[island_dude]

You need to know a lot. I was diagnosed a couple of years ago with mild sleep apnea. Your numbers are a bit milder than mine were. I was on the CPAP machine for 9 months and found it very annoying. I started talking to an ENT surgeon about options. I was a good fit as far as the recommendation goes: Surgical options are only helpful to people who are in good shape, relatively young and have mild apnea. I would add the further point which is in your favor that having a visible issue helps a lot.

Now here is the part that you don't want to hear: I had all of these things going for me minus a really obvious physical obstruction. We decided to go ahead with the UPPP (don't ask me to spell this one out). It is a short and very painful procedure. I mean really painful. Your mileage will vary though. The initial level of discomfort is not so awful for a couple of reasons. The first is that you get really good drugs in the hospital and the pain is pretty much nuked by it. The second is that the pain builds up progressively over time. The worst pain I had was in my 9th day after surgery. I was already taking the strongest stuff they would let me take home. The doctor doubled the dose and it was barely enough. After the 10th day things got better pretty quickly. Eating is very unpleasant. I lost 20 pounds in a few weeks. It takes a long time before you will be able to eat anything really spicy. I still have issues and its been nearly a year.

You outcome might be good. My initial outcome was great. For the first three months I slept like a baby again. This was a passing condition and one day it was like a light switch. The quality of my sleep got really bad. Was given another sleep test and surprise, I went from being a mild pre surgery to a moderate. Every metric was worse, sometimes much much worse. Before the surgery, the CPAP helped, but I could get away with skipping it for days at a time with out significant issues. Not anymore. The worst part of this is that I have been interacting with someone who had the same experience and I was in denial. I though my situation was unique. No matter how much the guy tried to convince me other wise. Well, he was right and I was wrong. I pay for this error of judgment every single day.

Maybe you are a luck case and between your deivated septum and your tonsils you have a sure cure, but don't count on it. I was talking to one of the techs at the sleep center and he says he hasn't ever gotten anybody who's numbers have improved enough to "cure" them.

My advice: Do not rush into this. CPAP sucks, but there are worse things. Take your time and get other opinions before you leap. Once they do a UPPP on you, you will be officially out of surgical options. I wish you the best and I hope that you really are one of the lucky ones that can benefit from the procedures.