Posted by Chiron on August 30, 2011 at 12:35:53:In Reply to: Re: 12 days post MMA posted by professorchaos on August 26, 2011 at 03:41:18:
Hi Professorchaos,
My last sleep study put my RDI at 12.3. When I tested in the
Stanford sleep lab in 2008 post tongue RF, my RDI was 23.0. I
haven't had anything done between the two tests and my sleep
didn't improve so it's a bit hard to say why true RDI is. All my
disturbances (on both tests) are hypopneas. My prior surgeries
got rid of all the apneas. The UPPP+GA I had in 2001 took my
RDI down to 5 from 14.Dr P felt I was a good candidate for the surgery. I'm 36 and not
overweight. CT scans showed my airway to be quite narrow both
at the palate and at the base of tongue. The 3D CT Scans do a
much better job of showing the size of the airway than 2D Xrays.
At this point, I'm pretty skeptical of any doctors ability to
accurately assess the airway based on 2d Xrays.On your phase 1 vs MMA dilemma, judging from many of the
accounts here, there's a good chance you'll need to have both.
An MMA alone could cure you though based my review of studies
, that about a 40% chance. I'd talk to your surgeon in detail
about the size of your tonsils and if he sees excess palatal
tissue. It's your anatomy that will determine how valuable a
UPPP will be.My experience is that the UPPP+tonsils more painful than the
MMA but the MMA is more a difficult recovery since it takes a
much longer time.In a lot of ways, what route to take is more of an question of how
you will emotionally repsond to the likely outcomes. For myself,
it takes me 2-3 years after a procedure before I'll go back for
another one. One surgeon put out the idea that I should have
lingual tonsil removed before an MMA. Dr P didn't think that
would help me and I decided not gamble on it since I knew I'd be
suffering with ineffective CPAP/BiPap treatment for a long awhile
afterwards since I would not be emotionally ready to turn around
in 6 months and then have an MMA with the lingual tonsil
removal didn't help.Hope this helps,
Chiron