Yesterday I had RF somnoplasty + turbinate reduction

I don't see any improvement yet, but everything looks good now, the pain was gone 10 days after somnoplasty. My palate is smaller now, it is shrinked already to some degree (it will be even more because of scarring process that lasts for 5-6 weeks). It doesn't collapse now, I can feel and see it when I lay on my back. When it will have impact on my health? I don't know but it should, when I think about it rationally.

It sounds like you're through the worst of it, thank goodness! I'm very glad to hear that you're feeling much better. No way would I want to go through what you've been experiencing.

Although it's been difficult, I appreciate you taking the time to relate what you've been going through.

It was a hard time after this surgery, I must admit this. Maybe I was unlucky and the worst possible things happened to me: strong pain and this haemorrhage with blood clots. My doc said that it happens to max 5% of cases. But maybe it happens more often... Who knows. I will update changes in my mood, level of tiredness and brain fog level. For now - no effects in this matters. But I had this UARS thing for all my life and I have few others sleep-disturbing conditions I must adress so I need to be patient.

In my case it can work because I confirmed (CATscan) that the level of obstruction is ONLY in the area of soft palate, nowhere else. It may not work for many other people.

For your sake, I hope it works! Please keep us updated as you recover...

No effect ;( Still extremely tired with monstrous brain fog, derealization, whatever what I call this it is still with me. Why?????

Are you fully recovered from surgery, no pain or residual swelling?

I think I am, I don't feel pain anymore, maybe little swelling is still present, scarring process takes time so I have hope...

Still extremely tired with monstrous brain fog

I think that I am suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and that's why I don't see any improvement. I had lot of stress, unhealthy diet, lack of excersise in my life etc and this is the cause of CFS. Maybe one surgery is not enough also... I still can't tolerate CPAP ;( I am so nervous and overreactive to this...

Catherine, to paraphrase Yogi Berra, 90% of all sleep problems are half mental, and often the most obvious manifestation of that for the desperate patient is going to extreme solutions (e.g., surgery) in the hopes that doctors (i.e., some sort of higher authority) will do their magic and make it all better for you. Your health is in your hands, and especially in an area where medicine hasn't made a whole lot of progress, such as sleep disorders, you really need to take control. Starting with the obvious - straightening out your lifestyle - should help quite a bit, for starters. You are obviously suffering a lot and it seems like you don't like suffering, so I think it'd be reasonable to make it a high priority: forget the mundane pressures of personal and professional life (after all, if you can't think straight, what are the chances you'd do well there in this condition, anyway?) and focus on yourself.

First, I'd suggest figuring out what exactly is wrong with you. Because it seems to me there is a lot less wrong with you than you currently think. Now that the pain and post-surgery complications are gone, you probably have a pretty good-looking larynx - one that is ready to let you breathe nice and smooth, and in different sleeping positions. I would think the best approach would be to find out for sure if you are able to breathe well while sleeping. That entails anything from using the data-recording capabilities of your machine (as long as you can have a productive session with it) to having a sleep study. If you feel you need help with getting a good fit with a mask or any of the technical details needed to make the former work, this community is the best to get you through it. If you decide you need professional help with that, I'm sure that the least that ENT who took all that money to do the procedure can do for you is prescribe another sleep study.

Once you have a good idea of how your breathing is going, you have two paths: if your breathing is not good, then you need to address that, and that is very treatable. Again, you're in good hands here, people will help you to get your breathing in check. If, however, your breathing has turned out to be good and you still have sleep problems, you'd need to dig deeper. There are some sleep disorders that are not breathing-related and some people on this forum have experience with them. But, first things - first, you should take care of all those other things before you worry about any possible complicated issues.

To share my experience, I have had airway obstruction all my life and I think I have UARS on top of OSA, although none of my doctors ever considered UARS as something real. And I have had some pretty desperate times (to the point where I'd get up at night and stick a toothbrush handle deep up my nose to open the da&#ned airways!) but now, after calmly analyzing my condition and the options to alleviate it, I have determined the best treatment path, which involved some medical assistance (turbinate reduction with outfracture: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=59128&p=555876) and working with (or against, not sure) my DME to obtain a good CPAP machine. It also involved customizing a mask to make it all work as I have some rare sleeping requirements (face down) and pretty much have made a new mask out of the Breeze. Now, I still have not reached sleep nirvana but let's say that I could be sleeping 5-6 hours a night for several nights in a row and still feel rested the next day at work.

The important thing to know is that whenever you feel that nothing is working and you feel doomed, know that actually there are always many more possibilities to improve your life. And there is always help waiting for you somewhere!

McSleepy