Health

I am doing the following to improve my health (sleep apnea, among other things.)

• Getting ready to do another (home) sleep study. (Some doctors will let you do a simplified home sleep study these days, so you don’t actually have to go into a facility. Yay!) This will tell me how my blood oxygen levels are, and tell me how many apnea/hypopnea episodes I’m having.
• Per doctor’s advice, starting to take supplements of Iron, B12, Omega 3 and Folic Acid.
• Started getting more physical activity. (I’m not making any significant eating changes at the moment. More on that later.)
• Ordered-up a tongue-restraint mouthguard (intended to keep large tongues from blocking airways. Smart-ass remarks welcome.)
• Putting together some measurable health goals (besides weight. More on this later.)
• Having some nasal surgery done (see story below.)

Back in 1997, I had my tonsils and adenoids removed, then had the UPPP surgery (trimming of uvula and soft palate.) This was enough to treat my sleep apnea for several years. But over time, it came back.

In 2003, my doctor advised me that my adenoids had grown back. (“They can do that!?”) So I had them removed… again. Soon, I marveled at how well I could breathe through my nose, finally. That lasted for about six months. Then I was back to my same ol’ chronically congested self. (I’m a mouth-breather because it’s just not possible to breathe through my nose 90% of the time.)

Even after about two years of weekly allergy shots, I was still congested all the time. We also tried every possible decongestant, nasal spray and treatment.

So I had an interesting doctor’s appointment a couple weeks ago. He took a look back there, and figured-out (at least one of the reasons) why I still can’t breathe through my nose… there’s a lot of scar tissue still remaining from that second adenoid surgery. It was supposed to have cleared-out a long time ago… but instead it crusted-up and is now blocking my internal airways.

For that reason, I’ll be going under the knife. While I’m there, the doc will:

• Clear-out the 4-year old scar tissue from my last adenoidectomy.
• Laser-cauterize some of the tissue in my nasal turbinates.
• Clean-up some deviations in my nasal passages. (I don’t have a full-on deviated septum per se, but just some stuff that needs to be smoothed-out.)

I am really excited at the prospect of seeing some relief. I can’t even tell you what an awful state my health is in right now, on many, many fronts.