ENT wants to take my tonsils out now...I want a sleep study first...

Brocallie

My brother had bad tonsils and bad snoring as a teenager. By his mid twenties he was on blood pressure medicine. By his late 30's, his aorta dissected and he almost died. He got his sleep study a few months later. The snoring and the apnea had caused all of his issues. He did better once he got a CPAP but ultimately died from cardiac complications 4 years later. All because he didn't address the source of the snoring as a teen.

Sleep apnea is deadly. If a tonisillectomy will fix it--DO it.

Good luck.

Belly Kelly

thanks for the info. and so sorry to hear about your brother.

We don't know if I have apnea, and I am curious so that is why I asked about having the sleep study done.

However, having your tonsils out does not necessarily mean that the apnea would be gone (if I have it). Sometimes apnea is not caused by the tonsils.

Decisions....decisions...

In any case, I am having a physical tomorrow and will be having the sleep study done.

sjb

Hi there! well I read that the tonsils are there to help prevent infection lower down in the system and supposedly sort of catch bacteria, viruses or other pathogens. If a person weighs too much, the fat in the system can collect there in the throat area also. This can then cause the area to close up a bit more than it should especially at night during sleep. Oxygen deprivation to the brain can cause your IQ to lower and is not good for it. My relative has a Cpap machine to keep the airway open at night for breathing and he has learned to do it the healthy way without medicines in the system. In a sense I am surprised you received prednisone because they say it can lower the immune system which I would think might give trouble in a persons future. However perhaps the thinking was that because it reduces inflammation and swelling sometimes that he would use it for that purpose. I don't like prednisone much because I have seen terrible effects on people in my area who have used it. One lady was all swelled up and had a typical moonlike face. If you want I can relocate some posts on things I did to prevent many a sore throat for myself.

Belly Kelly

I no longer have the sore throat (see first post). I was put on the prednisone for only 20 days and it was to see if it reduced the swelling. I am no longer on it. My tonsils didn't change at all - like I had mentioned, they have been this way since I was a child.

sjb

I am glad you are no longer on it that is important.

bekka980

I'm on day 6 post-op from my tonsillectomy. I had mine out because of sleep apnea. My tonsils were large and I experience infections 4-5 times a year, but even then my doctor was skeptical to have the surgery done. That is, until I had my wisdom teeth removed and the oral surgeon witnessed the sleep apnea. Right away I saw the ENT and got put on the list.

If you have no other pre-disposing factors towards the sleep apnea, I'd say go for the surgery.
I didn't even realize how much sleep apnea was affecting my quality of life until post op. I used to snore terribly (people have compared it to a chainsaw lol), since surgery, I sleep silently! Also, I dream now! My sleep apnea would wake me before I got into a deep enough sleep to dream, I never realized until now! I've been dreaming every night and it's amazing.

The surgery is painful, I'm not going to lie to you, but already I'm seeing benefits and I'm only on day 6.

Hope this helps! Good luck!