Questions about sleep, New changes, and hope for the future.

[ronnatal]

First off I have to say that I LOVE the people on here. I am totally new (in fact this is my first post!) but already I have seen the support for other posters... and last night it was awesome to actually be able to chat with a person online that knows what I am going thru.

A little background.

A year ago I weighed 400lbs. My BP (that sent me to the hospital) was 210/150 I thought I was having a heart attack luckily my body held it together. I began a life changing journey to lose weight and get healthy. I am eating better, resting better, thinking better, and now I weigh 335lbs. I have so much more to go and want to reach my goal of 200lbs.

I have always understand the link between obesity and apnea, both of my parents are obese. My brothers are thinner than I and don't have the health problems that I have. I have always wondered if I had sleep apnea since I remember when I was 400lbs that I could not sleep on my back without snoring. For the vast majority of my life I have always slept on my side. The fear of possibly having sleep apnea lead me to only sleep on my side. In a sense (like in another article I read on here) I started bargaining with God saying that "give me more time to lose this weight".

Then last month on my 29th birthday things changed...

I started having trouble falling asleep even though I was sleeping on my side. I went to the doc and he thought it was best to do a sleep study just in case. Fearful I went in and got tested... The results came back this past Friday and said I had mild sleep apnea. What was scary was up until this point I thought I was loosing my mind!!! Every time I was about to drift off into dream world my foot or shoulder or finger or something would twitch and try to wake me up. I didn't gasp for air but it was enough to restart my sleep cycle. MOREOVER... the twitches started to spill over into my daytime hours (has this happened to anyone?)

So trying to go without deep rest for couple of weeks has been terrible to say the least. And more personally disappointing to me it has halted my workouts and energy I need to continue my weight loss the way it was going.

It has humbled me... and made me appreciate the little things in life more.

Everyday, every moment, every memory, is a gift.

Last night I went in to the sleep lab for my second test with the CPAP. I wore a nasal mask. It was odd at first and thanks to this blog site I knew what was ahead of me and mentally prepared myself. "This was something that was going to help me enjoy life better again" I kept saying to myself.

I decided to lay on my back and it was surprisingly very comfortable. Breathing was easy and though I felt the "twitches" come back... through the night they got milder and milder... to the point there I'm pretty sure I hit REM sleep. (waiting on the results). For once in a long time I actually stayed in bed the entire night. I didn't feel totally rested when I woke up... but I did feel better.

Now... here I am waiting till next Thursday to meet with my doc to discuss which CPAP machine or what he wants to do next. But between now and then I don't really know what to do about sleeping. I wore a oxygen monitor on my finger today and monitored when I sleep on my back (remember no CPAP yet).... it hovered around 88-91%. When I laid on my side it hovered around 93-98% (which should be normal right?) so... if it is normal why do I still get twitches? Can I calm this somehow? or is my brain just so over exasperated that needs a few days on the machine before things get back to normal?

Thank you again my new friends for any insight you can share on this journey of mine.

Blessings,
Ron

[ThirdOutOfFive]

Your twitches can be related to apnea, or not. I had a bout with restless leg syndrome that was a bad side effect of one of my meds. You should be sure to discuss the twitches with your doc. Also, the results from your sleep study could tell whether the twitches are apnea related or not, so your doc should be able to answer that question.

Good luck with getting started on PAPpy, and welcome to the club. . . .

If you have any questions about therapy, people on this site will have an answer. . or three . . or ten.