In addition to the actual "sleep," I'm working on changing my expectations from sleep - silly things like is it reasonable to wake with the refreshed and wanting conquer the world feeling? While it would be nice to feel that way, perhaps it's just not realistic. If I ultimately get there, great, if not, it's OK too.
Last Friday, I returned to see the surgeon. He always has two questions: 1) how am I sleeping and 2) am I in pain. I reported my sleep had not improved and I was not in pain. While we knew my surgery was not a guaranteed success, we had hoped there would be some improvement. Most people at 5 months have realized some benefit. He suggested that I give CPAP a month trial, and if I wanted, I could also give the oral appliance another try. I left his office quite discouraged, knowing that both the CPAP and appliance failed pre-MMA.
That night, I dusted off the Silencer appliance, cleaned out its cob-webs and went to sleep. Over the past 5 nights, sleep seems better. I'm sleeping at least 7-7.5 hours and feel like I'm in a deeper sleep, not waking up at all. Not only have the nights been better but the days seem to be improving too! The post lunch circadian dip is lessening as well. While it's too soon to claim victory, I'm very encouraged! I'm going to continue with the appliance for a couple of days, and then give CPAP a try.
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Hi Pedals,
ReplyDeleteAny theories from the surgeon on why there has not been that much improvement? You have had good advancement, what is your RDI now?
As I always said, you and Jerome are the people who have tried everything like me. The jury is still out on both of you. So it feels like it is a leading indicator to where I might end up.
Good luck and let us know how the appliance is helping.
Unless you have a low RDI to start with, I'm probably not the best leading indicator for you...
ReplyDeleteFrom the surgeon's perspective, his goal was to make my airway bigger, which he did. By making the airway bigger, he hoped that it would alleviate the tired symptoms. For those of us with a relatively low RDI, it's much harder to get a significant change in RDI (compared to those going from 80 to 10). Given that I had a relatively low RDI, pre-MMA 10-20, with UARs being a contributor to my tired symptoms, my improvement will be measured more subjectively based on how I feel.
At this point, we have not scheduled a follow-up sleep study.
How are you doing lately? You have not posted in a while. I'm scheduled to for mma surgery with Dr. KL in January. I have a relatively low RDI - 14 but did feel improvement with oral appliance and cpap so I hope the surgery works.
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