Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:09 am

This is my first post here, but I've spent many hours over the last week sifting through the messages and trying to learn as much as I can about OSA/CPAP.

I'm a perfectly healthy (or so I thought) 32 year old male who grew up with a snoring, gasping, oh-my-gosh-will-he-breathe-again father who was diagnosed with sleep apnea decades after he first started having problems. I've always been in much better health than him, so I assumed that I wouldn't necessarily need to worry about OSA unless I started exhibiting the same awful symptoms that my mom complained about.

18 months ago, my wife and I had a baby girl. As any parent knows, we went through the standard sleep-deprivation that comes with having an infant around. I attributed my zombie status to our daughter, but that excuse started to become less credible months after she started sleeping through the night.

Since the introduction of the baby monitor into our bedroom, both of us have become much lighter sleepers. My wife began to complain that my snoring was keeping her up more than the baby (esp. during allergy season), so I invested heavily in Claritin-D and Breathe Right strips to help open up my nose.

In my teen/college years, I played a lot of basketball. Years of being the tall (6'6") guy in the paint resulted in my nose broken 6-8 times. I've never had anything done about my nasal airway due to the advice of several doctors that said "any work I do could easily be un-done by another nose break". That said, I'm definitely a mouth-breather for 99% of my daily life. If you duct-taped my mouth shut and asked me to walk briskly, I'd probably pass out.

Two weeks ago, my wife and I decided I should see a sleep clinic and at least see if I was on the same path my father has taken in terms of sleep apnea. I don't have a lot of the stereotypical symptoms-- I've never spontaneously fallen asleep, I appear to be a bright and alert person, my wife says she never hears me stop breathing. The concern that pushed me over the edge was that the number of hours I slept didn't seem to correlate with how rested I felt. For years, I've assumed I required less sleep than my wife because I feel about the same whether I sleep 5-6 hours or 9-10 hours.

Before the study, we both expected I might be told that I have mild risk for sleep apnea.

The sleep clinic was incredibly revealing. They did a 140 minute study before feeling sorry for me and putting me on CPAP for the remainder of the evening. For my 140 minutes, I was:

AHI = 124
Average Apnea Duration: 15sec
Max Apnea Duration: 31.5sec (corresponding to 78% O2 saturation)
They didn't give me a breakdown of hypopneas/apneas, but I spent an hour with the lab in the morning and they showed me the data for most of this time-- seemed like there were very few pure apneas where I stopped breathing and a lot of struggle events where I simply dropped 4-6% O2sat.

They woke me up and immediately started CPAP therapy, giving me the option of a nose mask or a full face mask. Remembering my father complaining about "whistling through his mouth", I opted for a full face mask. Since I told the clinic not to wake me for work at any given time, I slept for another 10 hours while they titrated my CPAP pressure. From 5-7 cm H20, my AHI dropped to 13. At 8 cm H20, where I spent a full 6.5 hours of sleep, my AHI dropped to 0.7.

I woke up very energized and the manager of the center gave me the "severe OSA" news. We spent a good deal of time looking over my session on their computer, and he explained what the different events looked like and showed me how they would use the software to score my session. The regularity of my breathing, cardiac activity, and amount of REM sleep during the CPAP therapy was shockingly different. He said that my degree of REM rebound, while subjective, was consistent with someone who was severely sleep-deprived.

Throughout that day, my employees, friends, and wife all commented that I looked "really great" or asked if I was on some type of drug. It was the first time that I realized that my idea of being fully rested over the last few years is probably dramatically different than what a normal person considers rested.

I'll be working with my doctors to try to figure out if my messed-up nose is the root cause of all this, but I'm looking forward to picking up my own CPAP in the next 24-48 hours. Honestly, I'm not thrilled about spending decades on a CPAP, but if I can routinely feel half as good as I did post-sleep study, it will be worth it.

This forum and your combined contributions to it have been insightful and have given me the enthusiasm to fight through any struggles with CPAP that I'm sure to have in the coming months.

Thanks!

Boylston

GoofyUT · Post by **GoofyUT** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:13 am

CONGRATULATIONS you HoseHead you!!!!!!!!!!

Now, we do need a center for the HoseHead hoops team..........?????

Pleasant dreams!!!

Chuck

NightHawkeye · Post by **NightHawkeye** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:22 am

Congratulations. Sounds like you had a great sleep clinic to work with. You've got the right attitude. You'll do well with xPAP.

Boylston wrote:This forum and your combined contributions to it have been insightful and have given me the enthusiasm to fight through any struggles with CPAP that I'm sure to have in the coming months.

Sounds like you're already doing just great. Also sounds like you've got a great provider so maybe your struggles will not be so bad. You already see the benefits to xPAP therapy. It's your friend. Really.

Oh, be sure to register, and fill out your equipment list. That way when you come back, we'll know who you are and what you're using.

Regards,
Bill

yardbird · Post by **yardbird** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:25 am

I just want to know who your sleep lab was!

Sounds like they were great.

Dale92 · Post by **Dale92** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 10:33 am

WOW what a great lab you had!

I had my first successful study done in August last year. I had 119 obstructive apneas in 2 hours and my lowest 02desat was 64% before they awoke me put a mask on and let me sleep another 5 hours. Then I was told to go home no explanation! I kind of wandered out in a daze, only from a lack of information, I really felt great for the first time in years. I am happy to see that there is a place that treats OSA and the person. Somewhere that you aren't shuffled around like a piece of meat.

Dale

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:25 am

I think two things that help are that I have a sense of humor and I pre-warn folks that I'm interested in my care, interested in the data, and interested in their opinion(s). I flat out told the staff, "Hi, I'm an engineering manager with two masters degrees from MIT. If I ask questions, it is because I am trained to deal with data. I trust you implicitly with my care, because I am not an expert in this field, but I still can't escape my training. If I ask questions, please don't interpret them as a lack of confidence or trust in your professional abilities-- it's simply the way I communicate with people."

Delta Waves is the name of the Colorado Springs, CO sleep clinic where they treated me so well. I'll defer the story about the 2am encounter with one of their folks where I was startled and smacked around the guy who was attempting to adjust my mask while I was asleep. They apparently saved video of the "event", it was so funny.

RedThunder94 · Post by **RedThunder94** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 11:48 am

must of been a fun encounter, lol, you might wanna register here so you can get notified whenever someone posts a reply, and also they can send you private messages. i wish my sleep lab was as nice as that one though.

snoregirl · Post by **snoregirl** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:04 pm

I agree about the sleep lab being nice. They let you sleep for another 10 TEN hours? I was rudely awakened and kicked out of bed at 5:20 AM so I could drive home in the dark after 4 to 5 hours of sleep max.

You are lucky!!!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:46 pm

Anonymous wrote:I think two things that help are that I have a sense of humor and I pre-warn folks that I'm interested in my care, interested in the data, and interested in their opinion(s). I flat out told the staff, "Hi, I'm an engineering manager with two masters degrees from MIT. If I ask questions, it is because I am trained to deal with data. I trust you implicitly with my care, because I am not an expert in this field, but I still can't escape my training. If I ask questions, please don't interpret them as a lack of confidence or trust in your professional abilities-- it's simply the way I communicate with people."

Delta Waves is the name of the Colorado Springs, CO sleep clinic where they treated me so well. I'll defer the story about the 2am encounter with one of their folks where I was startled and smacked around the guy who was attempting to adjust my mask while I was asleep. They apparently saved video of the "event", it was so funny.

Oops, that was me. I am 99% sure that they will be issuing me a Respironics M-Series w/ Heated Humidifier. The clinic does the vast majority of their therapy with Respironics gear set to C-Flex mode-- in fact their recommendation to my normal doctor was for a C-Flex machine. Regardless of how patient focused the lab was, they seemed very much a Respironics-biased shop.

I'll almost definitely want to try a full face mask at first, given my mouth breathing concerns. We'll see what they carry/recommend...

Boylston · Post by **Boylston** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:47 pm

OK, are there any known issues with Firefox as a browser for the site? I keep logging on before posting, but it still shows my messages as "Guest"?

RedThunder94 · Post by **RedThunder94** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 12:52 pm

Boylston wrote:OK, are there any known issues with Firefox as a browser for the site? I keep logging on before posting, but it still shows my messages as "Guest"?

it's showing you as Boylston on mine, but i'm using the latest version of ie, i gave up on firefox after it started disappearing on my task bar, i even tried the uninstall/reinstall route and it didn't help. so i just went back with microsnot's browser.

GoofyUT · Post by **GoofyUT** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:06 pm

I use Firefix v1.5.0.3 without any problems.

Chuck

RedThunder94 · Post by **RedThunder94** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:12 pm

i guess i need a new computer then.

GoofyUT · Post by **GoofyUT** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:19 pm

I use Firefox v1.5.0.3 too, again with no pronblewms, exceopt that it intentionally misspells words taht I type correctly just to make me lok stupid.

Chuck

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