What led you to your diagnosis of apnea?

[felineperson3]

By scaring my husband (of soon to be 50 years now Aug. 30th of this year) many times by my non-breathing episodes plus the fact that I snored--He said I would suddenly quit breathing and just when he would be to the point of waking me, I would suddenly gasp and breathe again. He had mentioned this to my different doctors from time to time, but it was just ignored until three years ago when my blood pressure became increasingly difficult to control and with the increased medical awareness of OSA becoming more and more recognized as a culprit of playing a major role with many health issues my physician decided it was time for me to have a sleep study. I have been 100% compliant since the sleep study and diagnosis and as I have repeated several times in various posts I owe this wonderful forum my thanks and gratitude for helping me to be successful in adapting to my "new way of sleeping!" Even though all the damage can't be undone with this many accumulated years of taxation to my body I can at least do what I know to do now to not contribute any further damage.
Thanks again to all of you--you are one great group that has certainly made this journey with it's struggles much easier. God bless!

[justsharon]

I originally went to my doctor wanting a prescription for a sleeping pill. Was just fed up with not being able to get to sleep and then not being able to stay asleep. I swear I looked at the clock every 20 minutes all night long. He asked if I happened to snore and I told him that my husband had slept in ear plugs for years due to my loud snoring. He suggested a sleep study rather than just a sleeping pill.

Well, to make a long story short, my sleep doctor was curious as to how I was able to function every day. I was told my numbers were 3X's the severe level. So I got a CPAP machine and it has changed my life. I LOVE sleeping now and I sleep so sound. I'm more alert during the day, I'm happier and my coworkers say I am less grumpy. My husband has even thrown away his ear plugs.

Thanks to my doctor, I'm a new person.

Happy sleeping,
Sharon

[momsworry]

I would awaken after about two hours, go back to sleep, awaken again, and again and again. In the morning I would be dragging. If I tried to drive anywhere, I would have to pull over after about 20 miles and catch a quick nap because I couldn't go on without it. While taking those cat naps, I would wake myself gasping/snoring. The last straw was when I woke up behind the wheel and realized that I had fallen asleep and I had no idea how long I had been asleep. I called the doctor that day. I've been 100% compliant since starting in early December of 2006. I now feel great. I usually wake up once during the night to get up and pee, get a drink. I am finding now, that when I go back to bed, I do not fall asleep immediately as I did before. I must be catching up on my sleep deficit, if that's possible. I know some people hate their machines and could not understand this, but I truly love mine. I look forward to it every night, putting on the mask and sleeping like I did when I was 18. It's changed my life greatly. I have managed to make a few converts out of folks I know, just telling them my story and they have had positve experinces from their treatment as well.

[Goofproof]

As Red Fox said, "The Big One", I waited 4 days before going to the ER, by then unrepairable damage had been done. In the hospital they couldn't get my O2 up without O2, I started with CPAP, in a few weeks. With O2. Jim

[DeltaSeeker]

For me it took joking to the shrink that I thought I had Narcolepsy. After several years of trying to juggle the meds so I wouldn't be constantly falling asleep on the job. He was ready to just push another pill at me (Provigil) instead of tracking down the source. I put the reins on that one and then he suggested a sleep study. After researching Apnea I felt it was definite I fell in to that category. Now I wonder how many years I struggled to stay away blaming all kinds of exterior problems when it was simply something that could be solved by blowing air up my nostrils!

Anyway, I got my machine in April but have slacked off significantly this last month. But now I'm back and rarin' to go! I sure don't want to be a statistic...

[canyongirl]

my dad had it diagnosed (it took forever for him to go get a sleep study ) and I had all the symptoms but milder.. can trace it back on both sides of family. i swear my sis has it, but won't go get titrated

[JillyBlue]

Hi, I'm Jilly and I'm a hosehead. Been lurking here for awhile and posting for the first time.

My very sharp physician led me to my diagnosis. I was on job assignment in Wales for a year, and on my return was having a heck of a time sleeping. I'd fall asleep immediately, then wake at 3 a.m. and not be able to get back to sleep. I was dragging through the day and having trouble staying awake at my desk during the afternoons. I thought it was just getting used to US time again. Also my blood pressure -- NEVER a problem before -- was getting up into a range where I was concerned.

I mentioned this to my doctor expecting her to prescribe a sleep aid. Instead she wanted to look down my throat!! "Your airway looks constricted," she said. "I want to send you for a sleep study."

Turns out that my issue is anatomical; my airway is a fraction of the size of a normal person's. (Well, who wants to be normal, anyway?) I went for my first sleep study and had 120 hypopneas plus one protracted apnea episode in less than 5 hours of sleep.

They showed me the sample CPAP masks and I almost knocked the doctor over running out of the office. Not for me, no sirree, thank you very much! I could handle this with lifestyle changes. I could lose some weight, give up my nightly glass (or two) of wine. I'd be just dandy. I visited my general physician again and told her this. "You realize that you are risking sudden death," she said.

Sudden death? And this wasn't even the playoffs! Add on to this the fact that the doctor gave me an EKG, found something she didn't like, and sent me for an echocardiogram. The echo showed that I had mild ventricular voodoo mumbojumbo (at least that's what it sounded like the doctor said). My heart, unable to rest, was getting tougher and the chambers were getting smaller -- not a good thing.

Since "cardiac" was a word on the death certificates of both my parents (and I suspect my mom died of apnea), this sent me back for a sleep study with CPAP. Hypopneas occurred as the pressure ramped up, but when it hit 9 I hit REM sleep -- a big chunk of it. I deal with data in my job and this data sold me. I've been on the hose for two weeks now and, while I'm still getting used to it, I'm starting to see a difference. For two weekends now I haven't needed a daytime nap, I'm not getting up in the middle of the night, and I get up much more easily in the mornings.

I must also say that you guys on this forum probably had a hand in saving my life. Your knowledge (I think Slinky and RestedGal know EVERYTHING) is amazing, and your humor has tickled me time and again. I figured that if you could have a sense of humor about this thing, it couldn't be all bad.

So now I treat my CPAP like another small pet. It gets its daily drink of water, its daily grooming, and its weekly bath. And I let it sleep with me.

See y'all...

[j.a.taylor]

So now I treat my CPAP like another small pet. It gets its daily drink of water, its daily grooming, and its weekly bath. And I let it sleep with me.

JillyBlue,

Love that description. Now it gives me an excuse to keep our Jack Russell terrier out of our bed.

There's a new "pet" in the house.

[khallow]

I had been feeling crappy anf sleeping worse and worse since my daughter was born. About 2.5 years. But I thought it was a new baby... then work stress. The last year has been filled with sleep walking/running/ yanking sheets off the bed and other night time drastic movements. I went to the Dr thinking the sleep walking was the issue and was offered a sleep study. It now appears my sleep walking/running was because of the sleep apnea. I have not left my bed unawares since I got my machine!
Karen

[Snoozy Q]

My GP has a 1 page questionairre she has patients fill out when they come in for a check-up. It asks about the usual stuff you should be telling your dr. at a check-up (what meds have you been taking, do you smoke, etc. ) It aslo asks "do you snore". I checked the "yes" box and based on that she referred me to a sleep doc for a sleep study. Turned out I have OSA. I never would have guessed I had a "sleep disorder" since I could fall alseep at the drop of a hat but the problem was, I did fall asleep at the drop of a hat, 'cause I was so tired all the time.


I wondered why my doc routinely asked about snoring and was pre-disposed to refer patients to a sleep doc, until I came back next year for a check-up. She asked how the cpap was going, I said great and mentioned that I'm close to 100% compliant becuase if I skip a night, I get darn grumpy, and she said "My husband's the same way. He's on cpap and if he skips a night or two, he's really irritable". I guess having a hubby on the hose has this GP's antenna up for OSA.

[KAZ]

Uncontrollable weight gain, no energy, sleep night/day still sleepy= complete respiratory failure while my wife and I were on a trip. I thought I had an ear infection causing imbalance/vertigo so she took me to a DOC In The Box where I collapsed in the lobby. They quickly discovered that I had no O2 and after an ambulance ride to the nearest hospital and 21 days intensive(trachea tube,etc) care and another 4 weeks at next level I came home on a walker. Sleep study showed severe SA (pressure at 20) and now I feel great(lost 145 lbs so far) and walk 5 miles every say rain or shine. I'm no longer prediabetic and am back to a great quality of life. I urge everyone I know to consider SA as a possible health issue and be tested if any doubt. This can in fact kill. Regards

[Sequoia]

Actually I have always have trouble sleeping. I also snore like a B-52, but until my wife aka Azaloune got her Cpap I'd never thought much about it. I'm still not convinced that I have a problem. The reasoning for it is this. Two decades ago you never even heard of this. It seemed to me to be something that somebody created to make the medical profession more money. I have never seen reports that any one has ever died of OSA for that matter. But if it makes me feel better at least I willing to give it a try.

The whole concept of sticking this mask, which looks for all intentions like something out of a Hammer Films horror movie and try to sleep in it rather alien to me. Getting used to this thing is not going to be a whole lotta fun.

[t-bone]

I'd heard of apnea, and a couple of girlfriends mentioned it to me over the years. One would sometimes wake me by saying, "Breathe, Tom!" I never gave it much thought--didn't look to see what could be done about it, as like most men I don't care for going to doctors.

Then Mom (you know her as Catnapper) was diagnosed and got the first of her several mask/machine combinations. She, like a good mom would, told me to make arrangements to see a good sleep doctor. That was about a year ago, and it took a while to get in to see the doctor (he's pretty popular, as he's one of the very few GOOD doctors around here). I've been a hosehead since October of 2006, and it's helped me quite a bit.

[___H]

...The whole concept of sticking this mask, which looks for all intentions like something out of a Hammer Films horror movie and try to sleep in it rather alien to me. Getting used to this thing is not going to be a whole lotta fun.
...

I'm right there with you! I'm still doing the good night band night bad night good night thing..

[Guest]

Twenty years ago my husband had a sleep study as a pre-op test for sinus surgery. They said he had sleep apnea and went ahead with the surgery. Never tested him again..we thought that ment the surgery took care of it. 15 years ago an auto wreck and a mild closed head injury which has deeply affected our lives since. He has not been able to work for years now and in the last 3 years the mental & Physical tiredness started to snowball. Two years ago he was diagnosed active Epstein Barr Virus (the sleeping virus). I told the Dr. about how he stopped breathing but every one was attributing it to head injury & EBV.

The last 8 mos. he's slept an average of 18 hrs. a day. Four mos. ago he passed out in the kitchen and in the fall twisted his bad back and could not get around for the pain. Out patient surgery removed a rather large cyst from inside his spinal colunm. The anesthesiologist kept him there several extra hrs. trying to get him through recovery. His saturation was at 80-84% sitting up talking and 64% when he'd nod off. So he explained he was at serious risk, told us exactly what to do about getting tested and sent him home on oxygen. We had a sleep study done and his AHI was 68 hr.

We're in the process of fine tuning now. Doesn't feel any better but since bing on oxygen his color is better, still struggles to stay awake when he is up, but atleast he shouldn't die in his sleep, praise God for that.

Thanks to all....Julie