A serious poll - treatment of potential sleep apnea

[Tippsy-Turvy]

Down 25 lbs so far, still have another 25 to go. My energy levels are up but still not where I believe they should be. Other symptoms of OSA seem to be somewhat reduced.

25lbs!?!?! Wow, that's incredible progress, OrdinaryAvgGuy. Keep it up. You're making us proud! :rockin:

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

25lbs!?!?! Wow, that's incredible progress, OrdinaryAvgGuy. Keep it up. You're making us proud! :rockin:

Thanks Tippsy.. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I refused to give up drinking flavorful craft beers.

Instead, I reduced the frequency and amount of beer that I am drinking. It's now 2-4 beers once or twice a week. I'm learning that living a healthy lifestyle is about eating and drinking the "not so good" stuff in moderation, not completely giving everything up.

 

[itsme_timd]

I've got a personal story of neglected sleep apnea to share.

Before I get into that, if you are one that can stick with losing the weight and keep it off then I say go out the 6 months and see if you can drop another 50 lbs. If you are just 'saying' you're going to do it but most likely won't, or you're likely to lose it and gain it back, then go get a sleep study. Not being a jerk here, just suggesting you make sure to be honest with yourself.

I have sleep apnea and I've struggled with weight all my life, I've been on CPAP for about a 1 1/2 years now and in that time I've lost over 100 lbs. It made a big difference for me. But my story is about my dad....

He's had sleep apnea for years, even when he was much thinner. He's 6'2" and around 280 now but used to be closer to 220, overweight but not horribly. He used to rattle the house when I was a kid but we didn't know at that time what sleep apnea was. A few years ago he got tested and got a CPAP but he didn't use it. To avoid the boring details, my dad had a stroke last week and is currently in a rehab hospital. He had other issues that helped lead to the stroke but one thing the docs were very concerned about was that he had extremely elevated CO2 levels in his blood and his brain was not getting enough oxygen carried to it. Since he wasn't breathing he didn't expel the CO2 from his lungs and it was absorbed into his bloodstream. My father's sleep apnea almost killed him, or at minimum was a large contributing factor to his stroke.

If you can be healthy and lose weight then rock on, brother. If not then get tested sooner than later, many people don't realize how serious sleep apnea can be.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I've got a personal story of neglected sleep apnea to share.

Before I get into that, if you are one that can stick with losing the weight and keep it off then I say go out the 6 months and see if you can drop another 50 lbs. If you are just 'saying' you're going to do it but most likely won't, or you're likely to lose it and gain it back, then go get a sleep study. Not being a jerk here, just suggesting you make sure to be honest with yourself.

I have sleep apnea and I've struggled with weight all my life, I've been on CPAP for about a 1 1/2 years now and in that time I've lost over 100 lbs. It made a big difference for me. But my story is about my dad....

He's had sleep apnea for years, even when he was much thinner. He's 6'2" and around 280 now but used to be closer to 220, overweight but not horribly. He used to rattle the house when I was a kid but we didn't know at that time what sleep apnea was. A few years ago he got tested and got a CPAP but he didn't use it. To avoid the boring details, my dad had a stroke last week and is currently in a rehab hospital. He had other issues that helped lead to the stroke but one thing the docs were very concerned about was that he had extremely elevated CO2 levels in his blood and his brain was not getting enough oxygen carried to it. Since he wasn't breathing he didn't expel the CO2 from his lungs and it was absorbed into his bloodstream. My father's sleep apnea almost killed him, or at minimum was a large contributing factor to his stroke.

If you can be healthy and lose weight then rock on, brother. If not then get tested sooner than later, many people don't realize how serious sleep apnea can be.

Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry to hear about your father and I hope he's doing okay.

I tend to agree. If you are not serious about a permanent lifestyle change then its best to move forward with a diagnosis and treatment. As for myself I have committed to living a healthier lifestyle for a number of reasons including the concern of having sleep apnea brought on by gaining weight in recent years.

 

[Beernik]

I'm sorry about your father too.

Update on me: I've been on the CPAP for 5 or 6 months now. The weird thing I've discovered is that once I started sleeping better with the CPAP, I had a lot of back pain was waking me up too. It wasn't just my wife elbowing me in the back all night.

The back pain may have been causing the sleep aggression associated with my apnea. I got X-rayed and discovered my spine is 11 degrees out of alignment.

So I've been spending the last 2 months doing physical and massage therapies. I've gone from feeling like I've been stabbed in the back to feeling like I have a stiff back. I've also got my average night's sleep with the mask up from 2-3 hours to 5-6 hours. And if I can get 5.5 hours of sleep in a night with it on, that's basically all night on weekdays.

I get unbelievabley good sleep the nights I keep the mask on all night and don't have any back pain. But that's only once or twice a week.

 

[707]

Any of y'all try those 'breathe right' nose strips? I can't speak from personal experience, but they may help. There are also soft flexible nasal airways. They need to be lubed up real well and most people don't like the thought of sticking something big in their schnozzola, but they are effective, if you can get your hands on them.

Breathing assist devices are beneficial, but some people just can't get used to wearing them. And some spouses can't get used to the noise.

Surgery is probably the most effective option. But there are cases that after a FESS procedure or rhino / septoplasty the patient still has OSA. Best of luck to you guys. It's a tough disorder to deal with.

 

[Beernik]

Breath Right didn't do a damn thing for my snore, at least according to my wife.

The other new thing I've discovered is winter temperatures. During the summer, my house was mid-70s F and it was comfortable having the machine blow that temperature of air through my sinuses.

The last 10 nights have been in the single digits (3F - 5F). That means my house has been mid-60s F and the water in the CPAP sitting near the window in the low-60s F. That's enough to wake you up at 2:30am with brain freeze.

I've started putting the CPAP machine on a stool next to the base board heater so it stays at a comfortable temperature.

 

[itsme_timd]

Breath Right didn't do a damn thing for my snore, at least according to my wife.

The other new thing I've discovered is winter temperatures. During the summer, my house was mid-70s F and it was comfortable having the machine blow that temperature of air through my sinuses.

The last 10 nights have been in the single digits (3F - 5F). That means my house has been mid-60s F and the water in the CPAP sitting near the window in the low-60s F. That's enough to wake you up at 2:30am with brain freeze.

I've started putting the CPAP machine on a stool next to the base board heater so it stays at a comfortable temperature.

My CPAP has a heater for the humidifier and a heated hose. It's the ResMed S9, might be worth checking into.

 

[Beernik]

I tried getting a heater hose. It took Apria three months to fill my order. It finally came yesterday. The one they sent is incompatible with my machine.

So tomorrow, I'll be heading down to the local office to chew them out ... again.

I swear is soon as I get through the rent-to-own BS my insurance is forcing me to do, I'm kicking Apria to the curb and looking for another vendor.

Sorry for the rant. The health improvement aspect of this experience has been great. Dealing with the medical device vendor (Apria Healthcare) has been a PITA.

 

[wintermute2]

That rent-to-own B.S. Drove me nuts. I had to submit the SD card from my machine to prove that I was using it a minimum of 4 hours a night. Luckily the equipment provider gave me a heads up because it was difficult to wear for 4 hours the first couple of weeks because I was fighting the ramped-up pressure, not to mention tons of aerophagia. My doc submitted the data twice and the health insurance company never received it. Luckily we had the data backed up and third time was a charm.