POLL: How long do you think you had SA before you 'knew'?

[ozze_dollar]

It would seem not. My wife is a nurse and she did not consider it. That is after she said I had problems with breathing at night.It seems OSA is not even considered?????

Its my cardiologist that first suggested I should be tested. That was only because I was blaming various drugs for my tiredness.

OSA was something I was not aware of

[borgready]

I was 13 (now 39) when I started seeing the side effects of falling asleep in certain classes at school. I would get in a vehicle and would be asleep with in minutes of the vehicle moving. By the time I got to high school, I was tired all the time. There was a strict schedule that I couldn't change. I did not have a clue there was a problem. So you just bull through it. I would eventually learn to adapt to a certain sleep pattern that would enable me to get that badly needed REM sleep. I would have some wild dreams. The chemical pressure to put me asleep would build up so much that when I did fall asleep then intensity of the dreams would make some wild dreams. Wild dreams with a twist of sex(wet dreams) in them made them very desirable. But it felt so good to get through that. That pressure in your head would be releaved and you would feel good. When the body is young it can take that extra abuse. I would have like to have had some test to measure how bad I had it then. It would take 15 years before started seeing symptoms of weakness or damage in the heart.

[ameriken]

It still amazes me at the length of time that passes before we finally get diagnosed and treated. I think that's a testament to how little publicity and knowledge there is about this disease, both at the professional and the lay level.

Five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago if I saw someone nodding off, I'd think they just didn't sleep well the night before. Today I am likely to press some questions to find out if this is one time or if they nod off frequently, and if yes, are there any other symptoms.

Many doctors were and still are unaware. Many folks are misdiagnosed and mistreated for fatigue, low testosterone (as was in my case), and sadly...depression. They treat you for these and when complaining to the doc that you still have the symptoms, they still don't think of sleep apnea and try another course of mistreatment.

I hope and pray that this changes and I do whatever I can to make other people aware of sleep apnea and it's effects.

[JayR_1945]

I can only suspect that I had a sleep and breathing problem since birth.

I have a class II malocclusion (over bight)
I understand that my name is Jay (noisy bird) because I made these funny chirping sounds when I breathed. Mom thought I was smart kid, trying to vocalize.

At age 2, I snored so bad, dad told my mom to get this kid out and get a T&A done.

[Otter]

I am certain I have had apnea a very long time.
Please STAY AWAY from HMO's--HMO Nebraska basically FAKED a sleep study; resulting in about 20 years of untreated apnea.
If I could prove anything; the statute of limitations would probably kick in. greedy, dishonest, and sick.

How did the fake your sleep study?

[Otter]

I said 15+. I definitely had some sort of SDB by my late teens, say 30 years ago, but it's possible that was UARS instead of full blown OSA. I slept propped up on what what my college roommate called a seven story pillow, and got a lot of complaints about snoring on camping trips.

Thirteen years ago, my girlfriend complained that I stopped breathing, but at the time, I wasn't aware of OSA, so I figured I just had enough air and didn't need to breathe, as sometimes happens when awake. At this stage, I think it was an intermittent problem. I probably had only mild apnea, or just UARS, when my allergies were in check. But I'd already learned to sleep on my side so that my snoring wouldn't disturb my partners, and sometimes used astringent gargles if that wasn't enough.

I began to suspect I had OSA two or three years ago, but didn't realize how severe it was until I got the flu earlier this year and my adrenal glands went into overdrive and wouldn't stop. The ER doc who gave me valium when I came in after having been awake and active for 84 hours on 4 hours of sleep didn't even think about OSA. He said it wasn't physiological at all, and I was just stressed out over something. My GP couldn't figure it out either. But while trying to decide whether to see a neurologist or endocrinologist, it dawned on me what was going on.

My GP wrote me a prescription, but technically, I still haven't been diagnosed with OSA. I'm self diagnosed, self titrated, and starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[chunkyfrog]

How did they fake a sleep test, Otter?
They doped me up with narcotics--Only ran the 'test' for a couple of hours, max.
If they knew what they were doing (maybe they didn't)--let's just say they had motivation to find 'nothing wrong'.
The HMO was a small local outfit; folded after a few years--way too many complaints.

[Otter]

How did they fake a sleep test, Otter?
They doped me up with narcotics--Only ran the 'test' for a couple of hours, max.

"It has been determined that you do not have sleep apnea while awake. Therefore, no treatment is required. If we can do anything else to enhance our profit margin, please call."

[Fitness Seeker]

Well I had "insomnia" for 20+ yrs. When I was in high school, I started having insomnia, but didn't think much of it. Thought it was anxiety that came w/ struggling in an ultra-competitive HS, etc. But had lived in an older apt in SF for 20 yrs and had alot of "enviornmental" noises (ie sirens, ambulances, fire trucks, car alarms going off, street and ppl noises)and was always very hypersensitive to every little noise. Just lived like that all these yrs w/ a low quality, compromised sleep life i guess. Had some health issues the past 3 years. Never even knew anything was wrong until I went to an MD abt something else this yr, which led to a sleep study. Now it totally makes sense as I'm finding answers abt having "complex insomnia", including UARS. I can see now why I'm hypersensitive. Always thought i was just weird as I have never met anyone who had such issues w/ sleep and bothered by every little sound.

[JohnBFisher]

I developed sleep apnea during my early teens. I was underweight then. However, over time it got worse and worse. When diagnosed in my early to mid 30s, I was so sleep deprived that I would blink and dream. Yikes! Unfortunately, the times my sleep apnea has been untreated and/or poorly treated has caused serious health issues. But then 30 years ago, sleep apnea and the management of it with CPAP was a new thing. So, there's not a lot that I could have done other than what I did.

[FishOil]

If its possible, I think I've had sleep apnea my entire life.

I remember being like 8 years old and my dad getting mad and recording my snoring and playing it back to me the next day, and it was always really loud choking snores. I don't remember ever not being tired during the day or not having trouble waking up.

It wasn't until I was 19 or so that I started looking up why I'm always tired and why I snore so loud. All signs pointed to Sleep Apnea, but I was always heavily in denial. No it can't be sleep apnea, it has to be something else. But over the next few years I started realizing and coming to terms with the fact that it has to be sleep apnea. Many years later at like 23 after I was "okay" with having sleep apnea, I decided to go to a doctor and took some sleep studies. The doctor said I might have sleep apnea but in my head I was like "might?" Sure enough I have it and now have my machine

[JointPain]

I put 15+. I "knew" I had sleep apnea before I was 20, based on comments from others at overnight parties / camping trips etc. about me not breathing for extended periods and then gasping for breath. I was officially diagnosed after I was 40.

Whenever I suggested I had sleep apnea to doctors they dismissed the idea, because I was young and skinny. I didn't know then how serious it was, and would just accept that. Eventually with another suggestion from me, one doctor (well a nurse practitioner to be precise) thought it could explain my symptoms and ordered a sleep study. The sleep tech said they would probably evaluate me the first night and do the titration another time if I actually did have sleep apnea. He seemed doubtful. But after what seemed like only a few minutes (probably longer), they came in and did the titration.

[snuginarug]

I chose 2 to 4 years. It was a really long time after figuring I had sleep apnea that I actually got treatment for it. A good ten or fifteen years. But I knew I had sleep apnea because my mom had it too. It was treated as just something normal in my household (she is still not getting any treatment) and not harmful. So I snored away, choking and gasping, for years and years. It was, of all people, my psychiatrist who got me to have the sleep study done and get treatment. She thought cpap might cure my insomnia. No such luck, but my life is so much better now. And I would not have been able to do it without the help of this board. So thank you to everyone who has helped me!

[peterg]

I developed sleep apnea during my early teens. I was underweight then. However, over time it got worse and worse. When diagnosed in my early to mid 30s, I was so sleep deprived that I would blink and dream. Yikes! Unfortunately, the times my sleep apnea has been untreated and/or poorly treated has caused serious health issues. But then 30 years ago, sleep apnea and the management of it with CPAP was a new thing. So, there's not a lot that I could have done other than what I did.

I think they did trachectomies if it was serious enough, no?
btw last night I watched a French movie called The Diving Bell and The Butterfly http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401383/ about a guy who had a stroke and could only communicate with one eye blinking, had a trachectomy. To some extent CPAPPERs (is they what we call it?) feel this way. I am waiting for my pretty nurses though.

[sleepysmurf]

I knew something was wrong about 6 or 7 yrs ago. I would have limb movement to the point where I would wake up. I snored like a bear since I was a kid. And Ive noticed waking up in a sweat. (Also groggy feeling, Taking long naps in the car tired feeling when Idrive , hard to lose weightetc) I never knew all these symtoms were the cause of one problem.