Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Closure

Dr. Naples mentioned I should take a follow up sleep study to verify I was cured of sleep apnea about six months post surgery. The day after my surgery, I knew I was cured. The blue rings beneath my eyes were gone. However, I also had a nice oxygen mask probably helping that. I think the last six months, my body and mind have started to recover from a life of fighting to stay alive at night. I now dream and wake up refreshed. I wanted to close this two year chapter of my life with an official study and find out just how much better off I was.

Sleep studies are really an interesting experience. Take a ton of sticky medical tape, multiple elastic belts, a couple hundred feet of twisted wire, some plastic tubes sticking up your nose, then tape them all to your body and head, shove the wires through your clothes, and hook them all to some box near your body. After doing this, try and sleep! Good luck!


This is my third "split night" sleep study. The split night means that if they find sleep apnea, they need to put various C-pap masks on your face and dial you in until you sleep. I mentioned to the tech performing the study that if they came in the middle of the night and tried to put a C-pap mask on my face, be prepared for a fist fight. After a two year journey, three surgeries, four doctors, medications, five C-pap masks, and a lifetime of losing sleep, I wanted this done.

So here is the direct assessment from the report:

"The maxillomandibular facial surgery has done a tremendous job in reducing his AHI from 66 which is extremely severe with severe desaturations to an AHI of 5.4 with very minimal desaturations at worst. Technically, this patient has defineitely met the criteria of curative based on surgical criteria, not likely to require any treatment such as CPAP or oral appliance based on the numbers. This is a great success."

I really like the sound of that. I met with my ENT (Dr. Oscar Tamez) today to go over the results and walked out a very happy man. To get the remaining AHI down close to zero, I'll need to lose a few pounds. Time to go ride my new bike, listen to my body, and put this journey behind me. If anyone has questions, feel free to post comments or visit the Orthognathic Yahoo group.

2 comments:

  1. Hey, congratulations! Good news.

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  2. Thanks Stephanie! I certainly do feel blessed to have this part of my life closed. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger :).

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