Posted by westernjoe on March 11, 2008 at 05:57:19:In Reply to: How severe is this?? posted by Michael_needs_sleep on March 10, 2008 at 09:38:34:
Michael:
Sleep apnea does exactly what you describe, starts slowly and before you know it you're down to just barely getting by. It's like boiling a frog slowly.
Your experience with CPAP is very typical. Many can not tolerate it.
Your condition is life threatening to put it bluntly. I'm no Dr, but your numbers are very bad. To get 90 events per hour, essentially your airway closes off completely when you sleep and you go through a sleep/wake cycle continually every 40 seconds. Sleep deprivation can kill you and ruin your heart and do neurological damage, just to mention a few.
Find a surgeon who can offer all surgery options, including MMA (Bimax). There is a lot of treatment bias in this area and you might have to try several Drs. If a Dr doesn't give you a good endoscopic exam, panoramic and lateral xrays, and talk with you about ALL the options, then find another Dr. A sleep endoscopy might be in order too.
The 'stitch to bone' procedure you mentioned might be hyoid suspension, or GA (tongue advancement).
UP3, septum, might need to be done first but most likely you have base-of-tongue obstruction like most of the rest of us and it might ultimately take MMA to knock it out.Your condition will get worse as you can see by history, so I'd encourage you to get on this right away and get your life back. It CAN be fixed or improved a LOT, but it does take a lot of drive to get there. We will be here for you through the process.
RA in TX