Posted by Captin Cannuck on July 12, 2009 at 20:00:10:In Reply to: Re: To Tobeornottobe posted by tobeornottobe on July 07, 2009 at 16:50:50:
Yes, you are so right. This is a really cruel disease.
You asked how long until I restarted CPAP. I realized when I was in recovery that my apnea was still present. I waited about two weeks or so, and since I still had apnea, I knew that I had to resume CPAP. When I resumed CPAP, I found that the quality of CPAP-sleep was better after MMA than it was beforehand. I believe that a wider airway is easier for the air pressure of CPAP to keep open than a narrower one. I hope that you will find the same thing.
You are right about Eyeswideopen. She had to resort to the trache. It allowed her to sleep well and function well, but it was difficult for her because she was a very beautiful woman. There are other people who have posted on this site about their experiences with traches. One guy is on the blog links. Another lady is Carolyn. She wrote me, and she said that she lives a normal and happy life. I am sure that it is not as simple as that. For sure, there are some serious tradeoffs. For one thing, you are more at risk of pneumonias and chest infections since you open a direct route to the lungs. People who have traches get more chest colds than they used to. They have to be careful to cover the opening when in public. Secondly, they have more danger from water. They have to take extra care for showering etc.
As I see it, the trache option offers the following deal. You get a complete reversal of sleep apnea and all the damage that sleep apnea causes (high blood pressure, walking around in a daze, being at heightened risk of diabetes). In exchange for that, the bad points are as follows: (1) being at higher risk for chest infections (2) facing more social rejection and (3) giving up the enjoyment of being around water and bathing etc.
It is too bad that there is no easy way out.
I hope you will post in the future. I want to hear how it goes, good or bad.
You are right that I do care about you.
Best of luck.