Introduction & Background

My MMA Surgery is T-Minus 60 Days and Counting

Introduction:

Greetings from John in Phoenix Arizona. I am approximately 60 days away from Maxillomandibular Advancement surgery (MMA surgery). I was so impressed by Roger’s blog (http://www.rogerarrick.com/mma) on his MMA surgery (May 2005 – Sept. 2008) that I could not resist the temptation to follow in his excellent footsteps and write my own blog. Please excuse my in-experience. I have never even read a blog before Roger’s, let alone write one.

On December 7th, 2009, I am headed to Palo Alto, California to the offices of Dr. Kasey Li for my MAA surgical consultation. I am so excited. That may sound strange to some of you. Here is a guy 60 years old, headed into major surgery on his upper & lower jaws and breathing airway and he is excited! I will try to explain as we go.

Background:

I should start with some background. I have lived in Phoenix, Arizona for the past 28 years. I am a retired U.S. Treasury Special Agent. I am currently self-employed as a forensic financial investigator. I am married (for 35 years) and we have four grown adult married daughters (and six grand children). “That’s right,” I have lived with 5 women for over 25 years.

Now on to my more serious situation: Three years ago I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). They advised me that my airway was being obstructed during my sleep and I stopped breathing for at least 10 seconds 47 times an hour. Most of you if not all of your reading this blog know all about sleep apnea, so I won’t bother you with much more of the details.

On more with a bit of background that most of you will find familiar and disturbing: My symptoms of tiredness, daytime sleepiness, mode swings, depression, low energy, lack of concentration, etc. have been present for the past 15 years or more. For the first twelve years I saw psychologists, psychiatrists, family practice physicians and other medical specialists who unanimously declared I was suffering from “chemical depression.” Following their advice and prescriptions, I took antidepressants, uppers ????, testosterone injections, sleeping pills, some pill that wakes you up in the morning (I don’t remember the name of them), vitamins, and minerals. I read self help books on depression. I continuously returned to the doc’s advising them the drugs did not help much. I changed “psych” doctors every 3 years. I changed antidepressant every 6-9 months (or sooner if a new one came out).

Thank God for the last psychiatrist I saw. After a few months on antidepressants and no improvement, he saw me for a follow up and said these wonderful words “John, you don’t fit the profile but I think you should go and have a sleep study conducted.” He further explained individuals who have sleep apnea usually are overweight, may have a double chin and thick neck. None of these apply to me...well, I am 10-15 lbs. over weight. I had never heard of sleep apnea, sleep studies or some of the other terminology he used but he had my interest and I marched on. Oh, by the way I am an Ex-Marine.

I have always been a morning person. I am an early riser, anytime between 5-7 am and I am up, dressed and willing to go and do anything. Now I am wondering if that was not a predisposition but rather my sleep apnea waking me up early and also the fact that my energy was severely limited and therefore I only had enough energy for the first few hours of the day. Over the past several years, I guess my sleep apnea has gotten worse, because now when I get up at 5 or 6 am, I am awake but I have no energy or desire to do anything, except to go for donuts and coffee (after all I am retired law enforcement and just because I am retired doesn’t mean I gave up my morning ritual).

General Comments:

It’s funny how I can look back at my last 15 years and only now recognized what was really going on. I can honestly tell you that for the past 3 plus years every morning I woke up I felt terrible and just wanted the day to be over so maybe I would get a good night sleep and feel better the next day. I have told several people that if I wasn’t a religious person and I did not consider wanting to hurt my family members, I would have probably killed myself and be done with it. I would be willing to bet that there are many suicide cases out there that are a direct result of sleep apnea.

None of us who have sleep apnea and suffer from sleep deprivation are surprised when we hear that sleep deprivation is considered a torture method and is one of the primary tools used by the CIA and other governments to illicit information from terror suspects. And what about water boarding? Bring it on. It would be a welcome change from sleep deprivation.

It has been approximately a year now since this has happened, but there was a time when maybe one morning every 2-3 months that I would wake up and feel great. My words to myself and my wife would be: “Wow, this is what life is suppose to feel like.” I thank God for these few mornings, because they gave me insight to realize what I might be able to achieve one day. By the way I should mention that 10 years ago I was ordained a Permanent Deacon of Lay Profession in the Greek Orthodox Church. I have not been to seminary school (College). My theological training has been hands on and from reading Orthodox teachings.

One another point which bears mentioning is the reason I decided to write this blog was to hopefully help other sufferers of sleep deprivation, both those that know what they have and especially those that don’t know what they have. But as I write this blog I am learning and appreciating an additional reason for writing this. That is, it is making me feel better… and I have not even had the MMA surgery yet! I am now thinking if this writing is successful in helping others, that I may just give up my fairly good paying self employment forensic financial investigations and travel the country speaking at medical conferences (to doctors & medical providers & maybe even insurance providers). These are the people that come in contact with the diagnosed and un-diagnosed sufferers of sleep deprivation. Why should patients go years being miss-diagnosed as I was when they can be treated either by non-evasive CPAP therapy (and have immediate relief) or eventually by surgical means with significant improvement.

I have more to add at the start of this blog and will do so in a few days. I just wanted to get this blog started and see how it looks and feels.