progress report, 71 days post-op

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progress report, 71 days post-op

Posted by gary.in.fremont on July 17, 2001 at 22:27:05:
Hi.
I saw my surgeon today. He examined my nose and tongue and throat and seemed excited by my recuperation so far. There is no longer any sign of infection in my nose, all of the stitches in my throat have been reabsorbed, and my tongue base no longer appears to him to be obstructive.
According to the scale he provided to me, my snoring severity on a scale of 0-10 has dropped so far from 10 before my surgery to 2 now. As my healing progresses for the next month, my snoring may abate even more.
According to the daytime fatigue index that he provided, my fatigue during ordinary day-to-day activities has dropped from 11 -- where 10 is considered extreme fatigue -- to 3. Anything from 1 to 5 is considered normal, he said.
He told me that I'm probably staying up too late most nights, and can drop my fatigue levels even more by getting another hour of sleep each night. I'm not sure that's a practical change in my life right now, however, especially if my levels of fatigue are as low now as they've ever been and are medically normal.
He wants me to have my next sleep study in mid-August, and doesn't want them getting anywhere near me with CPAP while doing the study.
Yay!
He wants to see what my condition is, as is. He doesn't believe that CPAP will ever be beneficial for me, which is a huge relief. (I hated that thing almost as much as it hated me.)
My bed partner tells me that I no longer stop breathing while asleep, but my doctor said today that I shouldn't get my hopes up too much that my apnea/hypopnea is really completely gone. The single most significant contributing factor in my case is the position of my jaw, and my extensive surgery did nothing to change that position.
However, my surgeon believes that a small dental appliance is all that will be necessary to cure any remaining apnea/hypopnea symptoms in my case.
:)
So it looks right now as if I probably will not require the MMA or any other surgeries to deal with this in the future.
I'm not cured yet, but I am significantly better. And i should be better still by the time my sleep study rolls around.
-- Gary

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