Seb-Sanfilippo wrote: ↑Thu Feb 16, 2023 12:11 pm
I am going to see an ENT/sleep specialist tomorrow
How can present my case?
What should I ask in regards to my concerns about UARS?
From my earlier post (and please do read about POTS):
As for preparation -- I find it very useful to take a written document with me that clearly states the relevant points I want to get across. I've looked back at your posts, and here is the kind of thing I would write up if I were in your place:
Before September of 2022, I was not feeling unusually fatigued, I did not seem to be having respiration-disordered breathing, and I did not suffer from depression or anxiety.
In September of 2022, I began to feel very fatigued, and I began to notice that I was having unrestful sleep, morning headache, dry nose and throat, and neck stiffness.
By December of 2022, I was unable to work. I was also by then experiencing depression, anxiety, palpitations, and acid reflux.
I consulted a doctor, who prescribed Trazedone. I requested a PSG study. It showed that my AHI is 9.6, that I have severe problem with maintaining sleep through the night, and that I have a light hypopnea syndrome linked to the REM sleep.
I have not yet been tested to rule out other causes of the fatigue, e.g., low testosterone, anemia, autoimmune disease, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or a thyroid disorder.
I believe the anxiety and depression started after I began to experience fatigue, as a response to the effects the fatigue was having on my life. Likewise, my suicidal thoughts have arisen recently as I contemplate continuing my life in my current condition.
With PAP therapy, I am having an AHI that is generally under 1, and I am no longer experiencing a dry nose and throat. While I have recently been marginally less fatigued, neither the Trazedone nor the PAP therapy have made a significant difference in my condition.
(Of course, I may have gotten some of that wrong!)
One additional thing: You've referred to "fatigue." In English, at any rate, people can mean two rather different things by this. One is best described as sleepiness: the urge to sleep during the day. The other is what I think of as true "fatigue": the kind of feeling we have when we have the flu, as though any exertion can take place only through an act of will. Try hard to think about which of these apply to you (or maybe both do).
Several other things about describing your fatigue: Does it get worse when you exert yourself, e.g., by walking? And what goes along with it: difficulty in thinking of the words for things? difficulty in sustaining attention? difficulty in following a complex train of thought? difficult in speaking at a normal pace? a disinclination to get out of bed? feeling that your muscles are weak? And if you can be specific about the ways your condition has disabled you from work, that could be very helpful.
If possible, bring a trusted friend or family member with you when you go for your Tuesday appointment. That can be a big help in making sure the doctor is truly grasping what you're communicating and in helping you remember later what was said by and to you.
In your place, I would be asking for help in identifying the cause of the fatigue. And in your place I would allow as a theoretical possibility that the fatigue is intensified by depression and anxiety, but I would not allow my medical help to lose track of the fact that the depression and anxiety developed AFTER the fatigue (if that is in fact correct).
P.S. In case POTS is not familiar to you:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/ ... me-fatigue
