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Re: Dental Appliance + Tongue RF

Posted by westernjoe on April 22, 2005 at 18:53:58:

In Reply to: Dental Appliance + Tongue RF posted by billinvan on April 22, 2005 at 17:23:48:

I too have bad 'apnea' with technically no apnea events, only hypopneas, since the events actually keep me from going to sleep.

I have had nothing but prompt response from the Docs at Stanford, specifically Dr NP.

I've had RF to the base of the tongue twice, and I'm beginning to think that it has made my situation worse after looking closely at my sleep records. I know for sure that the initial swelling the first couple of weeks made my sleep much worse. Now I have large visible bumps on the base of my tongue - way back there.

A trach would definately pinpoint your upper airway and exclude other breathing issues like respiratory drive caused by hypothyroidism and other things, including neurological problems. I 'THINK' a button trach is easily reversable without much scaring - others chime in here. As I've been told, it's almost impossible to get a doc to do a trach on a young person that looks healthy - they're use to doing it only on obese patients or others that are near death. I've mentioned it to several doctors and they all flinch like they stepped in dog poop.

I also got a real dental appliance after goofing with the moldable kinds. It fits my teeth perfectly and has a knob on the front to adjust. This does actually impact my sleep positively, no question. I'd tell you who made it but the forum rules don't allow. Your results indicate that your airway is small and you might could benefit from MMA. The Docs at Stanford can take xrays and do a fiber exam and measure your airway.

I can certainly understand desperation. I'm going to Standford May 5 to see dr NP and will let them do a head transplant if that will fix me! :) No more goofing around with this (7 proceedures so far).

I've often wondered if I could self-intubate like you described. Tell me more about how you did it.

I'm no doc, but I would encourage you to not do the RF to the tongue and get a more complete exam at Stanford or somewhere else that deals with sleep. Based on what you've said, MMA may be in your future. It's a big surgery but nothing to be scared of - sleeping bad for the rest of your life, now that's something to be scared of!

be well,
wj



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