The saga continues

I'm back at the blog, 6 months have passed since my surgery. Updates first: My ear cleared up about a month ago, still fills when I blow my nose, but it re-drains, so I'm very happy to be able to hear again.

I'm still numb in the chin and roof of the mouth. I think my chin has regained a little more feeling, but its not full feeling. The roof of my mouth I think it still totally numb. I'm thinking I'm never going to get that back.....but I have hopes.

I had my sleep study, and went to my 6th month checkup. The good news, my doctor is a comedian. In relaying to me the results he said with a straight face that my sleep apnea events pre-surgery was 69 per hour. And post-surgery, 63!!! Not very much improvement right!! So after he sees the puzzled look on my face, he says...just messing with you.....5.3. So yes, 5.3 events per hour. 62.7 less events per hour! I'm cured, I have the report to prove it.

So I'm Cured!!??? I'm one of the 90+% success stories. Well except for the reclusion. My jaw muscles have pulled my lower jaw back a little bit opening my bite a bit. I'm now going to have to go see a orthodontist to see if that can be corrected. Of course at my own expense, health insurance isn't going to pay for this!! And if Orthodontics can't....another minor surgery can. My first question to the Dr. "what do YOU consider a minor surgery?". His reply was only the top jaw would be moved again. Since its easier to move and less complex because it it stationary.....sounds like fun....eh? I don't know if I would do this "minor" surgery if all it would fix is my ability to eat a bologna sandwich!

I still have issues with my looks, I can't get over the fact that my face looks different. I'm just not used to seeing myself in the mirror every day and looking different than I have my whole life. I suppose I'll get used to it, but after 6 months I still haven't!

What else can I say....the sleep is great....my wife doesn't have to listen to me snore, I feel more rested than I have in years. Its been a wild ride, I can't recommend this to anyone, it has not been pleasant. But it surely will change your life, it has change mine, for the better. Side effect aside it has been worth it. I'm confident that this decision has added years to my life both in health and in time not lost to worthless sleep. Maybe more to come..... I see my normal dentist next week and then a Ortho consult, sometime after that. Looks like the road keeps going for now!

My Bimax recovery@ 13 weeks.

At 13 weeks post op, I found myself back in Ann Arbor, Michigan for my next appointment at the oral maxillofacial surgery dept at the University Hospital. This was the day they told me I would be free of the arch bars and bands. Could it be true.....well.....time would tell. We waited for 2 hours before we were seen by a Doctor. Of course it was by an Attending Doctor and after discussing my history and my problems, he said he had to check with Dr. Helman for final approval.

Of course he was not in the department, he "stepped out" and we had to wait again. Another seemingly eternity passed and I got the approval!! I was getting unwired. Of course my first question was, if it was going to hurt. The Doc says of course it would and that numbing it would be just as painful due to the amount of shots it would take. So I was destined to be tortured with my wife sitting by watching with a big smile on her face.

So it began, he started on the top left, un-twisting the wires that wrapped around my teeth and through my gums. Then he clipped them with wire cutters and ripped them out one at a time. So I should be screaming in pain about now right????? Well......I didn't, I sat there as he tugged and pulled. I could taste the blood as it was flowing down into the back of my mouth. Meanwhile my wife and Dr. Kloostra talked of their favorite TV shows. Then came the comment....."wow your a pretty tough guy!" he says. Apparently most people squirm, scream, and cringe at every pull. I sat there with no pain.....why you ask, well. My whole roof of my mouth is still numb due to the nerve damage from when they cut my upper jaw off and moved it forward. It was more painfull for him to tug and pull my lips back to get access to the back of my mouth than it was to have the wires ripped from my gums.

Then came the bottom teeth. Well this was a little different. I have more feeling in my lower jaw than my top, and yes it did hurt. Not bad, I was still the tough guy, but I actually had to work at tuning out the pain. But it was over quickly, thank goodness!!! I was free of wires.

So they measured how far my mouth could open, 20mm. Whoo hoo! a whole 20mm. But I won't be eating right away, all my gums are spewing blood, who wants to eat with a bloody mouth. I spend the next 1o minutes or so rinsing my mouth out with cold water. Finally it stopped bleeding and I was done. Whats next....3 month follow up and a sleep study.

Oh, and did I mention I still have the ongoing issues. Plugged inner ear, numbness in various areas of chin, lips and the roof of my mouth. Strange pains, sore jaw joints, sore teeth. 13 weeks + and I'm still recovering. Looking forward to the day when I can say I feel normal. Its a long road, but one that I'm already glad I'm on. Sleep has been wonderful! I'm looking forward to what I think will be my last sleep study. I can't wait to see the piece of paper that says what I already know......I'm cured of my Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea!!!

Bimax = Maximum? how about Bimax = Minimum

After 10 weeks of post surgery healing I found myself back at U of M hospital, Ann Arbor, MI. This is the day I might get to open my mouth. I was pretty anxious to see what was going to happen, I sat in the dental chair that I've become so familiar with over the past 6 months and proceeded to talk with the Dr. about my healing. What hurts, what is numb, how is my sleeping, inner ear pain / fluid. Then it came down the question of if I was going to open my mouth today, the Dr. resident was saying yes, we would put on some weaker bands that would allow me to open my mouth, but he needed the blessing of Dr. Helman, the department head, and master sleep apnea MMA/BIMAX surgeon. Except one thing, the resident miscalculated my time and told him it was 9.5 weeks, and we were really at ten, so when Dr. Helman came and said they were going to keep me wired shut, I was like....no......its been 10 weeks. With a little discussion of dates we convinced him and he gave his blessing.

Moments later, they removed the bands, and he told me to open. I tried to open and basically could not. It only moved a tiny bit, millimeters....... and it hurt......the muscles and joints that had not been used in 10 weeks failed to much of anything. This is expected I guess. The Dr. said this is normal and that it will get better as I use them. So I was sent home the promise that in another 2 weeks they would remove my arch bars and bands for good. Yay!!! Of course I get to scheduling and find out they don't have and opening for 3 weeks. Grrr.... but I've lasted this long and now that I'm able to open I think this last 3 weeks will be a cake walk (mmmm speaking of cake, maybe I can eat some!! )

On the way home I tried to eat french fries from McDonald's....couldn't even get a fry into my mouth....so I ate soup when I got home, this was not what I had in mind. I was hoping for a buffet and extreme eating!! The next day however was another story. I was able to eat scrambled eggs, and oatmeal, WITHOUT a blender involved. THIS IS PROGRESS!!!! Mind you it took me an hour to eat an egg and a small bowl of oatmeal, but I was VERY happy to have some real food sitting in my stomach. Its the simple things that make life what it is......eating eggs brought me extreme joy. Something that has eluded me for 10 weeks.

As of this writing I'm now 10 weeks and 4 days. I'm still not opening wide to chomp through any food, but its getting a little better every day. I can open nearly twice as wide as I could on day one. I actually fit some buttered toast in my mouth and bit it. Small steps I guess. So the Bimax surgery some extremes and in the end stretch, the minimum opening is the current extreme you focus on.

Bimax = maximum discomfort

8 and 1/2 weeks past my Bimax surgery. I'm a mostly functional human being again. There are some exceptions. My body gets wore out pretty quick most days. I think it is mostly due to being down so long. Laying around a lot in the early weeks has led to fatigue now that I'm active. I'm still not eating solids, the liquid diet is no fun. Pain is still limited to the teeth area. Numbness is still a factor, although I think I'm getting a little more feeling in my left lower chin. I'm hoping for a full recovery on the nerve damage. Overall I'm still pretty miserable though.
The Bimax surgery (aka MMA) does a real number on you comfort wise.

I'm still very cautious about getting hit in the chin, worried if I get bumped it's going hurt and possibly do some damage. I went down a water slide the other day, and hit my butt on the pool bottom. I felt a little bit of pain in the jaw, the jostle was enough to remind me I'm still healing.

So I have an appointment in 1 1/2 weeks. Looking forward to the possibility of removing or loosening the bands so I can open my mouth even a little. I still find looking in the mirror is strange. My face I think is settled into what appears to be my final new look. I look different. Most say they notice I lost weight, only 1 or 2 people I know, said they most likely wouldn't recognize me if they didn't know it was me. I've not been on a scale in a couple weeks, so I'm not sure of any more weight loss. My guess, maybe 35-40 by now...only a guess.

My sleep still appears to be good, I'm curious to have a follow up sleep study to prove that I'm "cured".

Back to what is still bothering me......my sinuses. My inner ears are still full. Making hearing a chore. Talking is hard too. All I hear is myself, and you can't talk at the same time as anyone else as your own voice is amplified and overpowers anyone else talking in the room. This brings new meaning to "he like to hear himself talk!" Only I don't really....I rather not talk or listen to myself talk.

So what can I tell you about 8 weeks plus? It's still very frustrating, keeping positive is hard, pain is minimal, the desire to chew food is extreme. I'm not back to normal yet, and it feels like it will never happen, even though I know it will.

PS. I found most restaurants will blend their soups for you...sometimes you have to ask for the manager to get it done(Applebees). But most are very accommodating.

Clearing the sinus of a elephant?

7 Weeks post BI-MAX operation and I'm still wired shut. The good part.....I still think I'm sleeping much better...My total weight loss is around 30 pounds. I'm getting around much better than I have been.

The bad part...well... NOT EATING REAL FOOD. Liquid diet gets really old. Any food I see looks good. To smell them makes it worse. It's torture to watch someone eat a cheeseburger. I was watching "Survivor" and even the rice they were eating looked good!! "Survivor food", who would ever think that looks good???? ME!!! Chewing food brings more pleasure than you realize. I know people enjoy eating, look at our society, we are a pleasure eaters...all of us. But take away just one small thing...the ability to chew your food, you gain a whole new perspective on eating. You can live on a liquid diet, solids are NOT required to sustain life, but I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy, its just not any fun.

As for other physical issues. My teeth ache....all the pressure of wires around every tooth, metal bars along my gum lines, and rubber bands holding my jaws together makes my teeth hurt. For anyone who has had braces, its very similar to that pain. Lips are still on the dry cracked side....without your tongue to help moisten them from time to time, they get dried out, crack, peal, and bleed (if your pick at them like it do).

So then there is the sinus issues next. This surgery really messes up your sinuses. It changes your whole face. It was best described to me by my family doctor. Basically you sinuses are like a fluid pump, with your jaw movement as the pump. So guess what, with your jaw wired shut the pump isn't working, the sinus fluid has no place to go. And where is it going with me? In my inner ear canals. This is a major annoyance. Its like your ears become amplifiers at a rock concert for all the sounds in your body. Breathing, heartbeat, gurgles, and talking is LOUD. Blowing your nose, well that is no fun, it puts positive pressure in your sinus and causes more to go into your ears. The fix for this has been to recline, drink something, or plug your nose, close your mouth and suck in...this pulls it out....but only temporarily. Hello decongestant, now I think the people at the pharmacy think I'm cooking meth. I got a bottle of psuedofedrine that could clear the sinus of an elephant!

So during the first few weeks, I had a pretty solid pain on the back side of my right ear, it hurt pretty bad when I touched it. I mentioned it at my 2 week follow up. The surgeons told me it was normal to have ear pain. And blew it off without really looking at it. The pain almost went completely away, but with all this inner ear pain I touched that spot again and I felt just a hint of pain. And it was squishy to touch. Come to find out there was a large cyst back there full of blood and puss. Went to the Dr. and she drained and cultured it....thinking it may have been infected she put me on anti-biotics. Best we can think is that this was the place where they CLAMPED MY HEAD TO THE TABLE, so they could stand on my face an saw my skull into 4 pieces, and the trauma to my ear made the cyst!

On the good and bad front is the remaining numbness. Most of my upper lip and nose area has feeling has come back, and in the last few days, I've started to feel things on my lower right lip and chin, left side is still very much dead feeling. Although, again in the last few days, I've felt little twinges in the left side. I think this is a good sign I will regain all feeling in my face, one can only hope. The lack of feeling is strange......its like a dental numbing gone horribly wrong!

My family doctor asked me one of the all important questions. Was it worth it? My answer at this point is, "I think it will be". Right now, I'm still pretty miserable as the above describes, but its part of the healing process. Long term, the big picture.....Despite the severe interruption in life, the pain, the numbness, the altering of how your face is shaped, the lack of food, the increased stress on your spouse, the unknown, I think that long term sleep will level it out! I've given up a couple months of my life for what I hope is a extension on my life and a better quality of life. Time will tell!

I could sleep standing on one leg with one arm tied behind my back!!!

5 weeks and 2 days after my surgery, how do I feel? Not great. Some sort of normal-ness is returning, I guess, although, not really. There is nothing normal about not feeling your entire chin. I think the feeling in my upper lip and face is returning nicely, but not the chin, its throbs most of the time, but how I feel it throb without any feeling is beyond me.

I notice it at night the most. When I'm trying to get to sleep....all I feel is the throbbing, makes it hard to get to sleep. Hard to sleep, wow those are words that aren't in my vocabulary!! With severe sleep apnea getting to sleep was never an issue. I could sleep standing on one leg with one arm tied behind my back!! It was the actual sleep, that didn't do me any good. Now I've traded it in for some major face re-arangment, the inability to fall asleep and some good sleep once I do nod off...... I know this whole ordeal is for the better, that is why I chose it, but it has not been easy.

So back to the other stuff, well, normality, not really. I still look in the mirror and barely recognize myself. My face seems bigger maybe wider, yet I've lost 30 pounds. My nose although not as upturned as it was when my swelling was huge, is still upturned a bit. Its just not me.......I suppose it will take time to get used to the new me. My wife calls me her new husband..........I look that different. I was expecting to be a bit different, but I guess the reality of it is still a shock no matter what you have in your mind prior to the surgery.

So I've spent most of 4 weeks in bed. Although other people who have had this surgery and blogged about it, say they were up and moving after a couple weeks, I had no motivation to get out of bed. In my mind, I just wanted to sleep as much of this ordeal away as possible. Kinda like going on long car trips as a kid (way before DVD players and video games). If you slept the whole way it was great, you fall asleep, when you wake up, your there. If you stayed up, the boredom set in and you were miserable, and your parents were miserable listening to you!!! My idea, was the longer I stayed in bed and slept, the sooner I'd be back to normal. I can't really do that anymore, I've had to get back to work. So what is normal now. I can only be up for short amounts of time, the more I'm up and moving about, I feel my face start getting puffier and achy, so I try to do things in short spurts as to not wear myself out.

Since I've lost 30 pounds so far, I guess I'm a bit weak. I tried going to the pool with my family. That didn't turn out so good. I floated around the pool tried to take it easy, got out, sat in the hot tub for 10 minutes or so, was feeling ok. Got up to take a shower, and that is when normal went bye bye. I started feeling dizzy, nauseous........boom.....I passed out. Woke up sitting on the floor of the shower stall. I stood back up, and boom.....passed out again. Woke up again sitting on the floor. Luckily, I fell against one of the 3 walls both times and just slid down the wall to my butt. This could have been bad!!! What if I fell and hit my face??? would my jaws have re-broke in the crash, could this negate my surgery?? Or worse....I could have got an even worse head wound.....work for Dr.'s and hear about subdural hematomas.......this will make any bump to the head a nightmare!!! I think it was a combination of things that caused me to pass out. 1. I was really hungry. I hadn't eaten (drank) any food for a few hours. 2. the swimming / cold water wore me out. 3. The hot tub was HOT, which lowers your blood pressure, then when I got out. Well it dropped even more, hello passout. Google passing out and hot tubs, I've never heard of this before but I guess it happens. So, not a normal trip to the pool for me, more like a trip to scaresville!!!!

So, the pain.....mostly gone.....the more I talk and am up I do get some aches in the jaws.....also a headache seems to come up when I over do it. Drooling is much less, now that my face isn't as swollen. Eating liquids is still a challenge, I can't wait to chew food again. Having inner ear pain and sinus problems is not fun. I've had liquid in my inner ear canals and shooting pains in my ears at times, even this far along, although less, it's still a problem. Losing 30 pounds in 5 weeks is a bonus, I could stand to lose another 10-15 pounds, time will tell on that one. Lip and tongue sores due to the hardware are a come and go thing. Very similar to having orthodontics / braces. As mentioned above lack of feeling is anoying. Sleep once I get to sleep is good I think (sleep study should prove this, I'm kinda looking forward to what I hope is my final sleep study). Keeping positive has been tough. As much as this is a physical intrusion on your body, it is the same amount a mental intrusion, I didn't think I would affect me as much as it has. I guess I still have the superman mentality of a young male, that it won't be that bad, I'm Superman!!

Next week at the 6 week mark, I get to go see the surgeons again for another progress checkup. I'm hoping to get some looser bands and be able to open my jaws a little for the first time. We will see.

I can't wait till I'm done with this ordeal!!!!! Until then I will keep trying to adapt to myself being completely different, in so many ways, than I was just 5 weeks and 2 days ago.

Out of order?

I'm now beyond week 3, I know I skipped a couple weeks in the blog...I'll fill them in later. Overall...this experience is a supreme struggle. Now after 3 weeks, I can say I'm feeling better in that I have very little jaw pain and I'm getting some of my energy/appetite back. The main problem now is ear pain and my most recent addition of pain, a sore on my tongue, and of course with my mouth banded shut...I cant get at it to even look at it. Then there is the chin throbbing. Good thing I still have some oxycodone left....this takes the pain away...period, good stuff. Now I'm not one for drugs... I take what I need and try to get off them asap. I've been doing half doses as needed. I hope these pains are even more temporary than the jaw pains.

Swelling is under control, I still have some, but its not going up and down as it was in past weeks. Looking forward to the day when my face returns back to normal....or at least the the new normal, I have no idea that that will be. This messes with the mind....
I'm now drinking from a cup instead of the syringe, this makes eating a bit easier, and life a bit easier for my wonderful wife.

So I don't feel so "out of order" but its very difficult to get anything done that requires me to sit upright or stand. Its the DROOL. With a lip you can't feel, and a malformed mouth because of the remaining swelling, its like a drool faucet. Remember the numb face you last had at the dentist appointment and then stretch that numbness out for a long period of time(possibly forever!) You end up drooling on everything you touch, this is very frustrating, VERY!!! This too, I'm hoping is very temporary.

So its down to some excruciating ear pain, a sore on my tongue, a throbbing chin and the mental game. Let me tell you about the mental game. No matter how much you read and try to prepare yourself for the mental game, it messes with your head. All I want is to open my mouth and eat like a normal person and I can't. So what do you do when your sitting around in bed, watch TV, and what is on every 10 minutes? Commercials, and not just any commercials, food commercials......pure torture. Then as I mentioned before, the normal face? Looking at yourself in the mirror not knowing what your going to look like is a mind blowing.

So the good parts!!! There is a positive side to the surgery. I sleep!!! My wife sleeps!! And I dream, dreams are a rare thing when you have OSA. I still think it will be worth it, its just a struggle to keep positive over such a long healing period.

Surgery Day

This is my surgery updates provided by my wife while I was being operated on.

8:40am In the OR, I'm lights out getting my teeth wrapped in bars and hooks. Apparently this is long and tedious. Got my Grills!!!

10:51am The first cutting begins

2:00pm Another update, surgery is going well, just taking a long time.

4:45pm in the words of my wife: he is out and doing well. Normal blood loss. They got his jaws out 12mm which is the max they could do so they are very happy about that. Tonight his mouth is open so he can breath. Tomorrow he will be wired shut. We will be able to see him when he comes to completely and is moved to the ICU



5:00pm
I'm just waking up, normally they call patients of this surgery "tomato heads" because we come out swollen and BLOODY. Now I guess I didn't fit this so well I wasn't too bloody. Apparently I only lost 1 liter of blood.... I remember hearing the guy to my right possibly a nurse tell me I'm just waking up and doing well. I remember asking to see Becky. This is the recovery area. My airway was doing will so they didn't wheel me into the ICU. This is another good sign. I was in and out of consciousness and in my room by around 9pm. 4th floor room 433 was my home for the next few days. Becky and my Dad left late that night and Becky promised to return the day.

My mental state prior to surgery.

March 2nd, 2010
My wife's blog and point of view
So here it is, 9 days left. I'm trying not to think about the barbarian procedure that is looming ahead of me. It's scary to think of what they are going to do to my face...it boggles the mind. I'm freaked out. But staying focused on the end result. The positive has to be my focus. I went for another appointment for my dental impressions, and measurements. They are creating models of my head and jaws to prepare for surgery. They also took many pictures. I will be taking my own for sure. As I would like to see the changes to my face. Again, another scary thought. One day I look one way, the next I'll be changed forever. More to come as my thoughts focus more and more on the pending procedure.

3/9/2010

2 more days. It's getting very REAL. I'm scared out of my mind. The only thing that keeps me sane is the focus on the end and the fact that this ball is rolling and in motion. I think of it now as a moving freight train that I can't stop. I can't even imagine what its going to be like, I've read some blogs, I've heard the recovery process from Dr.'s but will I be different? Will it be worse than they say, will it be better? No one can tell. I just have to wait to find out, pray and hope it goes well and I heal quickly. Then think about not being able to open your mouth for SIX weeks!!! They say that it can drive someone with claustrophobia crazy, I'm not claustrophobic, but will this make me crazy?
Think about this at all hours of the day and night and see what your mind comes up with!! What to do, but wait!

Warning...this may be a bit graphic, if you don't like this stuff you may want to skip this section. I know it would give me this willies.

So here is what I know. I will be in the OR for 5 hours, they are going somehow, cut the bone of my top jaw away from the rest of my skull, then precisely move the bone and my top teeth forward about 1cm and then screw in very small titanium plates on both sides. Then they are going to somehow precisely split my lower jaw in a way that they can slide it forward the same 1cm and still have it touch bone to bone so it can heal, and then wire it to the top jaw with things like braces. So then I get stitched up, and if all goes well sent to the ICU where I get monitored closely for at least 24 hours if not more. Sounds like fun eh?
So assuming all goes well, I'll be out of the hospital after 3-5 days. Then I'm told my Jaws will be wired shut for 6 weeks. I will eat a liquid diet with a large syringe and a flexible tube that I get to squirt protein drinks into the back of my throat. My face will be swollen, my sinuses will be completely screwed up due the cutting into the sinus cavity. "You will be miserable for 2 months" was the exact words out of the Dr's mouth. Did I forget to mention that all this cutting a moving will stretch the nerves in my chin and cheeks. Causing loss of feeling/numbness. This loss could be permanent! Or it could take months to years to return!!! Imagine that? Still, I focus on the future and my quality of life / health. I think it will be worth it in the end. What else can I think?
May 11th 2010 = Ground zero

Pre Opp, my wife describes it just as I would read here -- Link to Becky's blog.

After I said my goodbye's (in my mind, for possibly the last time) they wheeled me to the OR room. I remember sliding myself over to the even smaller OR bed and them telling me I should be centered on it, I then made some comment about the light possibly. and then nothing.......

The Journey of my BIMAX (MMA) Surgery

So my story begins in 2003 when my wife noticed during my snoring sleep that I stopped breathing. Upon mentioning this to my Dr. I was referred to a local pulmonologist who prescribed a sleep study. My study showed that I had OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). It was pretty severe for a 6'7" fairly fit male who was only 29 years old. Of course my Pulmonologist recommended CPAP and mentioned oral appliances, BIMAX, and others as a possible surgical fix. So I was given the standard band aid, a CPAP machine set at 6psi of pressure, a passive humidifier, and a nose mask.

Well the nose mask didn't work so well for me, I was just loosing all the air pressure out of my mouth and waking up with dry mouth and still very little good sleep. I'm by nature a mouth breather with a high arch palate and narrow nasal passages, on top of a broken, crooked nose from a sledding accident when I was a kid. So I went for another sleep study and was given a full face mask. This worked ok for a while, but I found I removed the mask at night or didn't wear it at all due to the un comfort of air being pumped into my body and what I think is a sub conscious felling of claustrophobia. I somewhat investigated oral appliances but couldn't get anywhere with the only dentist in the area who offer it as they couldn't get either the medical or dental insurance to pay for it. So I suffered on. Dry mouth led to a active humidifier. More suffering, led to a visit to and ENT who only performed UPPP surgery. He didn't recommend it for me, said it would most likely be unsuccessful in curing my OSA. So I suffered on. Now google sleep deprivation......this is serious.......

Fast forward to 2010. My CPAP is now on 10psi and another full face mask has failed to keep me from pulling it off at night, every morning I wear the mask, I wake up with a barrage of explosive gas from an entire night of being pumped full of air.....My last sleep study shows I have Severe OSA..... I'm finally fed up with being sleep deprived and all its symptoms, as well as keeping my wife up at night, I decided to seriously pursue the bimax surgery. But I couldn't find anyone in my area who performed the surgery. I called many ENT's, Pulmonologists, and Dentists and no one knew of any local surgeons that performed it. So my Dr. referred me to the University of Michigan Sleep Apnea Clinic. Here I met with ENT's, Oral Surgeons, Neurologist, had a nose scope, a CT of the head, and they made a determination that the BIMAX was the procedure that gives me the best chance at a cure. I was then prepped by one of the Oral surgeons of all the horrors that are associated with the procedure. In spite of the horrors, I've made the commitment to move on. Today is February 3rd, 2010 and my surgery is scheduled for March 11, 2010. I'm very nervous, wondering if this is a good idea, wondering if I'll loose feeling in my face? Many worries, and hopes of a cure.