Hi everyone. Wow, first of all... Extremely impressed with this forum and community.
I'm an anesthesiology resident. I'm training right now to be the doctor that puts you to sleep before surgery. I found out I had moderate sleep apnea AHI=18 and started using a CPAP seriously about 2 months ago after the titration study my optimal pressure was 6cmH20. I wear the CPAP nasal over the nose mask everynight, I am unable to wear it for a total of more than 3 hours/night. I continue to wake up even with the mask on at times, but most of the time I wake up with the mask off somewhere in the bed. I recently ordered an oral appliance but have not received it yet, ResMed Narval CC- luckily my insurance covered it ($2300). I have been seeing an ENT in league city who wants to do a terbinate reduction and septoplasty (I have inferior terbinate hypertrophy and moderate-severe right septal deviation). I'm okay with doing that surgery but I want to make sure its going to actually help the problem. I wanted to make an appointment and schedule a drug induced endoscopy to get to the bottom line and see which surgery has the highest likelihood of benefiting me (this endoscopy is when they put you under deep sedation and they put an endoscope in your nose and look for where the blockage is occurring at.) My ENT did a fiberoptic exam in the office and examined my tonsils, etc. Apparently he didnt think I have any source of obstruction in that area. As a training anesthesiologist, I know that the upper airway completely changes once youre paralyzed (in REM sleep). I have a feeling that the source of the obstructive is actually in this area for that reason.
Anyone have any experiences with upper airway surgery in this situation?
