great sleep Dr!

gar729 · Post by **gar729** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:01 am

Hi all,
I just had to share a very positive experience I had with my sleep Dr.
I've been on cpap therapy for 1 year and felt like I wasn't' responding to it as well as I should. Still tired all the time, some really bad days, couldn't guarantee what I would feel like the next day. Also I've developed insomnia, unable to sleep until 4 or 5 in the morning. At my wits end.
I made an appointment with the sleep clinic that had done my sleep study to see if I could get an Rx for an apap and get help with this insomnia.
The Dr. spent an hour and fifteen min. with me going over everything. The skinny, is that he had no problem with the apap, even purchasing it on my own and not through his dme. In fact he wants me to fax him a weekly readout from the Silverlining software. He has me keeping a daily log of my sleep patterns to develop a plan for the insomnia. He also gave me an Rx for 30 Lunesta for those desperate times. I took one last night and believe it or not I slept 8 1/2 hrs. and feel great today. I haven't slept 8 hrs. in many many years.
I've had a real hard time dealing with Dr.s and DME's concerning sleep apnea. I have always felt left in the dark, with no choices concerning my recovery. I can't tell you how happy I'm to find someone who cares and know what their doing

MartiniLover · Post by **MartiniLover** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:56 am

Does it get any better than this

Merry Christmas

Swordz · Post by **Swordz** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 12:55 pm

Amen to good docs! Thier out there, but SO hard to find. I am really glad you have had a great experience, because I'm sure if it happened more CPAP compliance would greatly increase.

The insomnia thing is a little harder to crack, as you need to find out what really is causing it. I'm pretty sure mine is anxiety based, but I'm waiting until after I successfully treat my OSA to see if my insomnia gets better. Sometimes they can be linked, but if mine is not I'm going to a new sleep center that has psychiatrists and neurologists to help me out more. My doc didn't take my insomnia problem very seriously, but I know not all docs/people understand how complicated it is.

Great news, and awesome to hear about your doc! Never let him go, or move, or ....

Jere · Post by **Jere** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:59 pm

Swordz wrote:The insomnia thing is a little harder to crack, as you need to find out what really is causing it.

You are right about that. I suffered from sleep-onset insomnia for more than 20 years. The most difficult thing about insomnia is getting a doctor who is willing to give it the attention it deserves. I can't tell you how many doctors just dismissed my insomnia, and how guilty I was made to feel to request treatment. Doctors don't seem to understand how debilitating it can be to sleep 3 hours a night.

Recently, with the assistance of a terrific doctor, I undertook a huge effort to get my doctors to speak to each other and come up with a real plan on how to deal with my sleep problem. From my end, I agreed to do a sleep study (hence my hosehead status). Meds were shifted and - finally a diagnosis was arrived at - which has eliminated (for the most part) all those years of dismal sleep. I thought it was just anxiety, but it turns out that my true diagnosis is something more insidious that runs through my family (on my mother's side) and which I never, ever thought was my problem.

As an aside, the sleep study showed moderate OSA (on top of my insomnia issues). I am not sure how/if the OSA is linked to my sleep-onset insomnia, but in all events I am now sleeping better than I have since I was a teenager.

So keep on pressuring the docs and don't take no for an answer.

Swordz · Post by **Swordz** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 6:40 pm

Jere wrote: The most difficult thing about insomnia is getting a doctor who is willing to give it the attention it deserves. I can't tell you how many doctors just dismissed my insomnia, and how guilty I was made to feel to request treatment.

My docs are soooooo nice, but really sidestep the insomnia issue. I really hope this new sleep clinic I'm going to with psychiatrists can help. Bad enough having severe OSA, but that much worse taking that long to get to sleep.

Jere wrote: I thought it was just anxiety, but it turns out that my true diagnosis is something more insidious that runs through my family (on my mother's side) and which I never, ever thought was my problem.

Can I ask what you found out to be the problem?

Jere wrote:I am not sure how/if the OSA is linked to my sleep-onset insomnia

Its hard to differentiate between OSA-related insomnia, or it is total seperate from it. Insomnia is really tough to figure out and treat. Someone on TAS said, "I think we do have to caution people that poor sleep can be like layers on an onion. Peel one back, and you may find other issues that need to be addressed."

Its definitely not an easy task to seek treatment and find out the true cause of insomnia.

Jere · Post by **Jere** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:39 pm

Swordz wrote:Can I ask what you found out to be the problem?

Swordz - I just PM'd you.