Newly Dx

Hi, I'm newly diagnosed with sleep apnea. I go on Friday to do the sleep study again, this time with cpap. I stop breathing 16 times an hour. I have gotten lousy sleep for years, and had awful nightmares that I am dying.

So, what are the affects of untreated sleep apnea, besides feeling lousy, being grouchy, not being able to remember anything, loosing your job, having vehicle accidents, not being able to sleep with one's spouse, etc.... (been there, done all that)...?

I'm being checked out because I have arthritis, muscle pain, migraines, wake up with half my face numb, etc... and my primary care Dr. thinks maybe I have MS. I've had so many accidents in the last 3 years, he thinks I'm the most accident prone person he knows. Accidents that cause me to have to have rotator cuff surgery, ankle surgery and disc surgery on my neck with fusion and insertion of titanium plate.

I'm just so tired, yet I can't sleep. HELp. please?

sleeplesssue wrote:
So, what are the affects of untreated sleep apnea, besides feeling lousy, being grouchy, not being able to remember anything, loosing your job, having vehicle accidents, not being able to sleep with one's spouse, etc.... (been there, done all that)...?

Worst one is DEATH. Sounds harsh but all the accidents could have done the same. Each of the items that you mentioned could also cause death. Do it for you. The key is for you to feel better, and the rest will take care of themselves.

It is usually a struggle to start, but if you stick with it, it will get better.

Well I didn't mention the Fx pelvis from the car wreck, or the couple of comcussions from the falls.

What I'm trying to find out right now from my doctor, and any other knowledgeable people, is, can it cause MS or is it a symptom of MS, or does it just mimic MS. I go to have an EMG in 2 weeks also. The MRI was "OK." and I don't have Lyme Disease. Good to know all that I guess.

Since the worst of my falls (from a horse) , when I hurt my neck I have gotten migraines exponentially worse than I ever had before, and sometimes just the nausea and vomiting and no pain. I began having migraines, dizziness and vertigo out of the clear blue, when I was about 34 (maybe 12 years ago or so, with no family history or anything. Now it's awful. I hate it when I wake up with a blinding headache, nausea, heart pounding at 120 beats per minute, and a cold sweat. Then I get a migraine on top of that and my blood pressure goes up to 170/120, in spite of the blood pressure medicine. I've just felt awful for so many years.

Can the lack of oxygen during sleep cause arthritis and disc degeneration too? I was a clinical nurse/lab technician/x-ray tech for several years, and the doctor I worked for forbade his patients with broken bones to smoke, because it slowed the healing of broken bone. He also said smoking is the cause if so many people's back problems because it robs the discs of oxygen.

And why do doctors look at you like you are nuts when you tell them that all this stuff is happening to you? You have no idea how many doctors, rheumatologists, ENTs Naurologists, Neruosurgeons, psychologists and Psychiatrists it has taken me to get to this point. The pshychiatrist decided that I was depressed. The others mostly decided I needed to see the psychiatrist. This is until the latest GP and Neurologist decided maybe I'm not imagining this stuff.

Sorry about my awful typing. My fingers are dyslexic, and they sort of do their own thing sometimes. If I corrected all my typos I'd never get anything posted.

So Martinilover, are you telling me that sleep apnea can cause death all on it's own? Or is it just the accidents caused by inattentiveness that kill? I've read about the high blood pressure and increased risc of heart attack. How big an increase I never find out. It would be a puzzlement for my GP because on paper, I look great. My lab work is great, blood suger is good (I have a strong family history for diabetes) and the cholesterol is to be envied, so he says. He wouldn't believe me if I come into the office with heart related symptoms. He thinks I'm just having anxiety when my heart races, even when I swear that I was just relaxing and having a good day with no worries otherwise.

Several years ago I had a T&A with Palatoplasty. I needed the T&A for medical reasons. I used to snore badly. Now my DH says I just "breath funny" and it keeps him awake. He's a light sleeper.

I haven't got a uvula now. The hole at the back of my throat never closed up like the ENT said it would. I am always choking on liquids and sometimes when I take small pills they end up in my nasal cavity. Is this going to cause a problem with cpap? I can't close this opening at all, not even when I swallow. Food will go up unless I swallow carefully. I wouldn't do this surgery again, if I were deciding today. I am STILL a mouth breather, because i can't get sufficient airflow through my nose many times. I've always had problems getting air through my nose, all my life. Flonase helps some. I'm paranoid about this cpap thing.

My sister died at age 50 from sleep apnea. She was awake at
3:00 am and dead at 6:00 am. You need to get on nightly
Oxygen and wear that mask faithfully every night. There are
many folks on this list who will help you through it. I have a
leaky heart valve which my cardiologist says is the result of
apnea. Just getting the depression, anxiety, morning headaches,
fatigue, nightly pee trips, daytime sleepiness, arthritis pain to
go away, should be incentive enough for you to stick with it, not
to mention the huge increase in libido.

My sister had the same surgery as you did. She had the same
problems with liquids coming out her nose. The surgery didn't
do a thing for her. She wouldn't wear the mask as it was too
claustrophobic.

You really need to get the "right" equipment from the get go.
Read every post on this message board and get yourself
educated. You CAN turn your life around.

sleeplesssue,
The sleep apnea could be a cause of many of your problems - not with oxygen desaturation, but with carbon dioxide buildup. If the oxygen doesn't come in properly, the carbon dioxide doesn't go out properly. Excess carbon dioxide can lead to muscle weakness, lightheadedness, dizzyness, vomiting, etc., which can mimic the symptoms of MS. And of course, once you start down the road with one health problem, it puts more strain on other parts of the body, so you're likely to get more problems.

Thank you guys so much for listening to me and believing me. Do you understand how many people just think I'm a crazy hypochondriac? I have a sister who I didn't see for 20 years (our mother died when she was 40 and we were split up) and she has the exact same thing going on with her too. When we found each other again after all the years, we were so glad to talk again, and when we started comparing lives, we cried. We both KNEW we weren't just imagining things then. She has recently been Dx with Lupus. They explored a Dx of MS with her also. I have written her this week and urged her to get a sleep study any way she can. I also found out this week I have an aunt who has sleep apnea too, but she doesn't treat it. I plan to because I am so miserable. I think I'd just feel better if I had Oxygen at night. I slept better in the hospital after surgery when I had oxygen. When they came to take it away I almost grabbed it and begged to keep it. My heart raced all day that day, in spite of the medicine. I was sedated and sleeping, naturally (day after surgery) It just wears me out when my heart does that. Makes me feel like I've been running a marathon. Once when I was sleeping I had a very interesting dream (that day in the hospital. It was very vivid. I dreamed that my husband was next to me (he was right there) and I was dying. I was sad to be leaving him, but I felt this incredible peace, and Jesus was right there behind my husband waiting to take me to heaven, and it was ok to be going. It was a beautiful dream. I've been afraid of death for severlal years, though I believe in life after death (I'm christian) it was the process of dying, suffocating really, that scares me. After that dream I have had a lot more peace about it. I always felt that it was God's way to tell me it will be ok, he will be there to help me get through it on the other side, and my Dh is there to help me through life on this side.

Sorry if this offends any of you who don't believe. It's my experience though.