Dr Zorba and call from a snorer 01/30/2010

[montana]

01/30/2010

I listen Dr Zorba's call in show every Saturday morning. He had a male caller call in. He told Dr Zorba that he was a very loud snorer. He snored so bad he was sleeping on the couch. The caller told him that he had had his adenoids out and his ENT was recommending other surgeries like surgery on thoat ect. He told the Dr that his dentist also recommended a dental appliance.
Dr Zorba DID tell him to go to a University hospital for a second opinion but NOT ONCE did he mention that he may have sleep apnea. .
http://www.wpr.org/Zorba/browseshows.cfm

[Guest]

Doctors seem to be the least informed sometimes. My wife snored like a freight train for the first 19 years we were married (and before according to family). I became concerned that she would stop breathing for periods of time between snore-broke the rythym. Her doctor told her "just because you snore, it does mean you have sleep apnea". I guess he decided to cover his butt and sent her for a study anyway. Guess what? It came back as SEVERE APNEA. She started on cpap therapy and the events dropped and the snoring went away- except for occasional bad nights! I sleep better just knowing she got the needed treatment.

[montana]

Good for you...some husbands might not be as nice. I am sure she is glad she got help! I personally think sleep apnea is under diagnosed. The problem is Doctors and others make fun of snoring and do not address the cause.
Oh the media will talk about how Americans can't sleep and give cutesy solutions but rarely mention sleep apnea.

[riveredge1]

I miss your pic in profile---i will have one more nite and send report--i notice on my daily charts the VS can be between 7-33--i havent figured out what is good and what is bad--when on machine are we not suppose to snore???

[rested gal]

Dr Zorba DID tell him to go to a University hospital for a second opinion but NOT ONCE did he mention that he may have sleep apnea.

Well, we can only hope the guy does go the University hospital and that he's lucky enough to run into a more OSA-savvy doctor than Doc Z is.

Doctors seem to be the least informed sometimes.

About sleep apnea, and about the red flag that snoring so often is -- amen!

I sleep better just knowing she got the needed treatment.

You're a good husband.

i notice on my daily charts the VS can be between 7-33--i havent figured out what is good and what is bad--

If the AHI is staying nice and low I wouldn't worry much about the Variable Snores rate in that range or even higher. Could be just a little flutter that's happening when your head/neck gets in some positions. If AHI were above 5.0 with a Respironics machine and the VS were going on practically all night, I'd probably raise the pressure on a CPAP machine or raise the minimum pressure on an Autopap machine.

When I say I'd "raise", I'm talking about a full cm or two, not just fractions.

But your VS rate doesn't look bad to me.

when on machine are we not suppose to snore???

Ideally, yeah.. treatment should eliminate snores, too. But as I said, I wouldn't worry about a few sneaking through, and your rate range is "a few" imho. Snores could be so light as to not be causing any trouble at all. And some of them might even just be from hose dragging across headboard or edge of nightstand occasionally.