Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation For Osa

[john999]

I met today with the doctor that does the implant surgery for the Inspire sleep apnea pacemaker. I met the first two indications for the implant surgery: I am not too fat and the CPAP therapy has not worked well for me over time. Now the third indication is the doctor has to knock me out with a surgical anesthetic and look down my throat to see exactly how my apnea is happening. If my airway is completely collapsing in a certain way then the pacemaker won't help me they believe. If my airway is only partially collapsing they it will help. It is just something to do with the actual mechanics of my OSA. This part I did not know about until I consulted with the doctor who will do the implant surgery. The pacemaker device is about the size of a old silver dollar and costs $20,000. If I do qualify I hope Medicare and my Blue Cross with potentially pay. My doctor has OSA but says he can't use the device because he is too fat. He says the surgery is really not that big of a deal but the actual medical device is what makes the whole procedure cost $30,000. I swear if it will help me I will find the money if insurance won't pay. I have had the CPAP for three years and it has never worked for me. I might try the dental device but that costs $2500 and is for mild OSA. I have severe OSA. I am not selling this device or working for Inspire, but this will be a miracle for millions of us who don't tolerate the CPAP. If you have CPAP pressure over 17 I can tell you that it is like a hurricane blowing down your throat. I could use my CPAP as a leaf blower. In years to come these devices will replace the CPAP/BIPAP.

John

[georgiapapa]

John,

Good luck to you. I hope you qualify for the inspire system. Hopefully, medicare and blue cross will at least pay part of the costs.

[Philip Rogers]

John - do you have a sleep doctor outside of the VA? Mine has been great in finding me a mask! I have a mustache and goatee and use the FX nasal pillows. Took me a while to get used to it. I even shaved all facial hair and still couldn't get a mask to fit. I dropped 30lbs and he was able to drop the pressure on my BiPap and now it works great. But my civilian doc specializes in sleep apnea. Great guy!! Forget the VA!!!!!!!!! I'd think long and hard before I'd consider surgery. jmo

pr

[john999]

I do have a civilian sleep doctor. He referred me to the doctor doing the Inspire surgery. Nasal pillow won't work for me because I would need 3 hour surgery to rebuild my nose and do some work on my sinus. That would still not cure my OSA. If I could lose about 50 lbs I would not have apnea I think, but that is hard to do as the surgeon who discussed Inspire with me could attest. This guy is a doctor and he is 100lbs overweight. It is killing him and he knows it. Losing weight for some is hard as hell. They may be able to go on starvation diet for 6 months and drop 50lbs but they can't keep it off with out some kind of surgery to shrink the gut. My sister had a heart attack at age 64 and had some kind of surgery to shrink or disconnect her gut. Maybe that will save her? Heart disease tends to run in my family. We all take cholesterol medications.

John

[Vync]

Hey John,

Did you talk with your doc about the pillar procedure? (see info I posted in your previous topic).

[rootbeer22]

john999

I have severe OSA and some of the same issues you appear to have and I've been talking to a team of OSA Doctors recently about trying to get the Inpire II for me also? My OSA was diagnoised in Service towards the end of my Army Career. I've asked a Prominent VA Sleep Doctor to consider using me as a test case for the VA so other vets may be able to have the same opportunity? It's 30K operation and certainly not cheap but a few other companies are in trials in Europe and the same technology is working according to the current reports. I've been hoping I can get my insurance and the VA to share the costs if I can get it finally approved? Frankly, I've tried absolutely everything that one can and this may be the last option for me? I'd give a $1000.00 for one night's sound sleep and I'm not kidding. I've talked with my OSA Doc's about the other surgical options like breaking my jaw and repositoning it (which changes my appearnace) to all of the way over to the other extereme of doing a trechiotomy (which I absolutely do not want)! There's no place in the Seattle Area to get the Inspire II but they are doing at the USC Medical School in LA. So pleeas keep in touch and let me know how you are progressing and I will do the same for you on the efforts to obtain the Inpire II technology...