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Gastic bypass, MMA or septo/UP3?

Posted by Sleepy Time Time on June 30, 2004 at 19:00:00:

All along, I have thought of MMA and UP3 as too drastic, given that their definition of success is a rather modest one -- it's deemed "successful" if they reduce your apneas/RDI by 50 percent, which doesnt seem beneficial enough to balance out the risk and severity of complications.

Lately, though, I have been thinking about gastric bypass surgery, but I guess that is more drastic than either of the above, no?

Or is it?

The reason i have been thinking about gastric bypass is that my apnea began when i gained weight. Or at least my fatigue did, i wasn't diagnosed with apnea til four years later. My weight has continued to climb, partly becaause I was too ewxhausted to exercise. I am now exercising vigorouly, 30 to 40 minutes per day, for three months now, and have not lost a pound

I now weigh 250, and my body mass index is 36. Generally, the cut off for gastric bypass is 40 -- unless the pateitn suffers from a complicating condition, and apnea is one of those. I have been reading that the bypass docs will do the surgery if you are between 35 and 40 on the BMI chart and have one of these conditions, including apnea.

I am tempted, because in my case the weight and apnea seem directly related. I know they are not always causally related, but they were for me. I went from 180 to 200 in one year after my dad died, and kept gaining about 10 lbs a year as the apnea kept getting worse.

So with all that in mind, which procedure do you folks think is the more drastic procedure -- or, conversely, which do you think might hold out the better chance of success in my case -- gastric bypass or MMA?

I am also thinking of this cos an aquaintence of mine had the bypass surgery done, and he lost nearly 150 pounds and he no longer has to use Cpap even though he is still around
300 pounds

(My RDI is in the 35-40 range, I am 49 yrs old, and one doc said my obstruction appeared to be pr9imarily at the base of my tongue, while another said I had too much excess soft-palette tissue.)

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