Anyone have this? Anyone shed some insight on it, because my doctor thinks i may have it and wants to run some tests.
[quote]Split wrote:
Anyone have this? Anyone shed some insight on it, because my doctor thinks i may have it and wants to run some tests.[/quote]
I’m tired a lot because of it. About 2 years ago I went to a new doc and he asked if I was sleepy a lot. I told him yeah actually and he said, after looking in my nose, he suspected I would be cause he doubts I’ve been sleeping well and thought I had apnea.
They did one of those sleep studies. I’m not the worst case they’ve seen but I had a significant number of wake ups/breathing stops during the night. And I didn’t fall asleep well to begin with because of all the shit they put on you for that study.
To be honest, I tried breath right strips and they did me pretty good but I should probably do something else, like get one of those breathing masks or surgery.
Yes it sucks.
I did a sleep study and sure enough it came back as obstructive sleep apnea. I had a hell of a time falling asleep, though that’s pretty normal in my world.
It turns out that I wake up every 2 minutes and that my blood oxygen drops as low as 78% while I’m sleeping. Sounds fun eh?
So they tried me on a CPAP machine but I had to give up on it because after a week of not sleeping I needed to catch my crappy sleep if nothing else. I’m quite a light sleeper and that machine was just too much for me.
Now I’m awaiting surgery. Theyr’e going to pull my tonsils, perform a uvulectomy and laser out a bunch of extra material in my throat.
Should be a blast.
STU
I have a horrible suspicion that I’ve got OSA. The breathe strips, sleeping on my side propped up on pillows does me well. I think I sleep for a couple hours at a time, roll over, etc.
Isn’t there an oral piece one could wear to stop the tongue from falling into the throat? That’s my hope. I’ll be going to the DDS this month to get some answers.
Sleeping on my back, throughout the night seems to be a slice of heaven denied me.
[quote]Sturat wrote:
Yes it sucks.
I did a sleep study and sure enough it came back as obstructive sleep apnea. I had a hell of a time falling asleep, though that’s pretty normal in my world.
It turns out that I wake up every 2 minutes and that my blood oxygen drops as low as 78% while I’m sleeping. Sounds fun eh?
So they tried me on a CPAP machine but I had to give up on it because after a week of not sleeping I needed to catch my crappy sleep if nothing else. I’m quite a light sleeper and that machine was just too much for me.
Now I’m awaiting surgery. Theyr’e going to pull my tonsils, perform a uvulectomy and laser out a bunch of extra material in my throat.
Should be a blast.
STU[/quote]
It’s not. One of the only times I’ve ever pity hugged my brother, is when he was recovering from that surgery. They did the up the nose and yanked out most of his throat as well. When your throat is made bigger you have to relearn how to eat in a way too, gonna choke a few times. So if the surgery doesn’t kill you and you dont choke to death, …you’ll finally get some good sleep, and not the forever kind.
When you haven’t slept pretty much all your life, …the drastic measure is life changing.
I was diagnosed with apnea a few years ago, and got a cpap machine. Word of caution – it could take up to a year or so for you to adapt to wearing one: dont expect to adjust to it immediately, or even within the first month.
You may be lucky, but it take awhile to adjust. I never could adjust to it and always wound up waking up with the mask blowing cold air into my eyes before Id rip it off and throw it across the room.
However, I have noticed that it doesnt seem to affect me like it used to. I dont use the machine but my sleep quality seems to be better than before. My girlfriend has told me she doesnt notice any stopped or interrupted breathing when Im sleeping.
Apnea is also related to periods of stress. I knew someone who was also diagnosed with a physical blockage that required surgery, and apparently afterward noticed a tremendous difference in sleep and life quality. He would fall asleep at work.
I’m not really looking forward to the surgery but I’ve heard of this sleep thing and think it might be worth risking the surgery to give it a try. . .
Though I have to admit there are benefits to sleeping so little, you can cut my sleep short and it doesn’t slow me down at all.
If you have mild apnea you can try a Mandibular Advancement Device (MDA) basically it’s a mouthguard that pushes your lower jaw forward. It worked on me for a while but as I got bigger it stopped working. You might want to give one of those a try.
Ideally you get your MDA through your dentist but you can try an internet one like: http://www.snorban.com/
I tried that and it worked well for me for a while, definitely worth what I paid. Now however things have gotten too bad for it to help. . .