APNEA SURGERY
or the Continuing Saga of Fibromyalgia page 4
I had my apnea surgery Friday, September 28, 2001. That has only been two weeks so I don't know how much it is going to help. The surgery itself went well and even the anestheiologist was bragging on what a good job Dr. Colin did. The nurses all agreed it was done well.
I was only in surgery about an hour and a half, I think. Everything went well until they started giving me something for pain. I had told them 3 or 4 times to be sure and not give me morphine but that's what they were doing. I never thought to ask, I had told the anesthetist just before surgery and he checked and it was in my chart. It makes my pain worse and it made me itch and I was beginning to get in a jerk. I was in recovery about 2 1/2 hours when it should have been only an hour. If the nurse hadn't mentioned she was giving me morphine I don't know what would have happened.
They went in through my lower lip and under my teeth and somehow secured my tongue. It was horribly sore and that caused the most of my pain at first. My chin was swollen and after about the third day I was very bruised. I kept an ice bag on it and I'm sure that helped but it still bruised.
The other site is actually in the roof of my mouth. It is nothing like I expected. It looks strange, just a big cavity directly in front of my throat. I assume it is too enlarge my breathing passage. It doesn't look to me like it would work but what do I know??
I had my tonsils out when I was 12 and I was pleasantly surprised that my throat wasn't sore like I had anticipated. Right after the surgery I could drink Sprite and I drank lots of water in the hospital. They even brought me bouillion, jello and sherbet. It was tender but much better than I thought it would be. Well, that didn't last, unfortunately. It has been very sore and I cannot bear anything cold. I have to drink my water without ice still. It is getting much better and the last two days I have been able to eat solid food. Up until that I ate jello, bouillion, jello, bouillion, jello. Yuck!! It was a real treat when I got able to eat Chicken and Stars soup.
My mouth still hurts but all in all it has really been much better than I expected. When I had my tonils out at 12, they gave me no pain medication whatsoever and it was so painful. It has been much easier with the pain medication, except for the morphine. I just pray that the surgery has helped the apnea and that in turn will help the fibromyalgia.
One very interesting thing, while I was not eating anything but jello and bouillion, the fms was much better. Of course I was also resting and not doing anything much. Also, I was on antibiotics which seems to improve fms sometimes. I am already feeling worse since I am eating more and the pain came back. I don't understand, the jello with sugar and the bouillion should not be very good for fms.
I got the most severe bladder infection I have ever heard of last weekend. I don't know if that is any way connected to my surgery or hospital stay. I guess my resistance could have been way down.
I go back to see Dr. Colin next week and will add more to the page after that visit.
July 2004 - It has been almost 3 years since my apnea surgery and it was no help at all. I had a sleep study done about a year later and the apnea was unchanged. The doctor I see for fms on a regular basis wanted me to get another opinion to see if further surgery could help so I saw Dr. Sims, an ENT who does surgery for apnea. When he examined me he could not really tell what kind of surgery Dr. Colin did. Dr. Colin has moved & is no longer in this area. Dr. Sims said I do not need to leave the apnea untreated but the only surgery he thinks might benefit me would be very drastic. They would have to break my jaw and move it forward & my jaws would be wired together afterward. I have talked to several people who had this surgery and it is no picnic and not always entirely successful. I really do not want to have this surgery and I cannot sleep with the C Pap so what do you do?
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