Keeps getting better and better:)

[Beer Snob]

Hey all. Well after many months of people saying I should see a sleep doctor I did it... actually a few weeks ago. I got adicted to this sleeping pill that I was changed to last year. So I went to him and he suggested to spend a night at this sleep lab place.

That was last Friday. Was real wild actuallly. I still have no idea how I went to sleep at all with all this stuff that I had all over my head and body. Sensors. Well I got the results back tonight. I was at this center and actually went to sleep around midnight... woke up once to 'stretch my legs' so to speak..... then they woke me up at 6am... figure I was asleep for roughtly 5 1/2 hours or so.... They recorded that I stopped breathing 132 times during that short sleep. 132 times.... man..... I did not know I stopped once.... much less 132 times.

So... outside of finding out why I feel like sh*t a lot..... why I doze out a lot... why I don't have much energy most days, I'm not completely sure what this means. I gotta call the doc tomorrow and find out what I can do about it. Sounds like this breathing machine thing works to solve the problem if you can get used to wearing a mask when you go to sleep.

Anyone know anything about any of this stuff?

 

[Beer Snob]

I somehow slept with these

 

[feedthebear]

My father-in-law has sleep apnea (really not sure of the spelling). He stops breathing too.

He sleeps wearing a c-pap mask. I think it only covers the mouth and nose. The way it works is when he breaths in, the machine sends a burst of air into the mask. The mask has jets which are directed at the nostrils and basically, it makes is body react to take that breath in.

I think it took him a little while to get used to sleeping with it on. I think it took his wife even longer to get used to the little "psst" noise it makes when it sends a burst of air through.

From what he says, it has really helped him sleep better at night and feel better all day.

 

[Pumbaa]

yup, sounds like a c-pap machine is in your near future

 

[dancingbarefoot]

My dad has a c-pap machine and it makes a huge difference. Wakes up feeling well rested instead of like he hasn't slept at all.

 

[Beer Snob]

Yeah thats what I feel like... like I have not slept at all. Thanks for the thoughts guys

 

[MriswitH]

Thats good to hear that you went and got checked out, Beer Snob. Sleep apnea is a very scary ailment and can be quite harmful if left unchecked.

My boss has the same problem and he has to wear a mask for his apnea as well, but says that it makes a world of difference for him. His got to the point where he would get so drowsy because of the frequent 'wake-ups' that he would get tired and drowsy while sleeping!

 

[Cheesefood]

Funny.

A few months ago, I had that test done, and I remember all that crap on my face. I never did anything about the apnea. This morning, my wife gave me the "You need to talk to them again" e-mail after hearing me stop breathing numerous times last night.

I'm going for either the surgery or the dental appliance. No way in hell I'll be able to keep a C-pap on my face all night.

 

[Fiery Sword]

A year or so back, when SWMBO moved in, she started bugging me to go get a sleep test done. She could count instances where I'd sleep w/o breathing for over a minute. I've always been a chainsaw snore'r but if never bothered me much. I also had often experienced suddenly waking up right as I was drawing in huge breaths of air.....a lot of the times I feld kind of dizzy when this happened. I never knew crap about sleep apneas so I never really questioned it.

I had my first sleep test a number of months back and when all was said and done there was almost 35 cumlulative minutes (in about 140 "apnea events") of the night where I wasn't breathing. Seriously, that kind of scared the sh*t out of me. The #'s the docs were getting also seemed alarming to them. I've done some of the strips/masks but I think the doc is suggesting a surgery to remove some tissue somewhere in my air passage. Aparently I have Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which is a tissue issue (heh heh) and is a candidate for a surgical fix. Central Sleep apnea, which is more related to the brain (and much less common) is much more serious and hard to fix.

I am thankful that I was convinced to get it checked out. Good decision on your part too - I wish you the best!

 

[david_42]

I know several people that have sleep apnea. One uses a mask, one had both sinus and throat surgery and one who refuses to see a doctor about anything! The first two are doing fine with their respective treatments.

I suspect I have sleep apnea as well, but getting my doctor to setup testing is just about impossible (his specialty is internal medicine, if there was a pill for sleep apnea things would probably be different). I should have done something before I moved & lost my insurance. On the positive side, I've been losing weight since moving & the problem is getting better.

 

[knewshound]

My Dad had this too and you might want to try the simple things first.

His biggest problem was sleeping on his back, if he slept on his side he did not have as big a problem.

The low tech solution was that my Mom sewed tennis balls in the back of his pajamas that poked him if he tried to sleep on his back.

This made him sleep on his side only which eliminated most of his problem.

Worth a try !

Cheers,

knewshound

 

[todd_k]

everyone else has already said it but yeah, you need a c-pap.

 

[Cheesefood]

His biggest problem was sleeping on his back, if he slept on his side he did not have as big a problem.

The low tech solution was that my Mom sewed tennis balls in the back of his pajamas that poked him if he tried to sleep on his back.

I go to bed on my side. As for the tennis balls, I'm pretty underdressed when I go to bed. I rarely ever wear a shirt. I like it cold when I sleep.

 

[Fiery Sword]

I go to bed on my side. As for the tennis balls, I'm pretty underdressed when I go to bed. I rarely ever wear a shirt. I like it cold when I sleep.

maybe you should sew the ball into the back of your boxers?!?

 

[knewshound]

maybe you should sew the ball into the back of your boxers?!?

I'm not touching that one with a 10 foot pole...

 

[Cheesefood]

maybe you should sew the ball into the back of your boxers?!?

Maybe you should sew balls on your chin!

 

[Pedro-]

Sleep apnea is not something to play with!

My dad (rest his soul) had it, almost died from it. Eventually your body will be so deprived it continues to shut down (hence some weight gain, water retention, hbp, etc.). The sleep deprivation doesn't go away, and eventually can find yourself waking up at a green light or worse on the side of the road.

When my father started using the machine he said the difference was like day and night. Within a week or two he felt like he was years younger. He had energy again, could remember things, didn't feel like he was constantly in a cloud, could get much more done at work in less time, wasn't falling asleep every five minutes.

The c-pap machine takes getting used to but your the only one that can make it work good. Doc's don't know what you don't tell them, they can't feel what you feel.

My father-in-law has it too, but he is too stubborn to keep with it and make sure it is adjusted correctly (neither does he keep with the humidifer and complains that it dries out his nose). So he pounds red bulls like they are going out of style to stay awake everyday, which continues to make things worse.

The deal is it's not just dealing with sleep, it also speeds up heart disease in a number of ways and can bring on other problems. I'm just glad my dad was able to grab some more years once he found this machine. In the end it's your choice, but this isnt something to shrug your shoulders on and slough off.

 

[Fiery Sword]

Maybe you should sew balls on your chin!

Sorry Cheese, just not that curious.

 

[Beer Snob]

Well, Tuesday is the day... or perhaps I should say night, for me. I go back in the lab and they try these CPAP machines with me. Cheese, everything I've read so far say surgury is only works about 50% of the time. I've been bumping into a lot of people who use the machine (a few literally actually). It's funny, I've had sleep problems a VERY long time. This is nothing new to me, but since finding out why I'm so tired all the time I am REALLY tired. I have, for the most part, always found driving challenging when I am the least bit tired. Doze out regualarly... stop often actually on the way home from work generally. In classes when I was in school I had ALWAYS dozed out. Doze out all the time in front of the tube.

Well what got me in the docs office was meds actually. Last year with the heart and tumor problems they changed my meds to an addictive sleeping pill. And well... I got addictect to it some months back. Thats what got me in the see the doc, to get off the pills. He suggsted the lab only cause I had heart problems now. He said that the defib unit would probably go off before I went into a full cardiac arrest. Nice thought though... waking up to a jolt of juice.

Well as soon as I talked to the doc I wanted to find out what the deal was with the mask and found out. Kinda looks like scuba gear. But with everyone I have talked to said that, like many of you have said, its like night and day. You just get used to wearing the thing.

Thanks for all the replies. They were certainly needed as, like a year ago, I have been feeling rather .... 'broken' seems a fitting word for some reason.

 

[Ize]

Michael, I heard a very interesting invterview down here, one of our hospitals is doing some sort or "plastic implant technology" to reduce the amout of snoring someone does during the night. I don't know if this would help sleep apnea or not. It's apparently fairly new. Decatur Memorial in Decatur Illinois. Maybe you've already heard of it tho...

Ize

 

[Beer Snob]

Nope. Have not heard of that yet. This is really all pretty new to me.