momexp5 intro post

[momexp5]

Yes, I posted this on another forum first, please forgive me if you've seen this elsewhere! I've updated it a bit since then.

I'm a 41 yo woman. 5'2" and my non-pregnancy weight has never been more than 120 lbs. I have small features. I had my tonsils out at age 6. I've snored as long as I can remember - embarrassed at slumber parties as a kid, etc. My grandmother and father have the same build as mine, and they snore like chainsaws. I have been increasingly allergic over the years. I smoked from age 16 until last year, and have quit all nicotine completely. I have been afflicted with depression, and have taken Paxil for more than 10 years. I have crashed with physical and emotional exhaustion once, requiring a week in a psych hospital to get me back on my feet. I have a very good brain, but it has been handicapped by having no decent sleep. It has affected my executive function - short-term memory isn't good, I lose my train of thought, my brain feels fuzzy, I get brain zappy, etc.

This year, since I'm neither pregnant nor nursing, nor have I just moved, nor am I about to move - I've finally been addressing health issues.

My primary care doctor got me started with nasal irrigation, and Rhinocort steroid nasal spray. He ordered a sleep apnea test, which was positive. He referred me to a very good ENT/allergist.

The ENT explained that I had severe allergies (inside of nose etc was white instead of pink), that I was tired and exhausted because I hadn't really ever slept a good night of sleep, and because having the constant allergies was like having a permanent cold. Benadryl didn't work anymore, and I was taking all sorts of OTC medicines to try and keep the inflammation down. My immune system, he said, was shutting down.

His first step was to allergy test me on environmentals. I am moderately allergic to "everything" and severely allergic to quite a few things, most of all grasses and molds. He put me on Allegra and Singulair, and started me on 2 shots weekly, and sublingual drops for alternaria (a mold).

Then he fixed my sinuses. I had a deviated septum with enlarged turbinates corrected. The surgery was difficult to heal from because of the allergies. Just when I thought I was healed, I got a sinus infection which ruptured my eardrum. But I am HUGELY glad I had the surgery, because now it is possible for me to breathe through my nose when I am laying down. Before surgery, I was relying on BreatheRight strips so that I could breathe through my nose when in a certain position. After surgery, no more strips and double the airflow. I still have to take advil sometimes to decrease inflammation, but everything is improving, between the allergy treatments and the surgery results. I'm decreasing the Paxil (although I take xanax occasionally). I'm feeling that much better and stronger. But I'm definitely not "there" yet.

After I healed from the sinus surgery, my ENT/allergist food-tested me, and I'm allergic to dairy, wheat, egg yolk, egg white, soy, and corn. Ai yi yi. So now I'm doing sublingual drops for that too - the drops are a newish form of immunotherapy, akin to allergy shots. I have had a horrible patch of raw blistering hand eczema lately. It seems to abate when I cut wheat out of my diet.

So now that I can breathe through my nose, it's on to CPAP. The ENT/allergist could've ordered it, but with my primary care doctor's advice, I went to a neurologist because my symptoms include shakiness, trembling hands, twitching muscles, ADD symptoms, the short-term memory problems and confusion, losing train of thought, repeating questions, fuzzy brain, brain zappiness, etc. This neurologist specializes in sleep disorders and was highly recommended by a friend who deals with ADD, gifted OEs, LDs, etc. I was a wreck when I went in to see him; lots of stress at home, it was raining, and cold, and I had taken the subway, and I was on painkillers for my ruptured eardrum. I went into tears in his office. He ordered a second, post-sinus-surgery split-night polysomnogram. Here's the rundown: Two portions to the testing, diagnostic first, and then treatment.

Diagnostic results: total sleep time 96 minutes, all non-REM. Sleep latency 16 minutes. "Severe sleep-disordered breathing". 6 obstructive apneas, 1 central apnea, 131 hypopneas. Average duration of apneic periods = 13 seconds, longest = 71 seconds. Oxygen sat went from 97 to mean of 93 with lowest 86.5. Overall RDI = 86.

Treatment results with nasal CPAP: total sleep time 182 minutes. Slow-wave stage 4 rebound, no REM. Apnea and snoring alleviated with 8cm of water.

I went back in to the neurologist, and was not a wreck this time. He prescribed Ambien and CPAP.

I started on CPAP on June 16th. There has been a definite learning curve. I am pleased with the responsiveness of my equipment provider, "America's Healthcare at Home" which works with Tricare Standard in the DC area. They gave me a REMStar Plus with a Comfort Gel mask, both from Respironics. I have had to request that the Small mask their representative gave me, be replaced with a Petite mask; they are UPSing it to me, no charge and no hassle, they consider this a setup period.

I had a physical in the beginning of all this. No other problems found except anemia. I am always craving sleep, I'm almost always tired. I'm trying to remember to take SlowFE (iron) and fish oil daily. I need to remember to take a multivitamin too. But boy am I craving sleep. I wonder if the sinus surgery - turbinates and other obstacles removed, septum straightened, sinuses generally cleaned out - has gotten me to where I actually do breathe okay while sleeping in certain positions - side or stomach, basically. After having read the web more now, it's probably my tongue dropping back that shuts off the air when I sleep on my back. When they did the second round of testing, the split-night polysomnogram, they had me sleep on my back.

Thanks for reading. I hope it's helpful to someone else.

[wading thru the muck!]

momexp5,

Thanks for the great intro. It's great that you seem to be finaly getting a handle on your health issues. Also seems you have been getting served well by your medical professionals.

I'm very interested in your presumed alergy/hand eczema link. If you are able to further confirm that I would love to know what you find out.

Good luck and continued sucess.

[momexp5]

I responded to wading's question about the eczema at this new thread (click here)