Here is my story:
I’m a 32 year old male, 6’, ~200 pounds (slender, yet solid build), narrow throat/airway. I have 1-3 of what I call “bad days” per week, and on these days, I feel completely useless. I’ve had this issue for so long that it’s just become a part of my life: waking up every single day and asking myself if it’s going to be a bad day that I have to struggle through. This has negatively affected my career, relationships, my own mental health.
I can always detect a bad day by how I feel immediately upon waking. Here are the symptoms that I experience on these “bad days” (I feel them immediately and they last all day):
- - "brain fog," inability to focus, can't think clearly, much effort required to speak properly, sometimes resulting in jumbled or slurred words. (This is by far the worst symptom as it is hard to fight through)
- tight/stiff neck, jaw, and shoulder muscles on the right side, all accompanied by extremely deep aches in those muscles
- feeling spaced out and almost dizzy, less coordinated than usual
- trouble completing routine tasks properly: taking longer to get ready in the morning, putting hygiene products back in the wrong places, etc.
- extreme thirst (very dry mouth), usually have cravings for carb or sugar heavy foods (it feels like my body is trying to gain energy to “snap out of it”)
- irritability and negative mood
- jumpier, startle easily
- cold hands and feet
- breathing feels restricted/hard, like I can’t take a deep breath like normal
Trying to get a diagnosis:
My dentist says I am a heavy night time grinder.
I have briefly visited with a neurologist (5 minute appointment) who thinks I am suffering from migraines. I don’t have any typical migraine pain and don’t get visual disturbances, so I find this unlikely. I don't want to start taking off-label migraine prevention drugs if I don't have to (many of them are antidepressants, etc.). I'd prefer to rule out a sleep disorder issue first.
After pushing the issue with my primary care doctor, I had a sleep study done that didn’t indicate sleep apnea or UARS, according to the results, but I did have an AHI of ~3 (4.3 during REM). It was almost all hypopneas. I do snore to some degree, but not an extreme amount.
The doctors had no advice for me other than to lose weight (if you saw me, you would think I was "skinny" and wouldn't think I needed to lose weight at all). I feel like this was such a cop-out, but I know how difficult UARS can be to diagnose.
Here are my sleep study results: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y06faci6fs69h ... d.pdf?dl=0. I’m hoping someone can take a look at them and see if there is anything that stands out that would be indicative of something.
Thanks so much for your help in trying to get to the bottom of this!