Surgery

Hello everyone

I have been sleeping for a year and a half with my cpap machine and to be honest it does help a bit but not what i expected. I am wondering if you have any information on surgery available for severe case like me (average pressure12)?

Any info would be appreciate

Thanks

Stephan

Hi Stephan,

I'm new to this, and need a whole lot more advice than I can offer, but I am scheduled for surgery in April. I'm having a septoplasty and turbinate resection. I didn't even know what turbinates are until I went to see my ENT to find out what my obstruction actually was! He said mine are "severly enlarged" and he and my SC agree that the surgery should help a lot with my PAP therepy. Have you seen an ENT? If so, what did they say???

Hi Mountainlvr

Up here in Canada they don't seem to know much about sleep apnea, all i have seen as far as doctors is a lung specialist that had no idea about surgery. That is why i am asking here, maybe i can get good infos to go get treatements in the USA.

Thank you Mountainlvr )

Hey, don't feel bad. They don't seem to know too much more here in TN!! You have found an awesome resource here, though! I'm certain you will find a ton of information, and lots of people have had surgery. I have a feeling you'll need to see an ENT to find out exactly what kind of obstruction you are dealing with though. For the heck of it, google turbinates and see what fun they can cause!!

Good luck!

Stephan wrote:Hello everyone

I have been sleeping for a year and a half with my cpap machine and to be honest it does help a bit but not what i expected. I am wondering if you have any information on surgery available for severe case like me (average pressure12)?

Any info would be appreciate

Thanks

Stephan

I will let someone else point you to information available on surgery.

Just a word of caution. Surgery for sleep apnea is very painful, has a difficult recovery, is permanent and leaves you with some things you won't like, and is often ineffective - you still have to use CPAP. Take a long time and educate yourself very well before you make a decision to have surgery. (These comments are not about deviated septum correction and turbinate reduction. I had these two surgeries and the results are excellent and the pain was minimal and the recovery was quick. These surgeries just open up the air flow through the nose and do not correct the blockages in the throat that are causing apnea. You will still need to use CPAP.)

Stephan,

Do you have Encore software and monitor your therapy regularly?

Your profile shows nasal pillows and I see in another thread you are asking about FF masks. Do you suspect you are mouthbreathing or leaking? If so, you are losing pressure and can still be having many apneas. You would need to use a FF mask.

Regards,

Hi Rooster,

Thanks for your response. I have just installed and read my card with encore, i don't seem to have leaks i just realized by reading other posts that maybe my cpap isn't set right, i have seen on my report that i am at 12,0 at 90% of the time and my cpap is set 7-20 maybe i should program it to 10-20 that would help you think?

Thank you so much

Look at the daily detail graph.

From this graph, tell us a little bit what the leak rate line, apneas, hypopneas and snores look like. Don't change anything yet.

Did the in-lab sleep study find any central apneas? If so, how many?

What was the pressure on your presciption?

What is your AHI at your current setting?

3 months ago i had a setum fixed, turbinate resection and radiofrequency reduction, tounsils removed, uvala reconstructed and tounge advancement. It didn't hurt except for the tounsils, that hurt. I am so glad I did it. I have over 14,000 hours on my cpap and have been on it for years. This took me some time to get the courange to do it but now i wish I wouldn't have waited so long. You go in, they knock you out, you wake up and your done. A lot of people on here tell you not to have operations have no idea what they are talking about, just things they have read and this type of surgeries are a lot better now and the doctors have a better idea what works, and what doesn't.Any questions, just ask.