep apnea situation and to help me get off nose spray. I feel a lot better now and improving every day. I was afraid to have the surgery and have thought about it for 7 years. I have like 14,00 hours on my cpap machine. The truth of the matter is that surgery is not that bad. The put the iv in and it is done in the wink of an eye. One second your in pre-op and the next your in recovery. They give you enough pain killer that it doesn't hurt. If your nervous they can give you valium or something and you really aren't nervous then. You'll feel like whatever and your fear is gone. And the best thing is knowing your life is going to get better, your less likely to have a heart attack and may even live longer.And even if you still use the machine the setting will be a lot lower if you still need it. I know surgery is scary to most people. I was afraid my self till I got hurt at work and had to have one. And like I said, it is over in a blink of an eye. Do your self a favor and see if you have a defect that can be repaired. We are all so different that some things will work for some that others don't need and visa versa.They have a lot of new procedures now that they didn't have a few years ago.

Nate,

Why don't you register on the forum? You have good experience to offer advice here. Most users give more credence to registered members with a track record of posts that can be researched.

Best regards,

AND!, Of course, you have had new sleep studies done to confirm your cure of sleep apnea, and plan to have more done later to prove you still are Cured.

I doubt it, just don't fall asleep while driving on the streets my family and I have to share. Jim

I am still healing from my surgeries and improving more every day. It will take about 6 months before I can retest , but be intelligent. I can tell there is a major improvement. You shouldn't be skeptical. It is simple plumbing. You fix it and it helps. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that.If you want to stay on your machine and not improve your health , more power to ya.Enjoy your machine but don't discourage people from making smart decisions involving there health.

I will stick to my machine.

In many many cases the surgeries (the UPP) are only temporary fixes that do not fix the problem in the case of sleep apnea. I have read the stories where many times the surgeries actually make things worse afterwards.

Let us know in a year if you are "cured".

In some instances if you have a deviated septum, turbinate reduction, tonsils removed, and those types can and do help many.

I pass!!

Almost anything that can be done to ease air passage into the lungs might help airway restriction, but will it be be a total solution for the rest of your life, not likely as things stand now. You paint a rosy picture but with the some of the doctors the outcome isn't as rosy or long lasting, maybe you will be in the lucky group, I hope so. A lot of people who have cuttng done, don't have good results, I want a better success rate before I replace air with a knife. Jim

nate fry wrote:I am still healing from my surgeries and improving more every day. It will take about 6 months before I can retest , but be intelligent. I can tell there is a major improvement. You shouldn't be skeptical. It is simple plumbing. You fix it and it helps. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that.If you want to stay on your machine and not improve your health , more power to ya.Enjoy your machine but don't discourage people from making smart decisions involving there health.

Nate,

Sorry, I am old enough to know several people who had part of the soft palate cut out and regret it. The recovery was hell; the side effects are nasty and permanent; and the surgery either did not cure their apnea or the cure was only temporary.

A good many of us here are naturally skeptical. But don't let that discourage you from posting. We like to learn from opposing views and we also like to debate. I hope you don't prefer naive people.

I'm in silicon valley and am fortunate to have very good doctors here. I used to live in the midwest where the medical care was not as good. I didn't have my tongue trimmed or my pallet trimmed. There are a lot of poor doctors using old procedures in this country. I am glad I don't live there any more. I used to live in southern Illinois. The radio frequency procedure worked very well. It shrinks the nasal tissue and turns it into scar tissue. The tongue advancement made it possible to sleep on my back. I don't choke any more and my septum was in like a s shape so it obstructed both sides of my nose. I have been on cpap for 7 years and it is much better now, I feel much better. I am saying if you have decent ent's they can make a major difference. But if you enjoy your machine , don't do it. If you have a doctor that is not really good, don't do it. If you have a really good doctor, it's the best decision you'll ever make.I feel better than I have in years and I am still swollen.Yes if you have a bad doctor you will have bad results. I just think that if your smart do your homework and find a good doctor they can improve your life. Some people are afraid and try to scare everyone else. Or maybe they don't have good insurance or any and have no choice. If your in a city or have access to a city and a doctor that is up to date on the latest treatments, they can make a difference. That is why I had multiple procedures. He told me that all of them combined would make an improvement and it did.So if you have an option , it's great. If you live in the middle of nowhere, your'e unfortunately screwed.I found out that this horrible condition was killing off the men in my family. I was next and want to try to make my life better. If anyone is curious about my procedures and the result I am open to discuss it. If you haven't had it you don't know what your talking about.Stick your head in the sand.

nate fry wrote:....... I didn't have my tongue trimmed or my pallet trimmed. ..........

Sorry, I was under the impression you had removal of the uvula and trimming of the soft palate.

I also am in favor of certain airway surgeries under certain conditions. I had all six turbinates reduced by surgical resectioning and had my double deviated septum corrected last year. This has given me excellent results however it did not eliminate my need for cpap.

I would also support removal of tonsils and adenoids upon the advice of a prudent and competent ENT.

I had it all done. UPP - soft pallet, trimming of the uvula and tonsils. No tounge trim but i have thought about it.
Every time my pulminary doctor looks down my throat he laughes. UPP eh? hes a middle eastern doctor who is awesome.
He says, i don't understand why they do that to people, the percentage of people it actually helps is so small. then he ask's, You still on your machine."? I say, "YUP". and he goes, "See, i told you." He also said my doctor did a real bad job witch scares me.
I know the operation does help some to some extent so there is no need to send me hate mail. Without the operation i know the situation you'd be in, I was there myself. My face was pretty much screwed up after the jet ski accident and it was a mericle they got my nose/face back together again. I was just relaying a conversation between my Doc and me.

I will just leave this at this. Some of the operations they used to do didn't work. Sleep apnea is a sort of new thing and trial and error has improved the options. My tongue advancement worked great. I don't choke anymore. My septum operation was great. I am breathing better every day. The radio frequency tissue reduction in my nose worked great. I had huge tonsils. Removal was good. The whole reason I had anything done was because I was hooked on afrin. I could get off of it but I would get stuffed every night. I was just going to get a septum fixed to breath better. My insurance wanted another sleep study. I thought I was going to have a heart attach that night. I was huffing and puffing , my heart racing , couldn't sleep. It scared me and I wondered what I would do if a situation happened where I didn't have my machine. I watch the show "lost" on tv. I thought , i would probably die soon after. That's when i ask my doctor about a really good surgon. I went to this Chinese guy and took a look. I told him I wanted to do whatever he could to improve my situation. Not cure, but to make it the best he could since I have to live with it the rest of my life. He told me about things people used to do that didn't work. I have to say everything he did do , worked. You have to have a good doctor that has been doing this for a long time that knows what they are doing.
After the surgery my nose was totally swollen from the radiofrequency tissue reduction. The nose has erectile tissue just like your you know what. When they shrink this it opens up your nose and makes it much easier for air to pass threw. But it took over two weeks for the swelling to go down. During that time I had to sleep and breath threw my mouth. This was something that scared the hell out of me because have you ever tried to just breath threw your mouth? Any way I did it for at least two weeks and slept fine and felt good when I awoke. And you know what, .... I didn't use my cpap. I didn't choke thanks to the tongue advancement and thanks to the tonsil being removed I had about 30 % less restriction in my throat. I know it is scary and I didn't say I was cured but there is definitely procedures that work and improve your life. I was scared to do what I did and I won't lie removing my tonsils hurt like hell. But my situation is a lot better and instead of talking about old procedures that don't work we should be talking about the ones that do work, that do improve our lives. Every situation is different and sometimes one surgery could make a dramatic improvement in your quality of life.I was just lucky enough to have great teamster insurance and decided to have it all done. There is no doubt at all that I would do it again, because all the things I had done worked. And that's what we should focus on. The things that can help. Sleep apnea is a horrible thing. I am tired of keeping two car batteries charged in my boat for when I anchor out overnight, now I don't have to. I want to help my fellow apnea sufferers to know there are options.