2-Year Anniversary

Went to see my sleep doc after work yesterday for my 2-year checkup. Showed him about a week's worth of data with oximetry from the CMS 50e. He spent some time leafing through it and making comments here and there. He asked if I had had any problems with allergies or colds during the last 2 years. I reminded him that the reason I came to him was that I was at the end of my rope, having had 6 bouts of bronchitis in 9 months, each of which was bad enough that I had to see my GP (who I don't go to unless I really need to). And after two chest x-rays and a CT scan showed everything clear, I asked for a referral to (him) and he immediately suspected sleep apnea. And as soon as I got on the hose I immediately felt better, and I haven't been sick a single day, probably haven't even sneezed more than a dozen times in 2 years, either.

Doc said my story is not uncommon. People are referred to him with chronic conditions like mine all the time. He said that when you're not sleeping well, your immune system becomes compromised and you get sick.

Long story short, he said, "It looks like you're on top of things and know how to interpret your data, so why don't you come back in a year and we'll see how you're doing?"

Congratulations !

Sounds fantastic!

Congrats on your 2 year anniversary. I hope I will be as lucky to not get colds anymore. And, I love success stories.

Happy anniversary! Hopefully your story about how treating your OSA helped with the colds and bronchitis is in the section at the top of the page in the success stories?

Congrats!!!! Can you share your secret about not getting sick? I still get colds and flu! Happy 2nd Anniversary.
Cindy

Is it possible that your Sleep Doc learned it from here?

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/ex ... k-of-sleep

Can Better Sleep Mean Catching Fewer Colds?
Lack of sleep affects your immune system

Or is it the Southern California weather?

Cindy Lou Who wrote:Congrats!!!! Can you share your secret about not getting sick? I still get colds and flu! Happy 2nd Anniversary.
Cindy

First, I've gotta tell you, I was on my way to a meeting the other day in one of the buildings at work that I don't spend much time in. Walking past a row of offices, I saw a nameplate on one of them that said Cindy-Lu Hu. I wonder whether she's familiar with Dr. Seuss. Or whether she's a fan of the British Dr. Who Sci-Fi series. I suppose I'll meet her in a meeting sometime and get my chance.

No secret involved, it was just that I wasn't sleeping well, and the sleep apnea was so severe I was getting run down, so I kept getting sick. At first it was annoying, then it became alarming. Each time I'd get sick, I'd fill up with mucous and would cough and cough until I couldn't cough any more because my ribs ached so bad, and it felt like my lungs were collapsing. Wife (an RN) says she wondered whether I was developing stasis pneumonia because my lungs weren't being ventilated completely while I slept. My GP didn't think anything was wrong, because I fly monthly and everybody knows planes are full of people passing germs around (the wife had some very well-formed opinions about that doctor!).

I resisted having a sleep study done. I didn't take it seriously. Never heard of sleep apnea before, and never met anyone who had it. Then, I was needed to have minor surgery on my back that involved conscious sedation and while the sturgeon was mopping up and I was beginning to come out of the sedation, I heard the anesthesiologist dictating notes and she said, ". . . removed airway support . . . apneic breathing." I roused myself enough to ask her whether that was like sleep apnea, and she said, "Yes, you should probably have a sleep study."

In order to schedule the surgery, I had had to wait until I was no longer sick, so while I was still on the mend I lost no time asking my GP for a referral to a pulmonologist because I was sick and tired of being tired and sick all the time. A couple weeks later I had my first sleep study. It was horrible. Didn't sleep at all and went in to work at 0600 next morning with hair gel still stuck in my hair from the EEG leads. The tech didn't say anything about there being a shower available so I could wash my hair, so I just went in to work. People kept asking me, "What happened to you? You look terrible." I just said I had a sleep study last night and came straight to work (wasn't thinking very clearly, was I?) Just after noon, the doc called me and, apologizing all over himself for bothering me at work, he said he had to get in touch with me because he was going over my sleep study data and he said he had to see me that afternoon. Don't delay, he said, I have to discuss this with you. A few hours later I was in his office, which was closed that day. He thanked me profusely for coming to see him so quickly, as if I was doing him a favor, and he showed me my data and said that my condition was really bad. Life-threatening, is how he phrased it. He said he didn't want me to sleep another night without a machine, and until I could have a titration study, he fit me with a mask and sent me home with a loaner machine.

That night I put water in the reservoir as I had been shown, strapped on the mask, turned out the light and the next thing I knew it was morning and I felt better than I had in years. Total difference. The pressure must have been set pretty high because my chest felt like I had been blowing up balloons all night, but I felt, oddly, fully alert and very oxygenated, if that makes any sense. From that morning I knew I had found the solution to my problem. I actually looked forward to going to bed at night because I knew I would sleep so well.** I felt more alert, I awoke with no grogginess, no longer needed two hour naps on weekends, and the bronchitis never came back. No colds, no allergies, asthma gone, coworkers said my color was better (they said that I was looking gray and very tired).

At any rate, I never looked back. Doc said the other day that CPAP probably extended my life 7-10 years. I don't doubt he's right.


**(Note to self: Don't ever, EVER say to your wife that CPAP is better than sex, even if it is.)

Glad you got treatment and it's working!

I didn't get diagnosed for some years because when I initially went in for feeling tired, I didn't snore and I am not overweight. The connection wasn't made for some time.

Medical stereotypes are great, ya know.

avi123 wrote:Is it possible that your Sleep Doc learned it from here?

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/ex ... k-of-sleep

Can Better Sleep Mean Catching Fewer Colds?
Lack of sleep affects your immune system

Or is it the Southern California weather?

No, I've heard that before a few times. Shortly after my daughter was born (16 years ago today!) I was burning the candle at both ends with work and chores and helping the wife recover and in the middle of digging footings and re-running a 4" sanitary sewer line for a room addition I was doing on the house, I ended up with hand foot and mouth disease http://www.cdc.gov/hand-foot-mouth/. Not to be confused with Hoof and Mouth disease, a disease of cattle. (Nor Foot In Mouth disease, which seems to afflict certain politicians.) Broke out in pustules on the palms of my hands and my feet. Doc said it was common in parents with babies because they're sleep deprived and their immune system gets run down, and they're exposed to the virus when changing diapers. He prescribed me a codeine-based cough syrup and said it was to make me sleep, said the virus was innocuous and self-limiting but I need to sleep in order to shake it quickly. Wife got her mom to help out for a couple days, I told work I had a contagious virus, and I took the medicine. Slept for 12 hours and when I awoke, the pustules had changed from bright red, protruding and oozing to dark red, flat and drying up. After 36 hours they were almost gone.

I don't doubt the value of having effective sleep.

And we don't have weather in southern California. Maybe a warm, dry climate has something to do with it. Every day is pretty much like the last, summers warmer, winters cooler, rain confined to about a 10 week window. Pretty much the same and boring when you've lived here all your life. Except for earthquake weather, which we're in the middle of right now. Had a 4.2 earthquake that rattled the glassware in the labs at work today centered about 15 miles away. Could hear it coming. Low rumble, then rattle-rattle, hop-hop, and sway-sway as the P-wave and S-wave passed by. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 18-34.html

And for the record, I'm 56 and I don't think I've ever really had the flu. Colds, yes, from time to time, bronchitis, yes, but the flu with aches and pains and fever and chills and nausea and the runs and all that, no. Never had the flu shot, see no reason to. So maybe it's just me.

Just thinking out loud here, but could it also have something to do with the fact that my pulmonologist/sleep doc has always told me to snort saline nasal spray until I can taste it running down the back of my throat every night before masking up? That's something I have done every night for 2 years now.

I think I'll have to try the nasal spray. I have my h5i set at 5.5 now (and it's almost like breathing water) and felt better for the moisture this morning. Just 10 days into therapy but I'm finding I don't need the allergy meds near as often, I hope that continues!
Congratulations on 2 years!

You might consider running the humidifier in automatic mode rather than manual. In automatic mode, you simply set the temperature you want and the reservoir and hose temperatures will be adjusted automatically in order to deliver air at a constant 80% relative humidity. It's much simpler than running in manual mode and not knowing how close you are to causing rainout.

I don't have the climateline hose, just the slimline can I still run in automatic? I don't have any water droplets in my hose in the morning so no rainout yet.
I'm considering some more experimentation with humidity, maybe I need to try really low and see how I do. I'm in Wisconsin so there should be adequate humidity. Maybe I'm over humidifying and maybe I'm just getting used to the machine.
Ok, just checked the h51 spec and see I need to go to clinician menu and set it to auto, I'll try that, thanks!

I saw "climate control" in your equipment list and misread it. I think you need the Climateline hose to enable automatic mode, but I'm not sure. It's been a while. The Climateline is well worth the $50 it will cost.

Just looked it up. Manual says:

Climate Control When the ClimateLine heated air tubing is connected and Climate Control is
enabled, the patient can adjust the air temperature to find the setting that is
most comfortable for them.
When set to Auto, Climate Control prevents rainout by maintaining 80%
relative humidity in the delivered air. If Climate Control is set to Off, Humidity
Level and Heated Tube temperature can be set independently.

So it looks like the automatic mode only functions when the Climateline is connected.