AND THE GOOD NEWS JUST KEEPS ON COMING!!!

tbrown1 · Post by **tbrown1** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 1:51 pm

I had my titration study follow up yesterday. Not only do I have OSA I also have alpha wave intrusions. The doc said i had episodes all night - guess that explains the hallucinations and night terrors. He upped my Ambien from 10mgs to 15 mgs and added 1mg ativan 2 hours before I go to bed. Anyone else having/had the same experience? I swear if all this crap doesn't resolve itself I am going to have be locked up in the looney bin. I am going on 3 months of CPAP at a pressure of 13 - while I FEEL I am sleeping better I have eye twitches all day long and am just wiped out!!

Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated

tomjax · Post by **tomjax** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:05 pm

I cannot imagine any doc UPPING ambien and adding Ativan.

I will venture to predict that you get worse though.

Look up ambien- perhaps go to yahoo groups and montor _ AMBIEN ADDICTS - for horror stories.

I just love it when a person posts that My doctor said...........
Like that makes it prudent.

cheeeez

krousseau · Post by **krousseau** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 3:43 pm

Do you trust your doctor? Is he/she experienced with handling more complicated sleep disorders? Is he/she in solo practice or a group-Maybe someone with neurological background would be nice here. Definitely experience managing drug treatment. Is it a certified sleep lab or one that someone has set up in their solo practice to make it more profitable? You might want a second opinion.

You sound seriously sleep deprived-I would not just turn away without educating myself about the medications--nor would I just take them without educating myself about them. There is a dosage range for drugs-look at the max-look at your body weight. Get balanced information and look at what the website is trying to convince you of--and don't rely solely on internet info-I find most of them are rather conservative when it comes to drug info. Try to get to some of the sites geared to health professionals. Do you know anyone who can do MEDLINE searches for you? Medical school nearby? Do some library research.

The other thing to remember is that we don't all react/respond to medications in the same way. You may metabolize a drug faster or slower than someone else. So 15 mg might knock me cold and just put you into a pleasant sleep. Depends on your individual conditions and body chemistry.

kteague · Post by **kteague** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:18 pm

Hi. Got a friend whose oxygen level got so low with her apnea that she would wake up seeing scary things on the wall and in the room. Can you get a followup sleep study using your machine and mask? They did that with me after six months because I wasn't responding to treatment. Maybe someone who also showed alpha wave intrusions will have some insight. It has been discussed on here before. Best wishes.
Kathy

tbrown1 · Post by **tbrown1** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 12:18 pm

I do trust the doctor. I live in Atlanta and am using Georgia Sleep Disorder Center / Dr. Jim Wellman. I had my first sleep study in October that is when the doc told me I has significant OSA. I told him no surprise there now what and he told me CPAP was the recommended course of treatment. I said fine - where do I get the machine as I was not going to jump through the CIGNA hoops and wasn't leaving the office without a machine and would pay out of pocket as I needed relief NOW. He got the nurses in there and we played with several different masks and just guesses on the pressure as I still needed a sleep titration study to determine what pressure worked for me. They sent me home with a RESMED loaner/ swift mirage full face mask and a guesstimated pressure of 15 - the more pressure the better right? The tech said that with the loaner there was no reason to not wait until they could get me back in for a titration study and let the insurance pay for the machine.

I went back in for the sleep titration two weeks ago and follow up this past Thursday that is when he told about the alpha wave intrusions which would certainly explain the hallucination type dreams/night terrors i have been having over the past couple of years and the huge amount of weight I have gained for no reason. In the past 2 years i have been to 3 specialists trying to find out why this was happening and their answer was always the same - YOUR DEPRESSED - I kept telling them I am not depressed I have issues ONLY while I was asleep. Not one of these clowns recommended a sleep study. I have been on every anti-depressant on the market over the past 2 years with ZERO relief. I did this on my own as a last resort to get back to my normal life...

ANYWAY to get to my point. At the follow up he said study indicated a pressure of 13 worked great for me - I had been using 15. He prescribed the drugs i mentioned in my first post 1 mg ativan 2 hours before bed / 15mg ambien when I was ready to go to bed. Friday night i reset the pressure on the machine to 13, took only 1/2 mg ativan 2 hours before bed and took only 10 mgs of ambien... Figured i would start at lower doses and see what happened. SURPRISING/ AMAZING results after only two nights!! not one nightmare, hallucination, night terror and waking up feeling amazingly refreshed. We went to a Christmas party last night and stayed out until MIDNIGHT!!! WHOO HOO!!! haven't done that in a while. OH and P.S. my hubby says i have not moved or talked in my sleep the past two nights. I am also not tired today....HOORAY!!!!! maybe I am on the road back to my normal happy active life. If I could just shake the 25 lbs I have gained over the past years I would be ecstatic. I guess all things just take time. I am the Queen of instant gratification and if things don't go my way I get very annoyed. This experience has taught me a thing or two...

ANYWAY... thanks for all the feedback - just thought I would follow up and let everyone know that I am doing MUCHO better after only two days and no longer feel like I need to be put away in the looney bin... Here is to hoping this is just one step in what I am sure will be a long journey back. I have to go now because there are presents to be wrapped, cookies to be baked, and dinners to be planned and I actually feel like doing it!

wheezy · Post by **wheezy** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:48 pm

I too have alpha intrusions in all phases of sleep and was notified that it was consistant with FIBROMYALGIA.Unfortunatley, antidepressents and sleeping pills(Lunesta and Ambien CR) did nothing for me,but light therapy,diet(no suger as it makes the depression worse)exercise(mild aerobic)and good sleep hygene have done wonders.

bdp522 · Post by **bdp522** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 4:49 pm

I'm so glad you are seeing some positive results! Keep up the good work!

Brenda

major_works · Post by **major_works** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 9:24 am

... the more pressure the better right?

I'm a newbie and don't know a lot but I do know this much: The above statement isn't correct. If it were, there'd be no need for automatic-PAP (APAP) machines and we'd all just run our machines at the highest setting. Or, there wouldn't be any settings; they'd just blow massive amounts of air into our tracheas.

There is a given pressure, or perhaps a range of pressures, that will do the proper job for you. That's what the sleep study/titration testing is for, to find out what that is.

Glad to hear that it's working so well for you so far, though.

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AND THE GOOD NEWS JUST KEEPS ON COMING!!!

AND THE GOOD NEWS JUST KEEPS ON COMING!!!

ambien

Hallucinations and night terrors

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