Aches/pains & how it affects apnea

Hey folks,

Just some personal observations...

I had an extremely good run where AI consistently reported zero while AHI was under 5.

Then I spend a day moving about 100 servers from one facility to another and landed up with a fairly sore lower back... nothing unusual for me. As I move about during the day the soreness disappears but creeps back in at night when in bed.

During my sore back time I have noticed the data consistently reporting 2 - 3 apneas/night.

My unscientific conclusion is that the sore back is affecting the apnea. Anyone else notice that as your aches/pains come and go so does your reported apnea events?

Just letting my mind wander in the subject area.
If you took pain meds, did they change the character/depth of your sleep?
Was you sleep disturbed by pain which disturbed your breathing pattern?

TerryB

Paul56 wrote: Anyone else notice that as your aches/pains come and go so does your reported apnea events?

I was sent for my sleep study by a pain management doctor who said that chronically disturbed sleep can be a major factor in chronic pain. I did point out to her that chronic pain could cause disrupted sleep, but it appears she is right.

Pre-CPAP, I always awakened, at least twice a night, by hip pain. My only solution was a collection of nutriceuticals which I determined worked decently, and water therapy.

In looking at my data over the last two weeks, I realized that the apnea strikes (usually preceeded by some periodic breathing, and surrounded by a cluster of hyponeas, always fell in three places -- the first hour, as I am falling asleep, and at the two points where pain always woke me up.

I'm not fully pain free, probably because my AHI is still wobbling and not as low as I hope to achieve as I get used to the mask. But I've cut my use of the nutriceutical anti-inflammatories by a good two-thirds in just two weeks. Waking normally, without the pain, is something I'd put up with a great deal more than a mask to achieve!

Paul56

I too experience more apnea's on the nights when I am in pain. If I overdo it with activities during the day, I go back to my tossing and turning during the night, and my apnea level increases.
AuntieNae

Kiralynx,

Has water therapy helped you with your pain? Asking because I have been prescribed aqua therapy and haven't started it yet.

For myself, I don't know if pain causes the sleep distrurbances, or if the poor sleep causes more pain. But it does appear that pain meds and depression meds definitely disturb my sleep. But the only research subject I have is ME.

Bev

You asked something I was thinking about asking myself, Paul. I get a lot of aches and pains during specific times of the month, and I think it causes some mini-arousals. But I also notice I sleep in one position more than I used to now that I'm on the CPAP, and that means my arms and legs get really stiff and achy as well. I was hoping to get used to it but after nearly a month on the CPAP the aches are a bit worse, actually.

OutaSync wrote:Kiralynx,

Has water therapy helped you with your pain? Asking because I have been prescribed aqua therapy and haven't started it yet.

For myself, I don't know if pain causes the sleep distrurbances, or if the poor sleep causes more pain. But it does appear that pain meds and depression meds definitely disturb my sleep. But the only research subject I have is ME.

Bev,

Yes, I understand having a research subject of one! <lol>

And yes, the water therapy has helped significantly. I had a very good therapist, Kerry, who taught me a set of 16-20 exercises, and then basically said, "OK, you know this. Now, we can keep billing your insurance an arm and leg for me to watch you do something, OR, you can get a membership here at the center, use the same pool, and do these exercises on your own recognizance." I chose the latter, and have been doing them three times a week (minimum) since 2005. Well, except for the year after Hurricane Katrina when the Fitness Center was being used as emergency housing for the West Jeff doctors and nurses who had lost their homes.

One of the things which I was terrified of for my cancer surgery was being away from the water for 6-8 weeks -- and my surgeon got me a therapist who gave me exercises which helped with the pain. In hospital, with a morphine drip, my hips hurt far worse than the 24" incision!

I learned to use nutriceuticals for the pain -- doc prescribed Skelaxin, and I quit it after 6 days when my husband came home to find me rocking back and forth in a chair, hugging myself, and crying my eyes out, and unable to tell him why. I don't tolerate stuff like that at all.

In any case, the pain from the surgery didn't appear to be going away, and my hips were getting much worse, so they sent me to a pain management specialist. She sent me for a sleep study, and, here I am, about to do my 16th night on the hose.

The pain doc told me that disturbed sleep was associated with much chronic pain. I did point out that chronic pain could cause disturbed sleep, but she suggested that we check the apnea thing out any way.

And here I am. So far, CPAP is helping. I'm not free of pain, by any means, but it's better. I do find that I'm staying in one place more, maybe because it's such a pain to turn myself over, not pull the incision scar, hang onto the mask, etc.THis results in significant stiffness.

I'm still getting up to go pee in the middle of the night, but instead of slowly and groggily being dragged from sleep by pain, I wake, sit up, turn off the machine, take my mask off, do my business, come back, put my mask on, and I'm back to sleep in a very few minutes.

I can tell you that without the water therapy, I would not have survived the last four years. Water therapy made it bearable. I'm hoping water therapy plus CPAP will eliminate the pain altogether.

Well... I still have the sore lower back. I know it will go away eventually as it always just takes time.

Before the sore back I had a streak of nights with AI = 0. Now with the sore back there are apneas recorded every night for over a week with last night being the worst.

Last night has been the worst with Resscan reporting 6 apneas spread out such that 1 apnea occurred almost every hour all night. Consequently I am tired today.

Going to change my minimum pressure tonight to 11 and see if I can get this under control again. <sigh>

I never thought this back issue would have such an effect on sleep because it is not painful when laying down... except early in the morning when I wake up... and I would call that a minor annoyance more than anything.