Posted by often_awake on July 10, 2011 at 22:12:35:In Reply to: Re: MMA 5 1/2 month post-op report posted by professorchaos on July 10, 2011 at 19:12:36:
I am 45 (or will be next week). I am in good physical shape
except for my sleep apnea and related issues--low resting heart
rate, can run a few miles without trouble, etc. I am not
overweight.I was told that I was a good candidate--small jaw, thin neck, etc.
My recovery was not a big deal. I have no numbness and can eat
pretty much anything (although I haven't tried dried squid yet).The nerve damage is just a conjecture put forth as to why I didn't
get any improvement. It's the same as having a "floppy" airway.I don't know what to tell you about having an MMA. You have to
weigh the benefits against the drawbacks. The drawbacks for
me were cost, pain, difficulty for my family, and physical
changes. None were overwhelming, but all were challenging.
The main benefit is that CPAP is much easier to tolerate. Not
what I wanted, but it's still something.Here's what I concluded when I was thinking about having an
MMA: it's too risky without the Stanford doctors or someone
comparable (I live in the Bay Area, so I never considered looking
at anyone else), but with a skilled surgeon like Dr KL, the
chances of anything going really wrong were relatively small. I
was having trouble with CPAP, but I hadn't completely given up
on it--I just concluded that chances were that I'd be better off
having the MMA than not.You'll unfortunately never be able to tell in advance what your
outcome will be; there are just too many different variables.
People on average seem to get a 50% reduction in symptoms,
whatever that means, but there's huge variation. If you're
prepared for the fact that you may end up using CPAP (not the
end of the world, by the way) even after the surgery, you'll
probably be fine.
- Re: MMA 5 1/2 month post-op report professorchaos 20:17 7/26/11 (1)
- Re: MMA 5 1/2 month post-op report often_awake 00:14 7/28/11 (0)