Re: MMA in 12 to 18 months
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Re: MMA in 12 to 18 months

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Posted by Captin Cannuck on March 18, 2009 at 09:11:37:

In Reply to: MMA in 12 to 18 months posted by silvergirl on March 17, 2009 at 12:48:59:

Silvergirl, I understand how you feel. Living with sleep apnea is torture. There is no other word that can describe it. I was in exactly the same situation that you are.

I would have considered a trach also and read up on traches and talked to people who have them. As I understand it, traches have some advantages and some trade-offs also. On the plus side, it would probably eliminate your apnea completely and would probably improve your cardiovascular complications.

On the other hand, traches have some bad points:
1. You would be at more at risk for infections, pneumonias, etc. You would have an opening which would lead directly to the lungs.
2. There would be a social stigma. You would experience social rejection, alienation and likely depression.
3. There would be lifestyle changes. For example, no more swimming, taking a shower, being out in the rain etc., would requre extra care. You could not clean your house with chemicals like beach etc.

One other thing, mostly I have heard that traches are reversable, although I am not 100 percent sure if this is the case. I recommend you throroughly investigate that. It seems that traches are falling out of favor. Very few people are opting for them. Nevertheless, there are some people connected to this site who have traches and who live a relatively normal and happly life. One fellow has a blog on this site. There is also a woman named Carolyn whom I have spoken to, and she is quite happy with her decision.

I would like to recommend something to you. It is to fly out to Palo Alto to see Dr. L. or a physician like him. As I recall, 1,300 bucks is the cost of his consultation. For sure, it is a lot of money. However, in exchange you can have the most informed decision in the country as to which path is correct. In other words, just paying for him to decide on your "battle plan", and allowing another surgeon to do the surgery. That is what I did, and I am glad that I did. In your case, you seem to have a lot of very different ideas that the various surgeons are proposing. For example, one surgeon wants to do MMA plus UPPP at the same time, another wants to do SARPE, etc. I do not think that these ideas are necessarily wrong (Dr. L did mention that there is sometimes a need to do UPPP and MMA at the same time), but I do think that would you need to know that you are on the right path. Also, you could talk to Dr. L. about the idea of a trach.

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