Hello

[m_l]

Hello, everyone

I'm new to all this, but have being lurking for a few weeks now. This is great place for questions and support. I would like too share my LONG story:

I was in a accident in May of last year. I was going home from work. When I saw a huge hole in the road. I was traveling at a normal speed, but by the time a noticed it was too late. I managed to slow down a bit, but was still going about 15mph or so. The car went through hole. When the car was coming out of it, the bottom of the car hit the road very hard. The airbags deployed, it happened so fast.

Background on the road. It have being under repair for sometime. I had stopped
taking it for that reason for like 2 months. That night I decided to look if they had finished with the repair. BTW that road has poor lighting, it was very dark when this happened.

So I got out the car to look for damage, didn't see any. Except for the airbags and cracked windshield. There was dust everywhere, so I got back in my car and drove home. At the time I didn't think of it, but I should have called the police, to get a police report. Anyways I went home. Had I hard time sleeping, my chest felt tight and hard to breathe. Again should have gone to get myself looked at, I'll admit to making mistakes.

Woke up the next morning feeling better. Went out for my daily run of 1hr, felt ok, went to work. So far so good. Next morning went out for my long run of the week 2hrs. The next day is when everything went downhill quick.

All this is from my family, I have no memory of this happening. I was watching tv, when my sister notice my eyes where rolling too the back of my head and could not keep my self sitting. Called the 911 took me to the hospital. Turns out I had pneumonia. I was in a coma for 16-17 days, had a heart attack and had too be revived three times. Was in rehab for 2 months or so, learning how to walk again.

Got better with time. Started back to my exercise routine(doc told it was ok). Then went back too work. This when I stared feeling exhausted after a few weeks of working and exercising. So I stopped exercising, felt better for a while. But about 2 months the exhaustion came back. Lucky for me at the time I had an appointment too see my Doc in month. It was starting to affect my work, hard to
concentrate.

Went too see my Doc, told him how I was feeling. Gave me a script for testosterone. I need this since all the drugs they gave me to safe my life, my body stopped producing it. And that's when he told me I need to do a sleep study.
Did the study, it has now being a about a month since then. See my Doc this week for the results.

The study was done in two stages. First was without out anything and the second was with cpap (if I needed it the tech said). So I fell a sleep after a while. The tech came in woke me up, had put on the mask. Fell back a sleep again, woke me up to tighten the mask. Man that mask was tight. Woke me up for the last time a few hours later. I actually felt somewhat rested. I asked the tech that did my study few questions. He told me that without the cpap I was not getting too the restful sleep, delta he said. But with the cpap I was getting a lot of delta

I have being feeling like crap for a while now, looking forward to seeing my Doc. I want get back they way I was before all this happened. I'm sure I left-out somethings, feel free to ask.

I know that I'm lucky to still be here, I Thank GOD I'm still here every night.

Thanks for reading this, I know it's long

Mike

[MartiniLover]

Mike,
I am sure we all hope you Don't have sleep apnea. Chance are since they had you on the mask. Good luck, keep us all posted and we are looking forward to having you along for the ride.

[Fifi]

Gosh Mike you have been through it.

Have they given you a machine yet? It may well make a huge difference. For me certainly it as a life saver, as I was in a totally zombified state without realising it, and had been in this state for years. I was just existing and trying to survive a day at a time falling asleep,everywhere and anywhere. My life had ground to a complete halt but nobody told me, it just crept up on me.

It may change your life as it did mine and you will be back to your old self in no time. Just after one night on the machine i felt the difference! And after that it just got better and better.

[m_l]

Fifi: I haven't gotten anything yet. Until I see my Doc nothing will happen. I
can't wait to see him so I can get the help that I need.

I feel like a zombie most days. Today I feel better than most days. I had to miss work on friday yet again, that's why I feel somewhat better. I'm trying to take one day at a time at the moment.

Thank you both for your support.
Mike

[Fifi]

When are you seeing your doc and is it worth trying to bring the date forward, possibly trying to see if they have cancellations etc.

Just a thought.

[m_l]

I see him on Tuesday. I tried to that but the sleep study wasn't ready. I'm going to call the sleep center on Monday, to make sure my Doc has the results.

[dsm]

Welcome to the forum and whatever the outcome I hope it turns out well.

Having read your story I won't forget it so I will be thinking of you and your progress for a while to come. You have my best wishes.

Re feelings of tiredness. I am passing this on in the hope that it will give you hope even if it turns out your own symptoms have another cause.

My OSA really seems to have bitten me during the past 3-4 years or so. Prior to this I could work long hours & often did plus I did lots of exercise. During this past 2 years I was increasingly becoming concerned (dejected, worried) about the fact that I was feeling tired in spells at work and increasingly listless. There would be weekends where I didn't want to do much, just watch tv or read.
In the night my wife kept waking me up to tell me to breathe (or to stop snoring). She was regularly rolling me on my side. After a while she would just nudge me & I would 'assume the position' (roll over). Any wine or beer (even small amounts) before sleep, would guarantee snoring & osa symptoms.

After a health scare and because my wife was stating that she was not getting good sleep, I went for a sleep studies checkout after going to doc then sleep specialist. I had done a sleep study 15 years before in the belief I may have had OSA but that sleepover cleared me. I also lost 8 kilos in weight but in doing my early morning walk (I don't try to jog, I know the harm to my knees) I would get up at 5am - walk for 30 mins then come back home & go to bed for another hour. A strange way to start the day but I lost the weight. This weight loss was done prior to my 1st OSA sleepover. It didn't get rid of the OSA. My weight today (203 lbs) is pretty reasonable for a 6ft tall person.

On this one my AHI was rated at 40 and at this clinic that was called severe.

I started fulltime treatment with my cpap machine just 7 days ago.

The observations I have made include ...

1) I was going thru these periods of tiredness at work during the day
2) Was finding it harder to think quickly - felt like I was losing my concentration
3) Did not feel as alert as I used to (a very big worry for my job)
4) Was becoming worried about ...
- my job security (would my managers think I was fading away)
- lack of energy generally
- my wife's disturbance at my sleeping habits
5) One other thing I believe was happening is that I was turning (somewhat) into a grumpy person when I used to be very cheery.

I had heard that CPAP was able to deal with the above types of issues. The more I researched CPAP the more excited I got that it may make a big difference for myself. The words that kept going through my mind from CPAP discussions & papers were "Improved quality of life".

I had a friend a little older than myself who had gone on CPAP some 3 years ago. I spoke to him and grilled him about his changed energy and alertness. he assured me it had improved for him. He also stated to me that he was so positive about CPAP that he will not sleep without it & takes his machine everywhere he goes including camping.

So my experience ... (these are still early days but because the results fit the predicted outcome, I believe they are accurate and quite relevant) ...

- Almost within a day or so I noticed a *big* improvement in alertness. I am
feeling 'sharp' and this is boosting my confidence in many areas

- I am finding that after the initial feelings of excessive tiredness in the morning for the 1st 3 days, I am now waking and ready to go - any waking tiredness passes withing the hour & my days have been without my customary drowsiness - 100%

- In fact for the past 3 nights, I have woken in the night & lay in bed thinking about different things (such as CPAP and the things I read on this forum), then I get to sleep wake up as normal & have a great day

- Last night I actually stayed up working until 3:30am (wanted to do a particular thing on my computer) went to bed, got up at 9am before my wife & am feeling quite normal whereas if I tried this a few weeks ago I would be 'stuffed' the next day all day.

- Also last night, my wife & I had been to dinner at friends - I had several beers & several wines - I didn't get drowsy as usual & as with the paragraph above, I was still clear headed enough to stay up working until 3:30am. I could *never* have even contemplated something like this without expecting all sorts of negative side effects the next day. I usually poop out at 11pm no matter if we have gone to friends or have them visit us.

I am aware of the potential to be on a bit of a 'high' following the excitement of going on CPAP and the expectations I have built up. But again I come back to the results being totally consistent with the predictions so can feel quite confident in publishing these comments & not fearing it is a bubble that will burst.

If I am not mistaken, I sense that several of our well respected and loved participants here, may be able to tell very similar stories.

If there is one great outcome for me, it is a growing feeling of harmony and satisfaction that seems to be flowing over such that I have time and the interest to want to help other people here (sound familiar RG etc: ).

Anyway,

I hope your own steps toward an improved quality of life are good ones. Your post here is an excellent one along the way.

Cheers

DSM
(My thought for the week. If I now have energy to spare, then it is time to share)

[m_l]

dsm,

Until I see the doc, I won't know for sure if it's OSA or lingering problems from the accident. Hopefully, I will find out what's wrong soon. This is the first time I have gone to see a doctor in years, before any of this happened. I have never felt like this before in my life. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude. But I may also be suffering from depression. Will talk to the doc about that also.

I'm also having a hard time at work. But make my self go, within reason. I missed
4 months last year. I have only missed 2 weeks since last September. Hopefully they
won't lose their patience with me.

Thank You for your support,
Mike

[JimH]

M_l any chance you got some sort of poisining from powder that came out of the Airbag?? Poisoning could lead to all sort of issues. I am by no means even the slightest qualified to go on about it, but just a thought!

[Fifi]

I used to wonder that but I have been told that that is not possible, making the use of airbags counter productive.

[dsm]

M_l any chance you got some sort of poisining from powder that came out of the Airbag?? Poisoning could lead to all sort of issues. I am by no means even the slightest qualified to go on about it, but just a thought!

I would be very surprised in airbags had anything but inert gas/powder in them.

I do agree that this case has some OSA symptoms but the circumstances do open the possibility to many other triggers incl ingesting some harmful substances.

Mike's tiredness though is characteristic of anemia or depleted blood oxygen caused by any number of reasons.

I am very interested in the outcome of Mike's sleep studies clinic. I am guessing they will say he has OSA.

I do hope that Mike gets some kind of answer that is clear cut and can be readily actioned. I do doubt that poisoning is part of it.

Cheers

DSM

[Nitro Dan]

What about the Gas Used to Fill the Airbag?
Chemical Reactions Used to Generate the Gas

Inside the airbag is a gas generator containing a mixture of NaN3, KNO3, and SiO2. When the car undergoes a head-on collision, a series of three chemical reactions inside the gas generator produce gas (N2) to fill the airbag and convert NaN3, which is highly toxic (The maximum concentration of NaN3 allowed in the workplace is 0.2 mg/m3 air.), to harmless glass (Table 1). Sodium azide (NaN3) can decompose at 300oC to produce sodium metal (Na) and nitrogen gas (N2). The signal from the deceleration sensor ignites the gas-generator mixture by an electrical impulse, creating the high-temperature condition necessary for NaN3 to decompose. The nitrogen gas that is generated then fills the airbag. The purpose of the KNO3 and SiO2 is to remove the sodium metal (which is highly reactive and potentially explosive, as you recall from the Periodic Properties Experiment) by converting it to a harmless material. First, the sodium reacts with potassium nitrate (KNO3) to produce potassium oxide (K2O), sodium oxide (Na2O), and additional N2 gas. The N2 generated in this second reaction also fills the airbag, and the metal oxides react with silicon dioxide (SiO2) in a final reaction to produce silicate glass, which is harmless and stable. (First-period metal oxides, such as Na2O and K2O, are highly reactive, so it would be unsafe to allow them to be the end product of the airbag detonation.)

Weather it's harmful to health, anyone's guess. I work in the auto industry and have been told all sorts of things.

Additional Considerations: Undetonated-Airbag Disposal

Thus far we have discussed how airbags function to protect us when there is a head-on collision. But the vast majority of airbags in cars, fortunately, are never deployed within the lifetime of the automobile. What happens to these airbags? Typically, cars are flattened and recycled at the end of their lifetime, and the airbags are never removed from the cars. This can be hazardous, because these airbags still contain sodium azide, whose presence during the automobile-recycling process endangers workers, and can damage recycling equipment and the environment.

How does this happen? Sodium azide can react in several ways when it undergoes the conditions of the recycling process itself. The first step of this process is to flatten the automobile hulk. Once the car is flattened, it is impossible to see whether or not it contains an airbag. If the container holding the NaN3 is damaged during flattening, then NaN3, which is potentially mutagenic and carcinogenic, can be released into the environment. (Recall, the maximum concentration of NaN3 allowed in the workplace is 0.2 mg/m3 air.) The next step in recycling cars is to shred them into fist-sized pieces so that the different types of metal can be separated and recovered. Sodium azide released during this process may contaminate the steel, iron, and nonferrous metals recovered at this stage. Of greater concern, however, is the large amounts of heat and friction generated by the shredder. Recall that NaN3 reacts explosively at high temperatures; hence, there is a risk of ignition when airbags pass through the automobile shredder. This danger is amplified if sodium azide comes in contact with heavy metals in the car, such as lead and copper, because these may react to form a volatile explosive. The pieces of the car may also pass through a wet shredder. Here, another danger arises because if the NaN3 dissolves in water, it can form hydrazoic acid (HN3):

NaN3 + H2O ---> HN3 + NaOH.

HN3 is highly toxic, volatile (i.e., it becomes airborne easily), and explosive.

What can be done to prevent these reactions of sodium azide in undetonated airbags? Somehow, the airbags must be prevented from going through the automobile-recycling process. Warning devices that would alert recyclers to the presence of an undetonated airbag in flattened car hulks have been tested, but these are generally expensive to implement, and they would need to be in every automobile airbag. Also, it is extremely difficult or impossible to remove an airbag from a car that has already been flattened, and so the question of what to do with these flattened cars containing airbags remains unanswered. This will become an increasingly large problem, as airbags have recently become mandatory equipment in new automobiles. Hence, the proportion of cars with airbags in recycling plants will increase. A better solution is to remove the airbag canister before the car is sent for flattening or recycling. This is cheaper, simpler, and more efficient, and allows the car to be recycled safely. This strategy is already used for other hazardous components of cars, such as lead-battery cases. However, there is an added incentive for removing batteries that is not yet applicable for removing airbags from cars before recycling. The lead from batteries can be re-sold, but currently there is no market value for airbag canisters. Thus, strictly-enforced laws or a market-based incentive system may be required to ensure that airbags continue to protect our safety, even after the lifetime of the automobiles that contain them.

Just FYI

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): auto

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): auto

[m_l]

The doctors have ruled anemia and a few order things. I had a test done on my lungs, doc said everything looked ok for now. But told me that I might have long term effects, that won't show up now but could show up later.

Hopefully I'll get some answers soon. I'll keep you guys posted, see the doc tomorrow and then neurologist a week from now.

Mike

[dsm]

WOW, that is some detail. Most impressed
amazing the incatracies of modern inventions.

Thanks for the description - great to have a forum with such a variety of
talent.

Cheers

DSM

[Rigby]

Mike, when I had my sleep study and they told me I'd need CPAP, they wanted me to wait two months until I had a follow-up with the Pulmonologist, then said they'd send someone out to fit me with a mask and give me a machine. I told them "I WANT THE CPAP NOW, PLEASE!"
Someone came out within the week to set me up. When I finally had my follow-up appointment I had been using the CPAP for over six weeks and the appointment was much more productive.

Be firm. They already know your settings, no reason to wait.

Isn't it weird they wanted me to wait another two months for CPAP when after the study they wanted to send me home with O2 at night???