Posted by Senn on February 04, 2008 at 17:56:49:In Reply to: Re: Day #12 - post Epiglottidectomy posted by learian on February 04, 2008 at 14:27:46:
Hi learian,
I wasn't really aware that it was elongated. I guess you can't tell when you're awake. I only found out when my doc did a sleep endoscopy. For more details, please check out my 1st post here: http://www.sleepnet.com/noncpap23/messages/103.html
I guess, in theory, your ENT doc might be able to tell if it's abnormally elongated even during a regular endoscopy exam, but I'd think that a sleep endoscopy is the best way to find out exactly what's going on during your sleep.
It always puzzled me when I first decided to pursue the surgical route for treating my apnea almost 9 years ago, that the surgeon/doc never really had any actual Visual Data of my particular obstructions. He never actually saw what was going on. No x-rays, mri, visually seeing it, etc, etc, of my obstructions in action. Performing surgery essentially blind. I remember asking about this, but got the usual pat answer I think most of us got: "We (doctors) have a pretty good idea where obstructions occur". I get the impression alot of folks felt the same way I did? But at the time, I was still a newbie regarding sleep apnea surgery and so I didn't question things too much. But here I am, 9 years later, with more knowledge about sleep apnea, and it's still puzzling that alot of doctors don't seem to question this "surgery based on general assumptions" methodology. Yet we knew that obstructions can occur at 3 or 4 different levels of the airway and not everyone has the same combination. And Laryngeal Sleep Apnea (epiglottis, etc) which can be a problem with 10% ~ 15% of apneiacs, doesn't even go into this traditional equation or assumptions. I know of no other area of medicine where surgery is conducted based only on assumptions with no hard data for that aprticualr patient. They (surgeons) usual require hard Visual Data of some kind (x-rays, mri, catscan, etc, etc) before they conduct surgery. But that's not the case with most sleep apnea surgery. My surgeon (who conducted the sleep endoscopy and the partial epiglottidectomy) pretty much feels the same way. He says this attitude is starting to change as doctors are becoming wiser about sleep apnea and realizing that one size doesn't fit all.