Does anybody else dread going to sleep?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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loonlvr
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Post by loonlvr » Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:03 pm

DSM-with 221 posts since june 20th, you gotta be an expert! One thing I want to add is the idea that losing weight may enable you to get off of xpap.I believe that it will lessen the effects, but I don't see much chance of stopping treatment unless you were borderline from the start. I think it has lots to do with physiology. I was REAL skinny for many years and had severe OSA. I had the operation in 1985 that worked for awhile but it returned. But it never hurts to lose excessive weight.
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Post by Sleepless on LI » Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:20 pm

Loonlvr writes:
One thing I want to add is the idea that losing weight may enable you to get off of xpap.I believe that it will lessen the effects, but I don't see much chance of stopping treatment unless you were borderline from the start.
I happen to be one of the "lucky" people who was told by an ENT that he feels my OSA is related to a 25 lb. weight gain. I was diagnosed with mild OSA, although my first sleep study showed no apnea episodes (never saw the second study report), but 4.something hypopneas and 14.something PLMD episodes per hour average, which greatly fragmented my sleep. Also, my oxygen desaturation was considered moderate, not mild. I went back for a second study and was titrated at 10 cms.

Now, I used to be very thin and very in shape. So although 25 lbs. is not a tremendous amount to be overweight, it was a lot for my body to handle. Out of nowhere, I ended up with borderline high BP (sometimes more than borderline) and was put on meds. I was exhausted day and night, never slept through a night in years, had migraine headaches, snored so loud my husband would get up and sleep on the couch, and was plain miserable. Talk about fatigue?

After being on the cpap for a few weeks, I went to an ENT to discuss if I was a candidate for the Pillar Procedure. While I was there, he did an exhaustive exam, including a probe down both nostrils, and said there was absolutely no anatomical reason for me to have OSA, and said if I continued to lose weight on my new exercise and eating right program, hopefully by Labor Day I would be off cpap.

I have the software for the a little over a week now and my highest AHI has been a 3. This morning it was a 0.8. I have been told that 5 and under is considered normal and had I had these results when I went for my sleep studies, they wouldn't have put me on therapy.

I am now somewhat addicted to cpap and love the new found energy and lifestyle I have gotten back. I am not anxious to take a chance of giving it up and going back to what I was. My BP last night was an amazing 114/67 WITH NO MEDS. I have lost a total of 8 lbs. in four weeks and exercise three days a week on my recumbent bike for 45 mins. at a fast pace.

I am hoping that I will have the choice in September to eliminate the machine all together, if I have the guts to try. Am going to do a split study probably next weekend if the AHI's I've been getting remain very low, like they have been. They're usually between 1.0-1.8 the past couple of days.

So in response to your post, it is possibly to eliminate the need for cpap if you lose weight in a situation where you have no anatomical reason for having it in the first place and have put on more than you're used to carrying. It doesn't have to be obesity. To me, 25 lbs. was detrimental enough to someone not used to being at all overweight ever. You did say unless you were diagnosed with a borderline case. I guess I may fall into that cateagory, but it is possible to get off completely by losing weight.

My advice to anyone would be, get checked out to find out THE REASON behind your OSA. If it's not one of anatomy, then you may be lucky enough to be in the same situation I am finding myself in.

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Post by WAFlowers » Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:22 pm

Im2tired wrote:I snorkeled at Stingray City in Grand Caymen. It was better than the 1st time I snorked in the Bahamas when I just paniced to put my head under water and breath - it goes against your natural instinct to hold your breath under water.
I suppose, but I've been doing it so long (I really can't remember if my age was measured with 1 or 2 digits when I started) that it feels quite natural to me.

Either way, stingrays are just fun to be around. One of the most intelligent fish I know of. One tried to give my daughter a hickey on her stomach! She was laughing so hard she was having trouble breating!
The CPAPer formerly known as WAFlowers

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dsm
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Post by dsm » Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:20 pm

loonlvr wrote:DSM-with 221 posts since june 20th, you gotta be an expert! One thing I want to add is the idea that losing weight may enable you to get off of xpap.I believe that it will lessen the effects, but I don't see much chance of stopping treatment unless you were borderline from the start. I think it has lots to do with physiology. I was REAL skinny for many years and had severe OSA. I had the operation in 1985 that worked for awhile but it returned. But it never hurts to lose excessive weight.


Re weight loss. lost 18lbs last xmas and am just about to start another 6 month program to loose same again. Thus far it has had *no* effect on my OSA that I can tell. I don't really expect the next weight loss to make any improvement there. I do hope it will enhance my overall health.

But I was greatly amused by the recent spate of CPAP sales in July on eBay (these seem to have dried up as eBay killed them off yet again) - the number of sellers claiming they were diagnosed OSA but after 'recent surgery' no longer require their 'near new' machines because they no longer have OSA

Cheers

DSM



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Post by Sleepless on LI » Fri Aug 05, 2005 7:37 pm

I think the bottom line is, we all have OSA for different reasons, some of us of course sharing reasons. But if it has something to do with your anatomy, and there is no cure for whatever is incorrectly affecting that part of your anatomy, then cpap is the only answer to control the condition. It is a fact that obesity does cause OSA in some people, and I'm sure in those cases weight loss will cure it. But if you have something totally related to a part of your body that they cannot fix, then you won't lose OSA by losing weight. It's like taking an aspirin to cure cancer. Just won't work.
Simply put, if weight caused the OSA, getting rid of the weight can get rid of the OSA. I didn't believe this when my husband's friend from childhood told him, after hearing I had been diagnosed with it, that he had been, too. When he saw what was involved, he refused to do it; ie, wearing the mask to bed each night, hooked up to a cpap machine. He lost 30 lbs. and his OSA went away. I said, "BS!!!"
Then I went to the ENT and he told me I have a very good prognosis for doing the same after dropping the extra weight.
So it's not impossible to get rid of OSA in some cases. You just have to be one of "those" cases.

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dsm
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Post by dsm » Sat Aug 06, 2005 3:27 am

Sleepless on LI wrote: Then I went to the ENT and he told me I have a very good prognosis for doing the same after dropping the extra weight.
So it's not impossible to get rid of OSA in some cases. You just have to be one of "those" cases.
Thanks Lori,

I had more or less got the notion that OSA due to weight was as hard to cure as OSA not caused by weight. Reason I say this is that unless the person finds a way to deal with why they put on weight in the 1st place, then surgery can surely only be a temporary patch that then gets undone by the original problem.

I guess it boils down to how many people who lost apnea due to weight loss, were able to sustain that weight loss for longer than a couple of years. I went through this cycle once but OSA got me in the end.

An interesting topic.

Cheers

DSM
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Post by Sleepless on LI » Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:45 am

DMS writes:
I guess it boils down to how many people who lost apnea due to weight loss, were able to sustain that weight loss for longer than a couple of years.
Oh, DSM, why did you go and do that??? Now you gave me a brand new worry: Can I sustain this way of life for the rest of my life so that I never will end up back on cpap IF I DO ACTUALLY GET OFF OF IT. You know I'm only kidding with you about you giving me the worry, but now it is really fuel for thought.

I truly feel lately that I am far more happy with this exercise regime, which I haven't done since I stopped being an instructor in a gym in my early 20s, and the new method of totally eating healthy. I guess if I don't lose the enthusiasm along the way for the new way of life I've adopted, then I should be okay. I know it's a very hard job, though, to keep weight off, but I am praying that the exercise three days a week, in conjunction with finally eating healthy, and in the right proportions, will keep me motivated when I try to hold onto how great I'm feeling, and eventually looking (not yet but getting there).

Thanks for the reply. I wish you nothing but the best in your efforts to lose the weight. Maybe this time, coupled with new found energy and exercise, you'll stay at the new low-you weight. Good luck (we both need it...)!

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dsm
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Weight loss

Post by dsm » Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:28 pm

Sleepless on LI wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I wish you nothing but the best in your efforts to lose the weight. Maybe this time, coupled with new found energy and exercise, you'll stay at the new low-you weight. Good luck (we both need it...)!
Lori,

I have a greater motive that have ever had before. But I am not worried if CPAP is now a full time part of it.

Am targetting my weight for196 lbs and if I can hold that for 6 moths may try for 188lbs or so.

But good luck with youy programme - it is a proud achievement & gets prouder as we get older (cos it gets harder)

Cheers

DSM

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Post by Sleepless on LI » Sat Aug 06, 2005 4:48 pm

DSM writes:
it is a proud achievement & gets prouder as we get older (cos it gets harder)
Oh, how true!!! Good luck, DSM. I have faith you will succeed and meet your goals this time.

Thanks, too, for your good wishes. You can never get enough of them.
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