Cromagnum said:
So what I'm hearing is if you have apnea you have 4 terrible options.
1. Live (and die) with it.
2. Be Darth Vader and be uncomfortable and have to haul all that **** with you everywhere.
3. Get the jaw device and **** up your teeth and jaw.
4. Get surgery and go through all of the recovery.
Looks like option 1 it is.
Currently going through option 4. Here's my story:
I've always snored for as long as I can remember to when I was a kid. Had a tonsillectomy to remove palatine tonsils and had adenoids removed at 5 and still snore at almost 31. However, in the last six months it has gotten worse with the sudden stop in breathing and almost choking to the point the wife can't sleep because she's worried I won't wake up. I also would randomly fall asleep during the middle of the day, once even while driving thankfully rumble strips woke me up, or be super tired and fall asleep by 7pm on the couch every night.
I finally decided to go to a neurologist who specializes in sleep disorders for a sleep study and it came back as I do not have sleep apnea. No idea how that happened as I'm pretty sure I do. And like everyone here has said, the machine and wires SUCK! My sister recommended I see either another neurologist or an ENT.
I chose ENT. Actually chose the same ENT we took my daughter to two years ago to remove her tonsils and adenoids because she was getting strep every single month. No joke. Since her surgery she's been sick a total of 2-3 times it's been great. Anyway, saw the ENT and he actually found I had a deviated septum which caused restricted airflow in my right nostril, found I had an enlarged tongue (genetic) called macroglosia, and found I had enlarged lingual tonsils restricting my airway in my throat area. I didn't even know lingual tonsils were a thing. These restrictions in airflow are what he mentioned caused me to not get enough oxygen to the brain hence why I would always wake up groggy and with headaches and terrible sleep and depending on how I laid caused the pause in breathing. Everything finally made sense.
He recommended we do a few things but not a cpap right away. He said what's the point of a cpap now if there will still be no room (or very little room) for O2 to go through. So he said let's correct the deviated septum, let's reduce your turbinates in your nose via some vivaer method (you can YouTube this), and let's burn down your lingual tonsils. This will significantly open up your airways. He even said that in most his cases people didn't even need a cpap after these procedures and sleep was much better and issues went away.
Fast forward to yesterday, had my procedure so am 24 hours into recovery. Slept all day yesterday with moderate bleeding into the night. Lighter bleeding today but so far no pain and everything is going well. I do my nasal rinses which helps with the crusted up nostrils. I'm on a rotation of steroids, antibiotics, pain meds, and nasal rinses. Liquid diet so far but will transition to soft foods at dinner. I have a super high pain tolerance and don't get bored easily so recovery so far hasn't been bad. I took off yesterday and today and all next week for work just in case but hopefully recovery keeps going smoothly. I will update here throughout the next few days and weeks after to see if this really did help my issues. Anyways, if anyone has questions feel free to ask. Got nothing to do but TexAgs and watch the lady Ags take the L