TAKING HEALTH CARE INTO OWN HANDS

[Hunter1]

After many years (25-30) of suffering from what the doctors called "DEPRESSION" and never finding any RELIEF, I decided to take my HEALTHCARE into my own hands. It was either do this or die.

I had tried every anti-depressent know, changed my diet, exercised and even gone to alternative doctors. Nothing worked.

A few weeks ago I saw an episode on Discovery Health about sleep apnea. The symptoms of this poor man was identical to mine. At this point I decided to take action.

Called a sleep lab and they said I would need an order from my primary doctor before I could be tested. I explained that my primary doctor would not give me an order to be tested but would rather prescribe pills for me to take ( I know this because I told him many times I had serious sleep issues).

At this point I decided to bypass my insurance and just pay for the study. I was able to see the sleep doctor and get a bed in the clinic that night. Two days later the sleep doctor called and said of the 6.5 hours I slept, I woke up an average of 18 time per hour and stopped breathing up to 15 seconds per occurance.

One week later I visited the clinic again and slept with a cpap machine. While it was a strange experience, I felt better the next day.

To make a long story short, I was able to obtain a prescription from the doctor and purchase an auto cpap with a-flex. I did not mess with insurance just purchase the best machine I could buy.

Tonight will be my fifth night using the machine. It has been difficult to adjust to the mask, but I have managed.

What a difference the cpap machine has made. MY PROBLEM HAS BEEN DISCOVERED AND SOLVED. Not depression but rather sleep apnea.

Of course I stopped all medications. I now have the energy of a young kid (I am 44 years young).

There is no one that has your health care in their best interest as you do. Take control and take action. If your doctor will not go beyond writing a prescription for pills, take action and do what you have to do. I am glad I did.

Hunter1

[Bamalady~]

Good for you, Hunter. For me, it was finding info on Sleep Apnea on the Internet and following up.

You are correct. It is our health and noone will suffer but ourselves if we don't do the best we can to take care of it.

Welcome to the Forum. It is always great to see new folks here and hear their stories.

I wish you continued success.

[RosemaryB]

Tonight will be my fifth night using the machine. It has been difficult to adjust to the mask, but I have managed.

What a difference the cpap machine has made. MY PROBLEM HAS BEEN DISCOVERED AND SOLVED. Not depression but rather sleep apnea.

Of course I stopped all medications. I now have the energy of a young kid (I am 44 years young).

Thanks for posting your success! I, too felt better from the start and it's a great experience. If my insurance hadn't paid for my equipment I would have done so myself.

There's one concern I have and that's about your stopping all your medications suddenly. I don't know what you have been taking, but I do know that some medications can be dangerous if you stop them suddenly. Although your doctor may not have been very smart about sleep apnea, you should check with your doctor or pharmacist to make sure that none of the meds you have stopped suddenly are ones that you need to withdraw from slowly.

[svh]

Those with unhelpful doctors should definitely contact their pharmacist regarding stopping meds. I have found our local pharmacists to be remarkably knowledgeable and willing to help. Since some people here seem to have doctors who feel it is somehow better for them to be on meds, a pharmacist may be more willing and should be able to provide the information they need to get off the meds....

[Kattitude]

Way to go Hunter1 and welcome to the hosehead club! Glad you are feeling better. Amazing what a little oxygen will do for the ol noggin huh?

By the way ~ have you gotten the mask issues worked out? I'm sure someone here will have already dealt with same or similar mask issues and be able to offer some tips.

Kattitude

[Guest]

Congratulations on getting off the meds and getting real treatment for your problem! I also bought my own equipment and would do it again if necessary.

I cannot believe how much better I feel with my treatment. (I am just taking a break from cleaning my house right now - and it's 9:30 at night here! For me, that's unheard of. I barely stayed awake until 9:00 most nights before the CPAP. I have so much more energy.)

Welcome to the site, Hunter1

[Nazareth]

Hunter- isn't is absolutely infuriating how doctors just brush us off as 'depressed' or 'suffering from anxiety' or being 'psychosomatic/hypochondriacs' when all along we've been suffering from a potentially fatal physical problem like sleep apnea? I too was for 16 years brushed aside and given practically every anti-depressent known to man even though I insisted I was depressed, just mentally and physically exhausted. Finally we got a new doc in town and when I explained my symptoms to him for yet the 1 millionth time or so it seemed, the new doc heard the symptoms for hte first time and just out of hte blue said "It sounds like youm ight have some apnea problems, let's get a sleep study done' I can't tell you how that floored me to hear that. It was like a huge weight had been lifted to find out it wasn't just all in my head- that I wasn't just suffering some obscure undiagnosable symptoms fdor the other health conditions I have (I have Crohn's disease and had Acromegally from a pituitary tumor which I had removed 2 years ago, and which can cause soem exhaustion weakness related symptoms as well)

Sorry you had to spend your own money in order to diagnose yourself- that should not have had to happen IF doctors weren't so lazy by writing us off by prescribing the antidepressents when they don't imediately find the problem.

I'm still suffering fairly extreme excercise intolorance, and am spinning my wheels with Docs trying to find out why I can't even brush my teeth in morning without my arms immediately burning/hurting as though I'd been hammering nails above my head for an hour straight (If anyone has done that, you'll understand the burning painful muscles you get when you do so- and how ya gotta drop your arms and let hte burning pain subside before you can go on- well, this happens to me now immediately when I do anything like take grocieries in from car, brush teeth, walk up a single flight of stairs etc) Docs simply don't know what's going on but I'll tell you one hting- I've told right flat out DO NOT prescribe me ANY antidepressents I am NOT depressed, I'm not sad, I'm not blue, I'm not even slightly unhappy- I AM IN PAIN and there is a physical problem going on that needs to be diagnosed and corrected if possible (Some of hte conditions htough that cause this excersize intolorance aren't really treatable unfortunately- McArdle's disease, Polymyositis etc- Was hoping my muscle problem was due to sleep apnea, but I'm losing hope it was due to that- been on machine for a little over month now, not much improvement in that department- at least not yet- still have a little hope that it was just due to apneas as the pain problem should dissappear over time now that I'm being treated for hte apneas)

Anyway- thanks for letting me vent a bit, and sorry you had to go through what you did- unfortunately, it seems to be a common thing- wish that wasn't the case,

[Babette]

GOOD FOR YOU HUNTER! No go fire your Primary doc!
B.

[Treesap]

Yes, go fire the PCP. It's amazing the kind of crap the medical society gives people. It's too bad when people KNOW without a shadow of a doubt what their prognosis is and can't get the medical society to cooperate. But I'm glad you got treated and are feeling better now. You will have some large medical write-offs on your taxes this year.

I was convinced I had sleep apnea. I went to my doctor to tell him I needed a sleep study. Of course he wanted to know why I thought that. Fortunately I convinced him with the symptoms I was having (weight gain, snoring, lack of energy and motiviation, recurring headaches, lack of coping skills, anxiety, and depression) to order me a sleep study. I don't know what I would have done had I not gotten the insurance to pay for it. It was $2,500 for the sleep study. I'm still paying my 20% to the hospital where it was done. I was never hooked up to a CPAP during my study. I'm not sure what happened, but I was told that insurance will not accept the sleep study if it isn't done by a certain time.

Anywhoo, the study did determine my apenas and need for CPAP. The doctor suggested another sleep study for titration. I said "NO!!" Then he wrote me a prescription for a humidified APAP. Thank God the insurance paid for that too.

By the way, all of my symptoms are gone except for the weight gain.... I need to get off my arse now. Thank God I have more energy and motivation.

[geoDoug]

You will have some large medical write-offs on your taxes this year.

I feel a need to make a small clarification so people don't get their hopes up only to have them dashed.

There's a high threshold before you can deduct out-of-pocket medical expenses. In contrast to miscellaneous/charitable donations which kick in right away, medical deductions don't kick in until you reach a percentage of your income, (according to H&R block, it was 7.5 percent of your income this last year). I realize that everybody is different, but I'm just saying that you can't assume these things.

The lesson for the day: Multiply your expected income by .075. (maybe use the number from last year's taxes if things haven't changed too much) If you think you'll reach that number, congratulations--in a sad way. If you don't, well save every medical receipt anyway, in case god forbid something happens and you lose your insurance (or the insurance company decides to act like an insurance company and deny your claims) and have to pay through the nose for a catastrophe.

Just throwin' that one out there as a reality check

Doug.

[Hunter1]

GeoDoug

Thanks for the information.

I am self-employeed (I had to become self-emploeed because I needed several naps each day. Cannot work for someone else and sleep on the job. Tried this but it did not work out) so my medical expense is 100% deductable. Even if it was not, I do not care. I feel so much better. Money well spent.

Hunter