Just discovered I have sleep apnea, been hell...

So ever since maybe the end of high school (im 26 now) I have had these paralyzing moments when I fall asleep I looked it up and it was Sleep Paralysis I didn't think much of it because they said it wasn't dangerous so I continued my life over the next few years as normal dealing with sleep paralysis almost nightly. Well I started getting tired and having chest pains and raised blood pressure (normally in the day it's 135/90) but when I woke up I took it and it was 140/105 and went down throughoutt he day. So I talked to my dr and he put me on a sleep study and I found out I have moderate APNEA (14AHI) this was a shock to me and I was very worried. up until about the end of high school I've had panic attacks BAD ONES I wasn't able to go to school because of it I had to come home mid day. But they went away when I got out of school and for 6-7 years I had no panic attacks. Well last week I had chest pains, high blood pressure, numbing in my arm with burning, i felt sick and dizzy when i awoke int he morning palms and feet sweaty so they rushed me to the ER and they did a EKG, Blood Test and XRAY and all tests were fine they said I had teckocardiac or something because my lower number was high and my heart beat was around 144! they chalked it up to anxiety and panic attacks and bad heart burn (ive had extreme heart burn most my life.) and sent me home. I've been taking my heart burn meds and anxiety meds with lorazapam to calm my anxiety but I still have chest pains and trouble breathing and my pulse races around 130 at some points in the day. I stupidly went oline and looked up some things and apparently over 105 on the bottom is really bad and you should seek medical attention also I read that a high heart rate is bad and should be treated so I worried myself more and have been panic'ing daily because of it basically it has ruined my life.

So today I woke up my chest hurt I was dizzy I felt sick my feet and palms are sweating I basically feel like complete crap I check my bp and it's 140/105 and 140 pulse I freak out and want to goto the hospital but my family says that im fine and that im just working myself up. So I took a larazapam and I noticed after a few hours my bp was 130/90 and heart rate is around 100. So I went online again and looked it up and learned that OSA can cause high bp in the morning as well as chest pains now I'm really FREAKED out that I won't wake up next time I go to bed and it wont be for another week or two until they stress test my heart and get me on CPAP so I'm really really freaking out that one of these nights I will die in my sleep. I feel like crap all day and I hate it, can anyone provide insight? Should I go to the dr should I just wait? is this normal for someone with OSA? am I at risk I just need to know what to do because I'm new to all this I'm only 26 years old and I'm scared to death I'm going to die from this.

My family assures me that it's just the stress and anxiety and that I will be fine that most people in the world have OSA and live long lives but my DR told me his best friend died at 33 from OSA in his sleep and I'm reading stories of younger people having heart attacks and OSA being the main cause so that freaks me out even more. I know if I go to the DR right now he will just run the same tests and send me home like the last 3 times but I can;t help but feeling I'm going to die in my sleep or have a heart attack or stroke and I just want my CPAP machine and I want to start fixing myself but I have to wait 3 weeks for the specialist to see me and a week ro two for them to echo and stress my heart and I just feel like by then it will be too late I can't tell if its all anxiety of if I really have a problem I know 140/105 with a 140 pulse is NOT normal and NOT good so I'm even more scared. I just need some insight on what to do.

Just insist on a sleep test. Doctors work for you. Tell them what to do.

There are home sleep tests you can order online which will be reported to your doctor if you want to be more proactive.

I had a sleep test 14AHI and was told I have sleep apnea but I don't know what to do now I just took my blood pressure again and its 150/107 and when I stand up my pulse goes from 90 to 140.

GOGETAH wrote:I had a sleep test 14AHI and was told I have sleep apnea but I don't know what to do now I just took my blood pressure again and its 150/107 and when I stand up my pulse goes from 90 to 140.

An AHI of under 15 is considered Mild......15-30 is considered Moderate....over 30 is considered Severe. If you keep taking your BP and pulse your anxiety will go up. Resting pulse between 60-100 is considered normal

This is bad advice, so do not follow it! But just for the heck of it, let me tell you what I did. I waited months for a sleep test and then months for a machine. I decided I had to do something to save myself, so I borrowed a machine and played with it. Seems as though these machines can sometimes be found tucked away in a former users closet, who for some reason or another have decided they don't need it. Well, the machine was set to a very low pressure.... about 5 as I remember...... it did me no good, so I learned to change the settings and gradually increased it to about 15 over several weeks. Sure enough it was like magic, even so my real machine was set even higher - 18. If I had not done this I would have suffered for months. But then again this is very bad advice and I am advising you not to do what I did.

over the last few days my bp was averaging like 130/90 or lower but today its been spiking between 140/90 and 150/107 I took 2 lorazapam and i dont feel anxious well kind of worried I'm going to the doctors today and I think I'm going to have a 24h sleep study done. I need answers this is scaring me and ruining my life.

1. Tell your family that they are WRONG, most folks do not have some form of sleep apnea, its time for them to get educated on the subject.
2. You are stressing yourself out, slow down, breathe deeply and relax, this is not rocket science and you will not die in the next 3 weeks until you see the specialist.
3. You need to start educating yourself on sleep apnea... read as much as you can here and start learning. If there is something you don't understand, just ask someone will give you the answers. An score of 14 is considered mild, my score was 27, and I had to wait 4 months to get tested and then 6 months before I got my machine. There are many here who had scores in the hundreds and they still survived waiting to get their equipment. A few things you can do in the meantime...besides not getting into panic mode.... raise the head of your bed about 6 inches, this will help with both heart burn and osa, also do not sleep on your back, if you are a back sleeper, try sleeping on your side. If you have access to a recliner chair try sleeping in that.
Remember....... RELAX, DEEP BREATH and you WILL make it.
Cheers
Nan

Yeah I read that like 1 in 14 people have apnea and like 80% are undiagnosed which would mean that like 2 in 14 people have apnea I figured they were wrong but apparently my uncle has it and a few other people we know have it so they think it's normal.

I wouldnt worry too much but I've been feeling like shit daily and my bp is higher than it has ever been and im having chest pains and it's really scaring me I know it could be the anxiety but what if it's something else and I wait and it's too late? my family is known for heart attacks my dad had 3 my grandfather died from one and my mother has really high blood pressure.

Im more worred about my bp at this point than the apnea but idk if the apnea is causuing this anxiety or a bad heart...

Also I sleep on my side and/or stomach already.

I suspect you have multiple things going on, not all of them related to sleep apnea, but getting some treatment for the sleep apnea will only HELP, not hurt. So ask that your sleep apnea be re-evaluated and push for CPAP treatment. Once you get CPAP, it's not always easy to adjust, but we can help. Treating your apnea may go a long way to helping you have calm nights, which will reduce a lot of the stress and anxiety--and may even help your heartburn.

That said, I suspect that you need to tackle more than "just" the sleep apnea. A big clue is that you say you have had "extreme heart burn almost all [your]life." Have you been on medications (proton pump inhibitors) for most of your life? What this tells me is that your "gut health" is more than likely bad, and that may be the root cause of what you are dealing with. Gut dysbiosis can cause the panic attacks, heartburn, and much more. If you go to most doctors, they will throw drugs at you and call it good. But clearly it is not good.

Your best bet is to find a functional MD or integrative MD who will look at you as an entire person and treat the UNDERLYING CAUSES, not just the symptoms. These are MD's who have had additional training in functional or integrative approaches. They treat the whole person as an integrated unit, not symptom by symptom. These doctors can help you.

GOGETAH wrote:So I talked to my dr and he put me on a sleep study and I found out I have moderate APNEA (14AHI)

Why don't you insist this doctor give you a prescription for a f###ing CPAP?

The odds of you dying or having serious problems from lack of CPAP in the next few weeks are really small. It's more of a long term risk.

Sleeping on your side, on your stomach, or sleeping in a recliner might help until you get a CPAP machine.

Read the Useful Links in my signature line to help you in getting the right CPAP machine. You really need a good fully data capable CPAP machine. Without that, you have no way to know if the therapy is working.

ChicagoGranny wrote:

GOGETAH wrote:So I talked to my dr and he put me on a sleep study and I found out I have moderate APNEA (14AHI)

Why don't you insist this doctor give you a prescription for a f###ing CPAP?

Don't get the hostility... but I havn't gotten my CPAP yet because I'm waiting on my apt with the specialist so I can get setup with it. I can't just buy a CPAP from my MD and call it good doesn't work like that, I need to understand my options and what I'm dealing with so that the CPAP can better help me.

Anyways I just got back from the hospital they did an EKG and everything looked fine they took my blood pressure and I was 114/90 so it went down my pulse was alos quite high but that went down to 90 by the time I left. He gave me another script of larazapan and took some blood work he thinks I have Mono or something that might be attributing to my feeling like crap, pains and my high pulse. He thinks my blood pressure is linked to Anxiety and OSA and gave me a small dosage of blood pressure medication and told me to take it if I go over 150 again.

He says nothing is wrong with my heart I'm going for a stress test in 2 weeks to make sure and I'm going to be having my CPAP specialist apt soon after. I trust my MD because he was the one who found my moms cancer after 3 others doctors failed, he also saved my dads life after he had 3 heart attacks and tested him for heart issues this is a GOOD DR that I TRUST. So I'm hoping hes right or I'm screwed lol. I'll keep you guys updated it just helps to talk about it and vent.

Janknitz wrote:I suspect you have multiple things going on, not all of them related to sleep apnea, but getting some treatment for the sleep apnea will only HELP, not hurt. So ask that your sleep apnea be re-evaluated and push for CPAP treatment. Once you get CPAP, it's not always easy to adjust, but we can help. Treating your apnea may go a long way to helping you have calm nights, which will reduce a lot of the stress and anxiety--and may even help your heartburn.

That said, I suspect that you need to tackle more than "just" the sleep apnea. A big clue is that you say you have had "extreme heart burn almost all [your]life." Have you been on medications (proton pump inhibitors) for most of your life? What this tells me is that your "gut health" is more than likely bad, and that may be the root cause of what you are dealing with. Gut dysbiosis can cause the panic attacks, heartburn, and much more. If you go to most doctors, they will throw drugs at you and call it good. But clearly it is not good.

Your best bet is to find a functional MD or integrative MD who will look at you as an entire person and treat the UNDERLYING CAUSES, not just the symptoms. These are MD's who have had additional training in functional or integrative approaches. They treat the whole person as an integrated unit, not symptom by symptom. These doctors can help you.

I have a good MD he prescribed me good meds for my heartburn and also is tryingt o get my CPAP apt asap but around where I live it takes time. HE doesnt throw drugs at me infact he usually avoids it, he didnt want to give my blood pressure meds or panic attack meds he wanted me to work on that my own and work on my anxiety but i insisted for emergencies that i have something. Next time I go int o see him I'll speak with him more about my stomach and maybe see if that Dysbiosis or whatnot could be a problem. I'm just tackling one thing at a time. and coming here for tips/advice suggestions and maybe one of you has similiar symptoms or been through similiar things.

Just exactly where DO you live? USA? UK? Canada? Each of these countries work differently. It is hard to give advice when we know so little.

With BP concerns low AHI doesn't matter, any AHI can be implicated.

GOGETAH wrote:I had a sleep test 14AHI and was told I have sleep apnea but I don't know what to do now I just took my blood pressure again and its 150/107 and when I stand up my pulse goes from 90 to 140.

The artificial divisions between mild and moderate OSA are (to the best of my knowledge) without clear justification. They are not "bright lines". Anyone here who monitors their nightly results can tell you that it's not unusual to see swings of 10 to 20 (or more) percent AHI from one night to the next. Furthermore, even though my titrated AHI was over 30, I can tell you that now, when my treated AHI goes above 2.0, I fee icky. Bottom line, there is a tendency to not treat treatable cases, and also those within the alleged "mild" range can absolutely benefit from xpap therapy.

One other thing. Many folks herabouts with OSA related hypertension have reported lower bps (w less or no meds) following successful xpap therapy. Mine lowered, and my ability to get physically fit increased substantially (I just ran a 10 K a week ago, and my running pace was a near record. All at the young age of 67). Resting pulse? Now <60.

Best of luck in obtaining successful xpap therapy. Then, maybe you can write about your successes right here!

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