As others have written, even back in my teenage years, I always felt tired. My mother would comment that I could sleep more than any person she knew. Into adulthood and the exhaustion, of course, continued.

I was in my late 20's the first time I went to an EENT. I had a CT scan done (pretty primitive back then) and went on allergy treatment. My EENT mentioned that I "might" have sleep apnea, but nothing more than that.

Fast forward to 1999. I am again suffering with bouts of chronic sinusitis and going into the EENT pretty often, and I discuss with him the years earlier mention of sleep apnea. He decides it's time for a new CT Scan. The difference in the films from those few years was incredible, now you can "see" so much more from a CT scan than you could 10 yrs ago.

Well the films showed that I had a birth defect of a reverse upper turbinate in my left nares, the #1 cause of my years of chronic sinusitis. But it also showed that my soft palate was markedly longer than the size of my head required.

My doc scheduled the sleep study for that week. After being "wired up" I didn't think I would ever manage to get to sleep, but I did, and woke up the next day, to find that I had to wait a few days to review the study with my doctor.

When we did review it, I was very taken aback to hear how loudly I snored throughout the night. It was confirmed that I had sleep apnea, although this many years later, I do not remember any of the "scores," it was serious enough that we immediately talked about the options.

My doctor knew me well enough that his recommendation was to go immediately to the surgical option. He knew I would never put up with a CPAP, and we still had the reverse turbinate in the nose to deal with.

I ended up having the surgery in January 2000, which ended up being quite nice insurance wise, the rest of the year I had no more deductibles.

I had a UPPP, until that time I still had all my tonsils, they are gone now, half of my soft palate was removed as well as my uvula. My reverse turbinate was repaired and all my sinus tissue was scraped clean of sinus disease. 45 minutes after going into surgery, I was in recovery.

I woke up talking and hungry. The doctor later said that I should have been the poster child for the procedure, as I did so well.

I had to spend one night at the surgery center, and during the night the "worst" part of the entire experience occurred, the removal of the packing. I am not going to gloss this over, it hurt like hell. I was amazed at the size of the sponges that had been in my nose, and still don't like considering how they managed to get all that in there in the first place.

I had to use a waterpick machine with a modified tip to rinse my sinuses out, using saline solution, for about 3 weeks before all the clots stopped and the healing was almost complete, but when it was, it was amazing to feel air travel through both sides of my head - I had never felt that before.

While the UPPP did cause me to learn to swallow without fluids coming through my nose (water fountains are still a challenge) and I had to learn to sing again (yea I am a singer) sue to the changes in the structure of my mouth and throat, the difference in both my sleep patterns and energy levels has been a glorious thing.

I can sleep, I can dream - you all do know that you don't dream if you don't reach REM sleep, so many of you know that apnea sufferers don't dream - I can wake up feeling rested and refreshed and have the energy to face each day. Sometimes I have a bit too much in the way of energy, but I wouldn't change it, not at all.

It's nine years since my surgery and the only regret I have is not having had the surgery years earlier.

All of you reading who are still battling sleep apnea, it is a personal decision, your choice of treatment, CPAP or surgery, and I respect that. I just wanted to let you know, that a lasting permanent option is out there. Of course, you should discuss your options with your doctor, my option may not be the one for you, but it was the correct choice for me and I am thankful that I had the surgery done.

Carol Hathaway
A FORMER Sleep Apnea sufferer