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by mecha_ghidorah
1664 days ago
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Hey can you please PM me a bit more info on how you were treated and some facts about your case if you are comfortable to? I have been using CPAP for years but my case is weird: I was diagnosed in my early 20s, I was not and am not overweight, I only drink socially (so less than once per week), I don't and have never smoked, etc. CPAP has massively improved my life, I'm feeling much better, but honestly my sleep specialist was kind of shit when it came to answering questions. When I asked about surgeries and the like he just said "No, we can't do that" and I couldn't get him to elaborate on why. I never pushed it because I used to be too poor and I was too exhausted to bother with screwing with my treatment but I'm reconsidering that. Don't worry I won't take anything you say as medical advice or anything, I just... I dunno I guess I'm curious to hear about the experiences of someone who had a different treatment avenue in some depth. It might make me feel for comfortable/proactive about seeking a second opinion and pushing for specific answers |
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So to avoid confusion here, my surgery wasn't some alternative to CPAP per se, but fixed my breathing issue. In short, my nose got so restricted I could barely breathe from it at all.
My journey began by seeing a doctor for it, who tapped on my forehead and said I don't have a sinus infection, take an allergy pill and go away. Nothing but pseudofed ever helped at all, and that got expensive and restricted.
Then I saw an allergy doctor, who said that's a stupid test and did an MRI and found that I have something like a constant sinus infection, and inflammation everywhere. He sent me to an ENT, which honestly is probably where I should have started. As a side note, I did try allergy shots for about a year with no luck.
The ENT has these cool but odd feeling cameras they shove deep into your nose to see around. It's a horrible feeling tbh, sometimes you feel it in your eye or even tooth(nerves, I guess). He determined I had polyps really bad and a deviated septum, so in one marathon surgery did both.
Afterwards, it was great, and slowly got worse. ENT said polyps were coming back, so put me on a daily sinus rinse with budesonide(sp?). So each night I rinse my nose with that, and have for going on 8 years now I guess. It's kinda gross, you wouldn't believe all the snot that comes out after the steroids open everything up, which usually takes about 20 mins.
Feel free to ask any questions.