If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
hifiaudio
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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by hifiaudio » Fri Apr 17, 2015 10:46 am

I have a 15.5 inch neck, don't snore, and don't feel tired during the day (except now that I have been losing actual hours of sleep trying to get used to the mask), and I have severe sleep apnea, both central and obstructive. You likely have it.

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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by Guest » Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:35 pm

hifiaudio wrote:I have a 15.5 inch neck, don't snore, and don't feel tired during the day (except now that I have been losing actual hours of sleep trying to get used to the mask), and I have severe sleep apnea, both central and obstructive. You likely have it.

True. But if the tests say I don't have it, then what do I do from there? I'm seeing the doctor next week.

hifiaudio
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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by hifiaudio » Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:54 pm

Well then you can look at lifestyle, vitamin deficiencies due to diet, weight loss, etc. But if you wake up feeling awful its likely you have something going on with your sleep. Do you wake up with headaches?

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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by Guest » Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:59 pm

hifiaudio wrote:Well then you can look at lifestyle, vitamin deficiencies due to diet, weight loss, etc. But if you wake up feeling awful its likely you have something going on with your sleep. Do you wake up with headaches?

I don't know if I wake up with ''headaches'' per say, but I wake up with my brain feeling a lack of blood and oxygen.

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archangle
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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by archangle » Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:58 pm

TexasTom wrote:Get the oximeter. I had one when I used to fly to check oxygen level on long flights (usually I was under 10,000 ft.... but occasionally higher).
An oximeter may give you a good indication you have apnea, but remember that you can have severe apnea, and never show any oxygen desaturation at all.

As for not having the symptoms of apnea, lots of severe apneacs think that before their test.

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hifiaudio
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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by hifiaudio » Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:02 pm

As a side question to that last response, if you have apnea but no real O2 desats, are you avoiding one of the more lethal symptoms? I have very bad desats... into the high 50s on my readout, so I assume that is wreaking all sorts of havoc on my body.

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kteague
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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by kteague » Fri Apr 17, 2015 4:55 pm

Guest wrote: I don't know if I wake up with ''headaches'' per say, but I wake up with my brain feeling a lack of blood and oxygen.
Hey, just a suggestion... When you describe your symptoms, it would be helpful to add details of how you feel and omit mention of anything even remotely diagnostic. I mean, you don't even know yet if your brain has a lack of blood and oxygen, and who can know what that feels like, or if that is actually what you're feeling. The time you have with a doctor is limited. Make it count. Don't make them have to pull pertinent information out of you and have to sift through too much extraneous information. Simply describe your symptoms. My head hurts [insert when, location of pain, and description of pain]. Here's an example you could modify as applicable to you. My head hurts most days from the time I wake up until late afternoon. The pain is a throbbing pain in the back of my head in the mornings but later turns to a dull overall ache. Does that make sense in regards to being specific? Mention of what a diagnosis feels like just muddies the waters. Being specific can help others better target their help.

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robysue
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Re: If your neck is over 17 inches but don't have apnea

Post by robysue » Fri Apr 17, 2015 6:16 pm

Guest (Enchanter) wrote:
hifiaudio wrote:I have a 15.5 inch neck, don't snore, and don't feel tired during the day (except now that I have been losing actual hours of sleep trying to get used to the mask), and I have severe sleep apnea, both central and obstructive. You likely have it.

True. But if the tests say I don't have it, then what do I do from there? I'm seeing the doctor next week.
You deal with "what if the test says I don't have OA" after it happens. Quite frankly, if I were in your shoes, I'd be hoping that the sleep test was negative for OSA since that would mean I wouldn't have to deal with all the stuff that's involved in getting the proper equipment.

Look: You have the doctor appointment scheduled. The next step is getting the sleep test scheduled. The step after that is doing the sleep test. Until those three steps are done, there's no point in worrying about whether the sleep test is going to turn out to be negative. There's also no point in worrying about whether the sleep test is going to turn out to be positive.

The excessive worrying about all the "What if's" is counterproductive. The best thing you can do for yourself right now is to channel the energy you are currently spending on worrying about whether you have sleep apnea and the worrying about whether a sleep test will result in a false negative into something else. I would suggest that you channel this energy into learning about what sleep apnea actually is; how a sleep test works and about all the kinds of data that are gathered during a sleep test and how that data is used to diagnose not only OSA but a variety of other sleep related disorders; and learning about how CPAP is used to treat OSA.

I would strongly encourage you to find and read Sound Sleep, Sound Mind by Dr. Barry Krakow and Sleep Interrupted by Dr. Steven Park while you are in the frustrating "hurry up and wait" stage of waiting for your next doctor's appointment.

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