We can rebuild him. I had an appointment with my ENT today. He said that typically 50% of the people can use the CPAP and the other half cannot deal with the machine, noise, their partners hating it, etc. He also said that it then only really works for 50% of those people. But that 25% are really helped.
So then we turn to the topic of my problems. I have a recessed jaw and tongue which tend to make it a difficult airway and that is what causes the stridor I produce. Dandy.
Apparently we would embark on an exciting journey of reconstructing my head. The first operation would just be a septoplasty. They would go in and straighten out my septum. We looked at it in my MRI and it is indeed twisty and turny. (That comes from my nose being elbow height to everyone else when I played basketball in college. I remember vividly a game at Purdue when Joe Barry Carroll broke it and another at home against Indiana and Kent Benson. Both of them apologized)
The next surgery would be to open the nose and lift the palette. OK, Ewwww.
The final and most dramatic surgery would go in through the chin (I asked him which one) and actually move my jaw and tongue forward. So at this point I am just this side of a total and complete meltdown.
I suggested not sleeping any more as it is highly overrated.
However, then the Dr. said he would rather play a wait and see how the CPAP works before we do any cutting. Due to the fact of all my other cranial issues we want to do everything we can before we put me under a general anesthetic.
He said I am in the driver’s seat on this. I could most likely not do anything and live a live. It is the quality of life that we are working on. That really hits the nail on the head. Yes I am introduced around Barrow as an amazing success story and an inspiration. I sure as heck don’t feel like it. I have lost so much of myself that sometimes I wonder if it would have been better if I did not wake up last year. I don’t feel like a brave little soldier today. I am going to this CPAP thing with more trepidation that my surgery. I knew I was going to come home and fence again. I just didn’t think it would be like this.
Thank whatever deity that I have you folks. You have kept me going.
05-15-2008 04:23 PM