Will he recover ?

I thought it was after he started cpap, he got these issues. I read it wrong. If the sleep apnea is the cause and it can be, it can take up to 12 months to recover white and grey matter. It is pretty well a full recovery. I'd still want a full examination done to rule out other factors. guessing isn't the solution.

get your son to join one of the forums, apneaboard or freecpapadvice exchanging with lanky would be my choice for him. he may be able to tweak his treatment more.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25142557
RESULTS:
Results in pre-treatment OSA patients showed impairments in most cognitive areas, mood and sleepiness that were associated with diffuse reduction of WM fiber integrity reflected by diminished fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) in multiple brain areas. After 3 months of CPAP, only limited changes of WM were found. However, over the course of 12 months CPAP treatment, an almost complete reversal of WM abnormalities in all the affected regions was observed in patients who were compliant with treatment. Significant improvements involving memory, attention, and executive-functioning paralleled WM changes after treatment.

CONCLUSIONS:
Changes of WM DTI "signatures" of brain pathology in OSA patients are appreciable over the course of 12-month treatment with CPAP in most of the regions involved. Recovery of cognitive deficits after treatment is consistent with the presence of a reversible structural neural injury in OSA in patients who were compliant with treatment.

One simple question - is this your son's only medical issue?

Do NOT worry about strokes! That poster is way out to lunch on this and the likelihood of one in your son is remote. The cognition will take a while though it probably seems like years to him, but from the sound of it he has things under good control for his age, let alone anything else. Let us know what the new doctor says when the time comes.

y08hci0299 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:56 pm

Hi colomom, I'm just curious, how old was your son when he was diagnosed and how old was he when he finally recovered? My story mirrors your son's and I am in my early twenties and I need hope success stories to keep me going...

My son is 16, he was 15 when he was diagnosed. It took about 6 months for my son's cognitive function to fully get back to normal, but one of the reasons it took so long was that he had to be tapered off meds which took a few months. It also took a month or 2 for him to get used to the CPAP and make it thru the entire night without removing his mask while he was sleeping.
Because I had to home school my son for a semester I was really able to see what a tremendous negative impact sleep deprivation had on his cognitive function, and likewise I witnessed an amazing rebound of function once his brain was finally able to get enough oxygen and restorative sleep.

It sounds like you are doing everything right, it's great that your son is seeing both pulmonolgy and neurology. It's also tremendous that your son has taken charge of his own therapy!
There is nothing worse than watching your child experience hardship, but your family will make it thru this and will come out on the other side stronger than ever. Your son's brain needs time to repair itself, it may take some time but he will fully recover!

y08hci0299 wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:56 pm

Hi colomom, I'm just curious, how old was your son when he was diagnosed and how old was he when he finally recovered? My story mirrors your son's and I am in my early twenties and I need hope success stories to keep me going...

Sorry I was thinking you were the OP, and my first response to your post was directed to her.

I suspect my son had sleep apnea for years prior to his diagnosis. His cognitive decline likely built over years of having untreated sleep apnea, so understandably it took considerable time for his cognitive function to normalize. It was a long difficult journey to finding the right doctors and treatments for my son, but eventually we stumbled onto the right path. Don't give up hope, you'll get there. Is your sleep apnea well treated? Do you feel like you are getting adequate restorative sleep?
As I stated before my son has multiple sleep disorders, sleep apnea is a huge piece of his puzzle, but for my son it was only one piece of the solution. Keep digging, perhaps there is another piece to your puzzle that you still need to find. Or maybe your brain simply still needs more time to heal.
Hang in there, stick with the CPAP, and continue to be such a great advocate for yourself!

Holden4th wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 20, 2018 3:39 am

One simple question - is this your son's only medical issue?

Yes.

So allergies, (old) encephalitis, etc. are not relevant?

Julie wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 21, 2018 5:29 am

So allergies, (old) encephalitis, etc. are not relevant?

No.

How is your son handling having to wear a CPAP mask, more than likely for the rest of his life?
Around here we do best with facts. Is your son willing to let you post screenshots of his therapy. We are used to reading charts from a program called "SleepyHead"
2-3 AHI is great after 2 weeks. In the the long run it could be under 1

Adding my agreement that he needs to be seen by a good neurologist specializing in sleep disorders.

I'm a big believer in alternative medicine, but you need to rule out medical conditions first. ALWAYS ask why. Why does a kid of his age have such severe sleep apnea? Is he very overweight or does he suffer from hormonal issues, are there structural airway issues, oversized tonsils and adenoids, neurological issues going on, or what? Sleep apnea doesn't just happen, and I would especially wonder why there was such a rapid cognitive decline. Have they considered all the "horses" and ruled out the "zebras"? (Doctors are trained "if you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras").

I would definitely be looking for a good functional or integrative MD or DO if a neurologist and pulmonologist can't answer those questions.

Depending on the severity of apnea, post treatment it can take up to a year for the brain to recover. First grey matter recovers, and towards the end of the year white matter recovers. I would suggest making sure he gets plenty of Omega 3's