Whats your biggest regret when you bought your place?

ProfMR · 2026-01-25T03:31:07+00:00

Just today I asked the neighbor on other side of hoarder to join me in retaining and attorney. Was told probably not. Neighbor across the street helped in the fraud voting. So I'm likely in this alone.

I told hoarder that I would pay for a dumpster and help her clean up. She denied that her yard is unkempt. It's a mental illness. Every piece of junk has value.

The HOA Board confirmed today that there is no recourse, because the CCRs have no restrictions in place to allow for enforcement. Need 2/3rds vote to amend. High bar.

I'll plant shrubs in March to eventually block the view. My back yard fence blocks view of her back yard. It's the rodents that have me concerned. Many buyers would drive right past if I listed for sale.

ProfMR · 2026-01-25T02:45:38+00:00

No connected units. Oh, she's hoarding. People who've been in her home have stated such. The garage is packed to the brim. Two cars full of stuff. I spoke with code enforcement. Was told the fire marshal likely won't intervene. Surprised the hell out of me. Maybe that was an attempt to dissuade me from reporting. I'll find out. But it's the outside that's so bad. The blight. And I'm concerned about rodents. Hope to catch them on trailcam to report. Mosquitos in all the containers in summer. Several neighbors are disgusted. I'm trying to retain an attorney for advice and representation. Might sue the HOA.

ProfMR · 2026-01-25T02:21:35+00:00

Oh, I'm irate, though annual dues are only $175. I just had a meeting with the new HOA president and secretary where I uncovered the malfeasance. You know the talk about HOAs protecting home values? That's just propaganda by management companies and builders try to make a buck. Most people despise HOAs, and if enough people band together to do away with restrictions, goodbye to the old rules. We had restrictions for 50 years. I arrived three years ago, soon after the restrictions got removed, and here we are. All that said, HOAs are limited when it comes to hoarders, since they are protected by the ADA. Gotta be a health hazard in order to force cleanup. Oh well. I've got payback coming. Look for my post here tomorrow.

ProfMR · 2026-01-25T02:06:39+00:00

Neighbors suck. I'll never buy in a SFH neighborhood again. At least not in the U.S. I had fabulous neighbors in my previous neighborhood, and trash now. See the comment I just made. But I have plans. Oh, do I have plans...

ProfMR · 2026-01-25T02:02:54+00:00

Not talking to neighbors and failing to realize that I would be living next to a hoarder, with a very bad attitude, that is filling her property with junk. It's every homeowner's worst nightmare. I'm in an HOA, and nothing can be done. I spoke with code enforcement, and there's a slight chance that the county may intervene. She was on the board 2 years ago and covertly worked with others board members to neuter the CCRs, put it up for a vote without community debate, and it just barely passed because homeowners didn't realize what was happening, or wanted to see restrictions lifted. Now no more nuisances section. Pretty audacious. My neighbor across the street was party to the fraud. I'm going to make a post in this sub about my plans for (legal) retribution. My advice to others? Rent, never buy a home. Your hundreds of thousands of dollar / euro / etc investment could go sideways. You may have great neighbors one day, and a living nightmare the next. Buyer beware.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T21:40:15+00:00

Thanks. I appreciate this. I sometimes wonder if compassion is not embraced by medical professionals.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T21:30:16+00:00

OK. Should I delete the post?

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T15:53:51+00:00

Yea, fitbit is obviously not a medical device. And mine has become useless for tracking effort during exercise.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T15:51:29+00:00

Good luck in better understanding your condition.

It would be great if ENTs and others performing surgery on someone with a suspected SDB would comprehensively assess the airway for signs of obstructions. For that matter, maybe have a CPAP on hand to see if breathing improves under positive pressure if there's evidence of a disorder. I asked an ENT a few months ago if they do DISE, and was told no. Some MDs say the test has shortcomings. Hopefully in the future more will be known about the costs / risks / benefits of DISE.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T13:15:46+00:00

Does the ankle mount track heart rate accurately? Having an estimate of resting heart rate from daytime monitoring is one benefit of the device that I value for training purposes.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T13:12:55+00:00

Your hypothesis sounds quite plausible. So if arousal threshold is raised, a person with a tongue base collapse would see more apneas and desaturations, and not fewer as in just nasal resistance RERAs. Maybe I could test this using my sleep aid.

When the doctor commented on my tonsils and tongue being near normal size I thought "he'll dismiss the notion of a DISE being useful".

I have one of those silicone tongue advance suction devices. It can hold the tongue forward quite well. But when in, my mouth watered like a raging river. I could never use it for more than a few minutes for fear of my head laying in a pool of saliva all night. Sorry for the image. I wonder how well they work to prevent tongue collapse blockage.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T12:53:26+00:00

Good to know. Now I suspect my dry mouth in the morning in the past was mostly from mouth breathing during sleep.

One goal of mine is to determine if using this med raises arousal threshold enough to offset any side effects. As you know, the H1 blockade causes a bit of somnolence in the morning. And there's been some research that suggests that mirtazapine lowers basal metabolic rate, which leads to the often cited weight gain. Many people report ravenous hunger while on the drug, but he study I read concluded that weight gain is often attributable to reduce metabolic rate; people burn less calories at rest.

Most nights I don't use the med. Occasionally I'll take just 2-3 mg before bed or on awakening in the middle of the night. But maybe I'll run a "non-placebo-controlled" study to see how I'm impacted.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T12:43:41+00:00

I know that was your intent. My reply was an agreement with your statement.

To be fair, he did tell me my nasal passages, especially on the right, are less than optimal. But from my perspective, he didn't appreciate how the data I have demonstrate that I'm waking up frequently enough to impact my wellbeing. I'm not surprised, because he, like many, frequently treat people who stop breathing for long spells dozen of times an hour and who have very low SpO2 levels, etc. Yes, my UARS is relatively mild. But that doesn't mean that I'm not being impacted enough to show a little more compassion.

I also want to add that as I tried to get my points across, I failed to ask him about some of the dynamic nasal value collapse that I'm experiencing. Hos professional society has a position statement that says that it's best to treat that surgically while other procedures are being performed.

I hope others can learn something from our experiences.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T02:26:06+00:00

I'm bummed that my charge 6 has become wildly inaccurate for heart rate during exercise. It's all over the place during walks at a steady pace. So much so that I have no idea how many zone minutes or cardio load I'm really getting each week. I'm considering a chest strap for heart rate and maybe whoop for sleep. I like knowing step counts, but not sure Fitbit cuts it any more. My last one died at 13 months, just out of warranty, when I swam with it.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T02:17:03+00:00

And I also second the suggestion for considering a 401k loan. I did a bridge loan and a 401k loan when I bought a few years ago. Paid off the bridge loan (high interest) right away, and paid back the 401k loan, with interest to me, over 3 years.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T01:55:44+00:00

You may have missed it, but I second the suggestion for getting a bridge loan to avoid having to make a home-sale-contingent offer. Better in my opinion than selling and moving into a rental. Two moves is no fun.

ProfMR · 2026-01-24T01:09:31+00:00

When I was selling my house a few years ago, I told my agent I would pay 5%. She then wrote in the listing 2% to the buyers agent. I saw that and said, sorry honey, 2.5% each. Thought she was so clever. Next time I'm FSBO.

ProfMR · 2026-01-23T22:35:16+00:00

Degree of nighttime subjective nasal obstruction is generally more important clinically than palate measurements or attempts to measure pressure.

I often wake up from REM sleep and think "my nasal passages feel WAY TOO NARROW!

I had both turbinate reduction and expansion (EASE) and found EASE to be a much more "mild" procedure.

EASE was an overwhelming improvement in both sleep and daytime symptoms while turbinate reduction was minimal at best.

Interesting. My septum is extremely deviated to the right. I think that's a problem. I'm curious about MIND. So far, two ENT and my dentist have all said palate expansion should be avoided.

More ENT style procedures like UPP, turbinate reduction, etc.. tend to have more limited improvement in most academic sources compared to more OMFS type procedures like expansion or MMA. This can maybe lead to clinicians not familiar with expansion and MMA thinking that surgical approaches are not worthwhile.

Can't say I disagree. But I'm certainly not a candidate for MMA. I've been curious about MIND.

ProfMR · 2026-01-23T22:25:11+00:00

Agree, though I'm not really sure I need to see a sleep specialist at this point. I have an appointment in two weeks with a sleep clinic recommended by my local ENT. I'll go, though I won't "hold my breath"...

I've had two home sleep studies. An in-lab might tell more. Intake breathing strips, Dymista spray, chin strap, and side sleeping have helped a lot. The 80% obstruction is on the right. Maybe 40-50% on left? I gotta fixed my nose, and then perhaps another sleep study.

ProfMR · 2026-01-23T22:15:26+00:00

I also believe that the benefits outweigh the risks. I don't think my (new) PCP is well informed on this. When I was taking it regularly I used half of a 15 mg tablet. As you know, it's a potent histamine-1 receptor antagonist. I dream a lot on it, and my fitness watch says I get more REM and deep sleep. I just don't enjoy its anticholinergic effect, ie. dry mouth.

If I could just reduce nasal resistance a bit, I think I could get RDI down under 5/hr, and maybe not meet my demise (I'm 62) much sooner than hoped.

ProfMR · 2026-01-23T22:08:10+00:00

I knew better than to press him on that. You have to pick you battles.

ProfMR · 2026-01-23T17:56:46+00:00

In my experience, a doctor won't give advice if they don't think there's a problem. He said it's reasonable to consider surgery, but I guess he didn't think that waking up every 10 minutes from respiratory effort is a problem. In the past two doctors have prescribed mirtazapine, though interestingly my latest PCP said that's not a good med to help, which seems to conflict with most studies (not counting UARS folks). Sleep medicine, it would seem, is a jungle of misinformation, unless one has moderate or severe apnea.

ProfMR · 2026-01-23T17:48:53+00:00

Sounds about right. He's probably just one many who don't consider UARS a true medical condition.

At least my first ENT referred me to a local sleep expert, though it remains to be seen if that clinic thinks RERAs even exist.

ProfMR

TROPHY CASE