Posted by groggy on January 21, 2009 at 13:39:08:Hello everyone,
I've posted on this blog before, but not on a regular basis.
My story is similar to others on this blog. westernjoe inspired me to go ahead and get an MMA/GA at Stanford back in 2005. Dr. P also performed an hyoid bone suspension and the first session of BOT-RF in 2007. Since moving to Colorado I've had two more sessions of BOT-RF.
The problem is I'm still doing poorly. Now granted, working rotating shift work at age 55 isn't helping matters.
I've never responded to CPAP. One of the problems is getting air in the stomach from the CPAP. But I've always wondered if my epiglottis is part of the problem.
About 9 months ago, my ENT referred me to a dentist to be fitted with a dental device. I've had limited success using it. My dentist referred me to another dentist in Denver that had equipment that measures restricted areas of your airway. I forgot the name of this machine; i believe it operates similar to sonar. The interesting thing is that my primary dentist noticed on a graph a restrictive area below the base of my tongue; at the epiglottis region. Also, the dental appliance increases the ares behind my tongue but decreses the area at the epiglottis area. A trade off.
It would be nice to hear from those of you that have had epiglottis surgery for sleep apnea.
Sorry about the length of this post. This has been a long road dealing with apnea.
Thank you,
groggy