I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. At the same time, I had a question that was hoping to be answered. Before I begin I would like to get a few things off my chest. I'd like to say thanks to the many folks that make this forum possible as well as the many that have added their input into the post labeled 'Recovery from UPPP surgery.' I read what felt like hundreds of pages of advice and had not seen one ounce of malevalent words until the last few pages where the post was subsequently closed. I've been on many other forums before and have seen malicious words attack 'newbies of the board' as they were simply posting innocent questions. With that said, again congrats to the moderators on keeping a peaceful forum. I'm glad that the forum is still up because I feel it contains a plethora of information for people enduring the pains that I am currently under and gives solice to those that need support. I pray that it never gets deleted. The amount of support that I had read was simply amazing.
But I digress. To give you a simple background, my real name is Ray (I know my ID may seem tough to say) and I live in the IE in southern California. I am in the health care profession but am in no way a physician of any sort. Although I would have to say that about 30 of my closest friends are doctors or dentists, none are well versed in sleep apnea. I'm a 26 y/o male that is about 5'6 and weighing about 205 lbs pre op. I don't look overweight, which ensues a 'thick' figure, but I am very overweight (obviously). And I guess I have an 18 inch neck. This hopefully will give y'all a better idea of what I physically look like and thus wil be able to help me out a little bit.
Apparently I've had OSA my entire life and its just been getting progressively worse as time had passed. My friends in college told me to get a sleep study and I finally succumbed in 2006. I was diagnosed with severe OSA and was prescribed a BiPAP with pressures of 24/20 (or is it 20/24, not too sure). I was given a humidifier but obviously was unable to tolerate the machine at all. I had it gathering dust for a while before I realized that my sleep was slowly killing me and something had to be done. I went to a DDS that specialized in sleep apnea and he tested me and told me that my airway is only taking in 1/3 of the air that the average male should be taking in. Less, when I sleep. I went to a DDS thinking that I may want to have the piller palatal treatment performed.
I later went to my ENT who recommended UPPP surgery. I did a little research, not a lot. I'm not sure what my AHI is, y'all refer to it quite a few times in this board, but my RDI was 69 (I don't know if there is any correlation there at all). In any case, I went through surgery 7/9/08 and today is day 9. I must admit that many people from that previous forum were correct in what will work and what won't.
I haven't eaten much throughout the recovery period. Things have been getting better slowly, as expected. I was given amoxicillin as an antibiotic and lortab elixir for the pain. Everything was going along ok until last night. Every time I would partake of water or medicine, I would get a stinging pain, like I had an open wound in my throat (I know, I know, I just had surgery right?). And sleeping all night, I would swallow saliva and taste traces of blood. Obviously there was no river of blood at which point I would have gone to the ER. But now it is morning and it seems to have subsided just a little bit. I still taste blood (a little), with every swallow. I know the MD explained that I would bleed within 24 hours as well as 7-10 days afterward. I'm wondering if this is just the stitches, or if anyone else is going through this? I'm not eating much (a regular jamba juice takes me a few days to eat). I'm running out of pain meds but I only seem to using them throughout the evenings. I usually don't take pain meds during the day for the past 2 days as the pain has been at a constant 4 out of 10. Any advice? Anyone out there?
Ray
