Thanks, Christine and Paul, for your replies! I'm going to be very cautious as I deal with this apnea issue, since I do NOT want to have yet another major surgery (this will be surgery #11 for me), especially in my mouth/head! My OC doc here -- ENT who specializes in head and neck cancers -- is going to coordinate with my sleep specialist, and I expect I'll have an appointment -- or several -- with the OC guy as I go through making this decision. I had forgotten about the radiation/healing thing, Christine! Thanks for the reminder! I'm sure my OC doc will be super-cautious about that, and I'm also sure he's on top of things like oxygen dives and whatever other precautions need to be taken, IF I go the surgery route.

In the meantime, I'm attempting to sleep on my side (with this crazy-long spinal fusion -- not comfortable!), as I think the apnea is not an issue when I'm on my side. I'm not sure of that -- will have to investigate through having them add a side-sleeping portion to my upcoming sleep study.

I'm trying to look at all of this as a mountainous bike ride (50+ miles). That's what I did in my previous life (I mean before about five years ago, when things really came undone). Big hills; big descents. Just have to settle into the climbs and take it slow. As I used to say in my head, during hilly races, "Slow and steady wins the race." It worked, too.

Thanks, all.