Homeless W/Severe Sleep Apnea

[Vader]

I'm not even reading all the stuff that Todzo is posting. I'm skimming past all that and reading only for the entertainment value. I suspect many people are doing the same thing, thus why the viewed number is increasing. It's not out of actual interest or concern in all that he's posting...

Yeah me too.
That's why the high views...people are rubber necking and gawking at the train wreck in progress not because of what he thinks the reason is.

Yep. I think the Todzo posts should be skipped over.
But the rest is pretty entertaining!

[Todzo]

Certainly they have proven that OSA causes brain damage (e.g.[1]) and causes damage to executive functioning (e.g.[2]).

In reading about the deficits to executive functioning which are caused by OSA I occasionally ran across the concept of emotional awareness. We read emotions in faces, voices, and body language. If we cannot read those I think we become kind of like a bull, with cloudy vision, intermittent hearing, and often a lack of the ability to feel what is touching the fur – going into the china shop – and hardly realizing when we break the very precious but delicate and beautiful things.

Perhaps this explains the social difficulties noticed even early on[3].


[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2491498/

[2] Executive dysfunction in OSA before and after treatment: a meta-analysis. Olaithe M, Bucks RS. Source: School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. Sleep. 2013 Sep 1;36(9):1297-305. doi: 10.5665/sleep.2950.

[3] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 8185901389

[LinkC]

Once again, if you add him/her to your "Foe list", you won't even know he/she exists. You won't get notifications either. And you'll sleep better, too! Guaranteed.

[Todzo]

Certainly they have proven that OSA causes brain damage (e.g.[1]) and causes damage to executive functioning (e.g.[2]).

In reading about the deficits to executive functioning which are caused by OSA I occasionally ran across the concept of emotional awareness. We read emotions in faces, voices, and body language. If we cannot read those I think we become kind of like a bull, with cloudy vision, intermittent hearing, and often a lack of the ability to feel what is touching the fur – going into the china shop – and hardly realizing when we break the very precious but delicate and beautiful things.

Perhaps this explains the social difficulties noticed even early on[3].

One of the reasons I would most like to see improvements in CPAP therapy is that “The most notable neuropsychological improvement with CPAP was in emotional functioning, with a significant improvement in depressive symptoms and quality of life”[4]

Perhaps, with improvements, it could become a way to enable the homeless to become not homeless.

I believe this involves about a third of the homeless population!


[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2491498/

[2] Executive dysfunction in OSA before and after treatment: a meta-analysis. Olaithe M, Bucks RS. Source: School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. Sleep. 2013 Sep 1;36(9):1297-305. doi: 10.5665/sleep.2950.

[3] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar ... 8185901389

[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3242693/

[OhHelpMe]

Todzo,

I am an ordained Minister, yet this brain damage from sleep apnea has changed me spiritually as well.

I guess what people are not understanding is that my entire being and former personality has changed. I'm not the same spiritually, mentally or emotionally since this brain damage.

God was my life, and my relationship with Him was everything to me. I no longer have that. Oh, I know God still loves me, but it's all just knowledge now and not true intimacy. I have been emotionally and spiritually flat-lined. This brain damage has changed my whole life. No matter what I do, or how hard I try to make things better, I am still absent. How can I function as a robot for the rest of my life and find any pleasure in that?

Everything I was, is no more. I am a stranger to myself, and to those who once knew me.

I used to be a very optimistic, passionate person, full of compassion, insight and wisdom. Now I am an empty shell. From the time I wake up in the morning until I go to bed at night, I simply have to act because I am no longer present. My only hope right now, is the hereafter.

I am not depressed or suicidal, I am simply stating the facts. Living as a robot, is like living in a private hell that no one seems to fathom the depths of.

Just try to imagine being thrown into someone else's body in which the former person has vacated, leaving you in charge and you don't have a clue what to do? I know I may have scored high on the tests they gave me, but how can you test someone's personality changes and their loss of identity? Is there anyone that truly understands brain damage from sleep apnea?

[Julie]

OHMe - are you quite sure all those changes you ascribe to apnea are not possibly the result of some other additional condition(s)? I find it hard to believe what you say - not that I doubt that you've experienced great loss of self, but that all of it is necessarily due to apnea alone. Have you been neurologically tested for other problems? Did a doctor tell you it's all due to apnea?

[Goofproof]

It seems some of us here have a need to find a reason to blame our lives on. Sleep Apnea is easier than looking inward to ourselves, and the choices we make in life.

The people of the USA have been changed, from the self reliant, hard working, moral population of the pre 1950's to the liberal socialists we have now become.

The blame, I don't know, but i'd bet higher education, low professionalism in the media and the idea that others can pay our way. Socialism is nice, if we all ride the wagon, it won't move. To get anywhere we all need to get out and push!

Life is better if we all are responsible for ourselves and if we can help others along the way, not enable them to keep them down, they need to want to be productive again. Jim

[Loreena]

OhHelpMe,
I know exactly how you feel. You've probably had SA a long time like me so you have to work hard to regain your brain health. I've come a long way and wanted to share a few tips. First, try to make sure you get your AHI as low as possible. I do this by elevating the long side of my bed and sleeping on the edge so that gravity will keep my tongue forward, as well as wearing a backpack to make sure I don't turn over and always sleeping on my left side to prevent aerophagia, and also using a mouth guard to prevent clenching. All this stuff is meant to keep my tongue out of my throat so I don't get any apnea at all. Amazingly it all works. I take these supplements for brain health: 100 mg Vitamin E as well as a multivitamin, Phosphatidylserine at 100 mg/3 times a day (helps Alzheimer's, ADD, brain damage, please research and see all the benefits), fish oil, and walk about 3 miles a day. I feel a ton better, especially since I've wiped out the apnea. The important thing is work on feeling better by getting the AHI as low as possible, I am absolutely convinced of this. Hope this helps. Keeping you in my thoughts.

[kteague]

Todzo,
I guess what people are not understanding is that my entire being and former personality has changed. I'm not the same spiritually, mentally or emotionally...

Almost everything you said is familiar to me. With getting my sleep apnea effectively treated as well as the limb movements that also disrupted my sleep, I have found bits and pieces of who I once was, but the person I am is little like who I once was. Still trying to see if there's more to be regained or if this must be accepted as my new normal. Please do everything you can to improve your health. Maybe there is more to be regained. I doubt I will ever be in the same place spiritually where I spent nearly my entire adult life, as I don't see things the same, but I'm making peace with that. Hope you find a way to see the life you have now as good, even if different.

[49er]

OhHelpMe,

Unfortunately, I definitely do.

Last week, I had some horribly frightening cognitive moments that are too painful to even talk about on this list.

I am so sorry for the difficulties you have experienced and am not sure what to say. Taking the supplements that Lorena mentioned has helped even though they didn't prevent what happened to me lat week. But they seem to help my mood and enable me to not totally lose track of the person that I was. And they helped cognitively in other ways. Hard to explain.

I have also found that when I limit the carbohydrates in my diet, my brain seems to function better. Of course, trying to stick to that is easier said than done and of course, your experience may be different.

Anyway, I think you for having the courage to talk about this as brain issues is a very tough topic to deal with and not many people truly understand what it is about.

49er

[Sludge]

Anyway, this is my last comment in this thread.

I'm sure you meant "Next to last".

[49er]

Anyway, this is my last comment in this thread.

I'm sure you meant "Next to last".

Wow Sludge, can't you cut me a break after what I said? You can't even lay off when someone is down on their luck? Are you that heartless?

I wasn't even thinking about what I had previously stated when I responded to Oh Help Me due to my cognitive issues. Then when I saw you had replied, I realized what happened.

49er

[Sludge]

It seems some of us here have a need to find a reason to blame our lives on. Sleep Apnea is easier than looking inward to ourselves, and the choices we make in life.

Concur.

While odds ratio for WMC doubles for moderate to severe OSA (BTW WMC in normals is 33.56 according to the Koreans), it is most certainly not an on-switch whose only settings are Sharp As A Tack and Brain Dead.

[Sludge]

Wow Sludge, can't you cut me a break after what I said? You can't even lay off when someone is down on their luck? Are you that heartless?

I wasn't even thinking about what I had previously stated when I responded to Oh Help Me due to my cognitive issues.

See above.

[Sludge]

OHMe - are you quite sure all those changes you ascribe to apnea are not possibly the result of some other additional condition(s)?

Concur entirely.

The data appear to be showing that the WMC only occurs in moderate to severe OSA, and (IMO) are strongly influenced by apnea characteristics (significant desaturations, large cardiovascular swings during events, etc.). If that were the case in your situation, then perhaps one could justify WMC as the cause of some of your condition, but IMO you need to turn over a LOT more rocks to explain that.