Trouble after tonsillectomy

I'm hoping that someone has had a similar situation and maybe can offer some advice.

I was diagnosed with moderate OSA about 14 months ago and immediately started using a CPAP machine. After several months of only mild effectiveness, I returned for another sleep study where I was moved to a C-Flex machine and had my pressure lowered (went from 8 to 6). The second course of treatment was more effective, but only about 60-65% (meaning I would get a restful nights sleep about four nights a week).

Still frustrated, I visited my doctor and we moved to correcting anatomical abnormalities as a form of treatment. I had my tonsils, which had always been oversized, removed three weeks ago tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I have yet to have a restful night's sleep since. Understandably, the first week or so I was in pain, so I can certainly attribute it to that. However, my problem now is that the pressure from the machine is causing air 'bubbles' to form in my mouth and abruptly come out, which wakes me up (I use a Mirage Swift II). This 'forced leakage' makes my lips vibrate and makes a sound similar to if you were imitating a horse.

I spoke to my doctor about this and he wants me to have another sleep study done, but says that I cannot until my throat has fully healed, which is about three months! I can't imagine going on like this for three months. Obviously, the characteristics of my throat have changed, which is affecting the original diagnosis/prescription.

Has anyone here had any type of oral/throat surgery and continue to use their mask after? Does anyone experience the kind of 'forced leakage' I'm referring to? I tried sleeping without my mask to see if I needed it anymore, but it didn't seem to help.

Any advice is appreciated.

Can you try a full face mask to see if that helps any?

Jon,
Many of us have found air leaking out of our mouths the way you describe - withou having had a tonsilectomy.

Did they only do a tonsilectomy, or did they also cut out your uvula ( a UPPP operation)?

A full face mask sound like a good idea at this point.

Look for posts by socknitster about her recent tonsilectomy.

You may also want to consider buying a machine and software that let you track your data on a nightly basis. That way you have at least a partial sleep study every night. The machine's reporting is not perfect, but its much much better than having no data at all. Your present machine only reports how many hours you've slept - which is useless for you.

Some people have what is called complex sleep apnea - in those case, once the cpap gets rid of the obsturctive events, people start having non-obstructive non-breathing events in response to the pressure. The have to have a repeated PSG, and sometimes end up with a very different kind of machine.

Since it's a question of "what do I do in the meanwhile, till I'm healed enought to have a repeat PSG", I would try the full face mask solution first .

Welcome onboard, and good luck,
O.

O.

Thank you both for your replies.

ozij: can you recommend a machine that would have the ability to record data? I'd love to have the ability to see what's going on during the night and track my progress (or lack thereof).

Thanks.