My bad news...

Guest, I don't know who you are but I would be alarmed for your child's sake if you were a parent but didn't understand SU's distress. Any mother or father here knows exactly what SU and her family are feeling about this diagnosis, but like all good mothers, SU will take a deep breath and do whatever she has to to make this a good outcome for her son. SU, you have our support.

Some people are great with logic but absolutely LOUSY at understanding human beings.

Let's all go to bed so the guest can go home.

If Guest cannot understand SU's distress, I give him no credit for being good with logic.

Guest, if, G-d forbid, my child was in a horrible accident and left with a spinal cord injury, you would tell me I should rejoice for the good news that he's not dead. Of course I would be grateful for his life, but I would be sick about what happened to him. Obviously I am not advocating burying one's head in the sand, or I wouldn't have taken him to be tested knowing it was possible that he would be diagnosed with SDB (and not a minimal possibility, as he had been diagnosed with it prior to a T&A a couple of years ago). But of course we had hoped that he would not need CPAP, or that at least there would be something we could do orthodontically that would be curative. But it is disheartening to hear that he needs to be on CPAP until he's 14 or 15 and has an MMA, which IF it's curative, may only last through his 20's. He is a sweet, kind-hearted child with a gorgeous face that we don't want to dismantle. I'm grateful he doesn't have something worse, but I am sad he has this at all.

I hope that if nothing else, having to deal with adversity in his life will make him more sensitive to the plight of others. Apparently it did not have this effect on you.

SU, I happened into this thread a bit late; and you have my support.
As for the troll; we need to stop feeding it, so it will go away.

sleeping Ugly, I am sorry to hear about your son. I am glad to hear he has a wonderful mother like you that can help him adjust to this change.

They said God never gives us more than he knows we can handle.

I was wondering if this is a diagnosis that might change when he hits puberty. Boys' jaws enlarge quite a bit at around age 14 or so. Might he be free of CPAP therapy by the time he starts getting involved with love interests? I was wondering if that is what you meant when you wrote

SleepingUgly wrote: he needs to be on CPAP until he's 14 or 15

I admire your being proactive with getting your son tested, and also for reaching out for support from this forum as soon as you were hit with this lives-changing challenge. You are doing everything right. Best wishes to you, dear!

SleepingUgly wrote:I hope that if nothing else, having to deal with adversity in his life
will make him more sensitive to the plight of others.

Cpap comes to each of us for more than the
mechanics of blowing air up your nose.

Through the many challenges of cpap,
we all are changed in ways we could never
have imagined. Profound ways.
We learn about perseverance and courage and
sacrifice and introspection and forgiveness,
failure and success,
and we grow.

Cpap will set this young man on a course that
will give him the skills to achieve greater things than
you or he could ever dream of.

All things for a reason.

Thanks for everyone's support.

Unfortunately, things tend to get worse for boys at puberty. Testosterone makes the tongue (and other parts of the airway?) enlarge. He could be on CPAP forever, but the doctor meant that at 14 or 15 he may be eligible for an MMA (the thought of which we can't bear right now, so we're not thinking about it).

We put a chinstrap on him last night and his leaks were much better. There was a thunderstorm in the night and I rushed to his room when my CPAP went out, and he was awake from the thunder. He drank a little water and then he attached the hose back to his mask and went back to sleep. He is such a trooper! I love that kid so much.

VVV wrote: Assuming this is obstructive sleep apnea, should we not be treating young people with palate expanders and braces to generally enlarge the jaw?

I haven't looked into it much but there seems to be many possibilities including some new devices that work directly on making the jaw grow.

Prayers for you and family,

Interesting thoughts. I wonder if any of that would affect the part of the throat that matters for sleep apnea.

Maybe there are some other things like dental devices to push the jaw forward that would work better on kids and provide beneficial anatomical changes as they grow up.

What a great mom you are SU! And what a trooper he must be!

I just have to put my 2 cents worth in here. There is nothing worse than watching a child, or any loved one, struggle with a physical or emotional problem. But what a lucky guy he is to have a supportive family who will do whatever they can to ensure that he has a healthy and fulfilling life.

I'd like to change the focus here to talk about what we can do to be supportive of SU and her family. Does anyone know what kind of support groups, threads, websites there are for helping kids with SDB? I'm sure that any tidbit of information for helping a child adapt would be very helpful to SU. Knowing SU, I think that she will dig in to find whatever helpful information is out there, but lets see if we can't get this going to give her some help.

And lets not forget that SU is struggling herself to get stabilized on xpap. She does so much for others, now lets also be supportive of her!

SU, I'm glad he had a good night last night!