Sleep Apnea – A Sleeping Epidemic

I am getting my soft palate reduction, adenoidectomy and tonsillectomy at the same time as OSA Surgeries.

I have a couple of questions, i would rather have the general public address than the doctor. Because all the doctor can give me is statistics and ‘rare’ occasions.

Is bleeding of the throat prevalent after the surgery?
I heard i would not get my original voice back after the surgery, how true is this?
Would i lose weight, after the surgery?
How long would i have to go without solid food?
Should spicy food be avoided at all costs, after the surgery?
Would i be more prone to infections and allergies after the surgery?

I’m having this surgery because i have OSA – Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

There are three types of apnea: obstructive, central, and mixed; of the
three, obstructive is the most common. Despite the difference in the
root cause of each type, in all three, people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep.

In central sleep apnea, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe.

Mixed apnea, as the name implies, is a combination of the two. With each
apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people with sleep apnea in order for them to resume breathing, but consequently sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. This is the most common form of breathing-related sleep disorder, marked by episodes of blockage in the upper airway during sleep. It is found primarily in obese people. Patients with this disorder typically alternate between periods of snoring or gasping (when their airway is partly open) and periods of silence (when their airway is blocked). Very loud snoring is a clue to this disorder.

Guess, the surgeon has decided to do a reduction of your elongated soft palate; which is one of the many causes of OSA.

Other risk factors or more realistic predisposing factors of OSA:

1) excessive weight gain or central obesity
2) Age- loss of muscle mass and thus replaced with fat
3) gender: male hormones
4) anatomical abnormalities such as a receding chin
5) enlarged tonsils and adenoids – common cause among children
6) family history
7) use of alcohol or sedatives
8) smoking
9) Diseases/conditions – Hypothyroidism, Obesity, Down’s syndrome, vocal cord paralysis; post-polio syndrome, amyloidosis, Marfan’s syndrome, neuromuscular disorders

Someone who has undiagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea is likely to have a heart attack, a stroke, cardiac arrest during sleep, or a harmful accident.

If you have one or more of the other predisposing factors as mentioned above, esp obesity- having this surgery is not a cure-all guarantee – that your problem will be solved.

Normally, T&A ( Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy) is done during childhood for chronic tonsillitis. Thruout my childhood, I suffered from frequent upper respiratory infections such as common colds, and the flu; chronic tonsillitis, pharyngitis(sore throat) and laryngitis ( hoarse voice) so much so that I missed a lot of school days. I was constantly placed on antibiotics.

I didn’t have the surgery done until I was 26. Now, my quality of life is so much improved. I’m less prone to upper resp infections; such as tonsillitis with difficulty of swallowing. One of the many benefits of this T&A now is to enjoy drinking ice cold drinks and eating a cone of ice cream; without the side effects. .

Mind you, because of my age and that being my very first surgery, the recovery phase wasn’t a picnic and as pleasant as a child might go thru. I suffered a great deal of pain requiring quite a bit of painkillers. The surgeon stated that my tonsils were so enlarged that I must have suffered quite a bit growing up.

I had the post-op blues which is one of the side effects of surgery.and anesthesia. However, there was no bleeding, or infection. Nowadays, it’s a normal precautionary procedure for surgeons, to give an IV administration of a dose of antibiotic 24-hr pre-operatively.to prevent infection. You don’t lose weight as you resume eating normally after a few days. Besides, you don’t use this surgery to lose weight.

Of course, spicy foods are off limits initially; as they are irritating and might induce bleeding. Hot drinks are discouraged as would cause vasodilation and thus bleeding. Ice chips were tolerated and soothing. As a matter-of fact, kids are allowed ice cream 2 hrs post-operatively if there is no vomiting from the anesthesia. After the recovery phase, there is no limit as to any type of foods including spicy foods; which I enjoy.

There is no effect on your voice as your vocal chords are not involved. Immediately, after surgery, your voice might be a little raspy due to the soreness of your throat and your fear of straining. However, your voice would resume to being normal once the swelling and inflammation is gone. There might be a slight change with the soft palate reduction if any.

You should not be alarmed. It is a normal and required routine of all pre-op pts to sign this operative consent -. with the stated normal risks of bleeding and infection as with ALL surgeries.

So, I hope all of the above- answers all your questions adequately.

Oh, by the way, I still have my allergies and allergic rhinits but not as bad. But I’m not prone to acute tonsillitis anymore and more importantly, when I get a sore throat with the colds, I can swallow without difficulty. And the episodes of upper respiratory infections are less.

Sometimes during the day, I suddenly feel disoriented, and a bit dizzy.
A neighbor said it might be caused by sleep apnea, I’m not sure and before I go see the doctor, I want to find out a bit more about what sleep apnea actually is.

I would check with a doctor. You could be having rhythm problems with your heart.

One of the main symptoms one with apnea will notice is that they are always too tired to do anything. They will have no energy, and will often drop off in a nap if they get still long enough.

There are 2 types of sleep apnea-the most common (90%+)is called "obstructive apnea" and involves air passages becoming restricted during sleep. There is a lot of snoring. Usually the spouse of a person with obstructive apnea will know it. It is generally well treated with a "c-pap" machine. Positive air pressure is kept on the breathing passages to help keep them open. The success rate of treatment is generally very high.

Then there is "central apnea" where the brain forgets to send out the signal to breathe. This is not common. Treatment usually is done with a "v-pap" machine (there are other types), and often medication (sleeping pill) is required. The "v-pap" varies in pressure from intake to outgo, and can even ventilate the patient when they stop breathing. Success is not nearly as good as with Obstructive apnea.
Some people have varying degrees of both apneas called "complex apnea".

Sleep studies are expensive, about $4 grand. Some c-paps are just a few hundred dollars. But variable pressure auto ventilators costs about $6 grand. If you have a decent insurance, then you may only spent a few hundred out of pocket.

Sleep apnea is dangerous.

He was a smoker for a very very long time before I was born, and he had a terrible snoring problem. soo could it be inherited. I’ve only had sleep apnea twice my whole life and it started this year, I’m not overweight. And I’m 16

Possible. Only a sleep study can truly tell if you have sleep apnea. There are two types; Obstructive and central. Obstructive Sleep Apnea affects over weight patients but other things can still cause it. Central Sleep Apnea is caused when the body does not get the breath command from the brain (sleeping on your stomach won’t help this type). You should talk to your family doctor about this problem, because he or she can explain more about this. Other than that you shouldn’t worry.

Im overweight and i have sleep apnea ive been breathing through my mouth my whole life and when i talk it sounds like my nose is permmanently clogged i really want to breathe through my nose eventually? Does any one have any help?

There are three types of apnea: obstructive, central, and what they call mixed. No matter which type, people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep. There are different causes but one major one is airway blockage.
Sleep apnea can cause a myriad of other problems such as high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and even headaches.

I was diagnosed a little over a year ago, and started a CPAP machine which has been really helpful. You should check out this site. They have a really helpful resource section, too.

My 3 year old has sleep apnea. I just realized this (along with snoring) and have him an appointment for an ear, nose and throat doctor. I’m wondering if there is anything I should know, or anything that will help the situation until our appointment. I didn’t realize that children get this…any suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

Yes children have sleep apnea. There are two types. The first is the most common. It is obstructive. Generally removing the tonsils and or adenoids solves the problem. I have seen obese children with OSA that use cpap but this is rare. The second type is central sleep apnea. It is when the brain does not tell the body to breathe. This is treated with bipap.

google sleep apnea in children and look at www.sleepnet.com

Best wishes

I absolutely can not sleep on my back. I have a Chiari malformation so when i lay on my back for to long my face goes numb and i get a headache and nausea. I have been having some periods of sleep apnea and want to have a sleep study done but when my husband did his they would not let him get off of his back. He said it was terrible! Anyone have any experience with this?

yes the sleep lab should be able to test you no matter what position you sleep in. In fact the sleep studies i get back from the lab I refer to have a notation in the report as to what percentage of time the patient spent in various positions. With an underlying neurologic condition it is important that you find out if your sleep disturbance is obstructive or central/neurologic. Talk to the sleep lab technicians before you come in for your study to make sure.

I know many will say "sleep apnea" and maybe it is a type of sleep anea, but if it is, its not the "obstructive" type. I don’t snore. Its not like tissue is blocking my airway. Its more like I take a deep breath and then just hold it for a while. I do this over and over. I can remember doing it in my sleep right after I wake. I think it may be due to some type of anxiety. I’m afraid this is going to kill brain cells.

There are two main types of sleep apnea, OSA and CSA, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Central Sleep Apnea. Central sleep apnea basically means your brain is not sending all the signals telling your lungs to breath. During my sleep studies, I’ve and a couple of CSA’s along with a slew of OSA’s. You can have OSA’s without snoring, your tongue can slide back, your throat can relax in such a way as to block the airway. It holds true that if you have very loud snoring, you probably have sleep apnea, the reverse is not true, not snoring doesn’t mean you don’t have sleep apnea. A sleep study is the only way to know.

I’m 14 and my dad is forcing me to use this cpap machine for people who have sleep apnea, which according to my doctor I don’t have, and he thinks it’ll give me more the full amount of oxygen that apparently I’m not getting according to him. About a year ago I did a sleep study in the eighth grade to find out if I had trouble breathing at night or if I was able to fall into deep sleep. The test results showed that my oxygen levels were fine and that I could sleep properly for most of the night, but that I only deeply slept for like 5 or 6 hours. Then of course my dad automatically assumed there was something terribly wrong or they didn’t test my oxygen correctly or something so he took the small evidence of not being able to sleep deeply the whole night and used it as his reasoning to force the cpap onto me. However, I know why I didn’t sleep deeply the whole night and I told my mom this because she’s a bit more logical than my dad and thank God she is, but she really can’t reason with my dad anymore than I can most of the time. What happened was that as I climbed into the bed I made the terrible mistake of accepting some apple juice because my mom told them I was a bit thirsty and then not using the bathroom afterwards, but that’s probably not the worst decision between this one and my next horrible one. After that I thought I would be good to go so I regretfully declined their offer of an extra blanket to keep me warm because at the time I didn’t know how dreadfully cold it would soon become during the night. I ended up not falling asleep until what I think was two hours I had to wait through and I had to use the bathroom so badly before I pissed my pants, but I knew it was too late to get out of that icy cold bed and so I tried so hard for such a long time to hold it in long enough for my body to fall asleep and I honestly don’t remember sleeping like at all that night because I think I woke up quite a few times with the strongest urge to prevent a urinary tract infection and just let it out. When I woke up and got unhooked from everything I ran out of that bed and dived for the nearest toilet ’cause I was about to explode. Ok I know it’s pretty disgusting, but I’m almost done so just bear with me. As I did my thing it was both a feeling of relief and extreme pain because I could feel my bowels slowly retract from their swollen state of torture. So yeah I’m done with my embarrassing story of how I almost pissed myself because I was too confident it wouldn’t get much colder. After all that I told my mom and then told my dad when I got home, but he didn’t really seem to listen to me that much as usual and just did what he usually does by trying to find a way in defending his idea that I have a bunch of health problems by just going with the data that showed I didn’t sleep as much as I should have even though it was because it was like a freezer there and I needed to take a piss the whole night… So then like a year later after all that my dad still found a way to make me use a cpap even though the doctor didn’t think it was necessary to prescribe one to me ’cause I also told her my story kind of and she said that I probably would have slept better and that I should’ve taken the extra blanket. Anyways my dad got me an un-prescribed cpap that’s now giving me headaches and made made me really sleepy at school today. I actually have a bit of a headache coming on now so I’ll try and wrap it up. Is this normal for the first few days of using a cpap? Oh and btw I find it extremely hard to breath out when I’m using it, but apparently there’s no way to adjust the flow and I feel like I’m not fully breathing out the co2 at all 🙁 Please help me if you can and thanks for taking the time to actually read and/or answer my question. I really appreciate it ’cause these headaches give me hell and my dad doesn’t listen..

Today’s CPAP machine is adjustable only by your doctor or machine suppliers. it is a programmable chip. the pressure level is prescribed by your doctor.

CPAP machine tries to keep the breathing passage free of blockage during sleep since most of the sleep apnea patients’ fatty tongues fall back into their throat and block the breathing passage.

according to your description, it appears you do not have sleep apnea, then you do not need a CPAP machine. your headache likely was caused by the use of the machine. the machine made you hard to breathe and you did not sleep well that night. i think you should be fine if you stop using the machine.

it is hard to believe a 14 year old boy has obstructive sleep apnea. however if you were diagnosed with central sleep apnea. then you will need the machine. if you do not feel comfortable with the CPAP machine, try a biPAP machine. but it shall be prescribed by a doctor. it is expensive and insurance shall cover the cost.

I do not snore. But i have been feeling strange drifting off to sleep. I don’t think i ever felt like i neede to catch my breath. I have just started feeling strange as i am drifting to sleep since wednesday and i worry it might be sleep apnea. Although sometimes out of nowhere as i am drifting to sleep i just randomly swallow

If you are really noticing this at the beginning of sleep…it is called sleep onset centrals. very normal and worth worrying over.

I have a cipap machine for my sleep apnea and I also had a nasal mask for it. When I got it I forgot to mention that I had allergies and its causing me to breathe out of my mouth. What should I do about this? There a cheaper way of fixing this, because a full face mask would cost me 300 dollers.
I tried using it the other day and I couldn’t because it was hard to breathe and was losing lot of the pressure, because I couldn’t breathe out from my nose.
The other thing I noticed was my cipap machine has a humidifier and when its activiated its even harder to breathe cause it does trigger my allergies and makes my nose very congested. What do I do about that?

I have the same porblem, here’s what I do: take a benedryl-D every night, and I have an Ionic Breeze in my bedroom–they aren’t cheap but other HEPA type air filters require filter replacement & they get pricey after awhile, also, you can try an electrostatic air filter that you put in the air intake of your central heat/ac–if you have that.