CPAP saved my life

[pablomac]

I've been lurking around for the past couple of weeks just soaking up information. But I figured that I'd get a little more involved.

For at least the last 10 years I've been told that I can be easily confused for a twin-prop airplane at full throttle all night long. I knew that I snored, but I always thought that people were just making fun of me. Over the last couple of years, I began realizing that I had the hardest time staying asleep. I would fully wake up every couple of hours, go to the bathroom, and then toss and turn trying to figure out why I couldn't stay asleep like everyone else. I was getting about 4 hours of sleep according to my observations and figured that maybe my college years had stuck and I was destined to only sleep a few hours a night. I was in denial.

While I never really had a problem staying awake at work as long as I was focused on something, a couple of weekly meetings were my achilles heel. No matter what, I could not stay awake at the same 2 meetings and I would find myself doing whatever I could to stay awake. I would take coffee in, I would take a snack in, and I would even sometimes pinch or dig my nails in back of my neck just to stay alert. I was in denial.

I can't remember when I started doing it, but it seemed that every night after dinner I went into a food coma. This would upset my fiance because it was so early in the evening, but I always blamed it on the fact that I woke up for work at 4:00 a.m. every morning to go to work and that by 8:00 p.m., I had a right to be tired and start falling asleep. This of course, also caused me to go to sleep late because I would wake from my nap and temporarily feel like I wasn't tired. This of course, would start the cycle all over again. I was in denial.

My fiance finally wrote me a long email one day and asked me to get checked out at the sleep clinic for OSA. She said I showed the same symptoms that both her mom and dad showed and they were prescribed a CPAP. I told her I would do it, but I would never follow through. No matter how many times her family encouraged to go get checked out, the thought of me having to go to a sleep clinic embarrassed me more than anything. I could just not fathom having to sleep with a hose attached to me all night. My symptoms weren't that serious, I would convince myself. I was in denial.

It wasn't until I would start falling asleep at my future parents-in-law's house that I really became embarrassed. But that was the least of my worries. When everyone in the living room started noticing that my lips would start turning blue as I slept in a sitting position on the couch, it finally started hitting me -- this probably requires a little more attention.

I finally made it to the sleep clinic, scheduled a study and titration and awaited my results. When my doctor came into the exam room on the day of the results, his first words out of his mouth were, "You have made the Hall of Fame, but unfortunately it's not something to celebrate." I turns out that my AHI was recorded at 133.1 and worse off, my SpO2 level had dropped all the way down to 23%. The doctor stated that he could only remember maybe 5 other patients over the last 20 years that had these kind of numbers. In his own words, I was a heart attack looking for a place to happen.

He immediately wrote up a prescription for my CPAP and I proceeded across the hall to pick one up and get fitted for a mask. That first night I slept like I hadn't slept in years. Over the last 18 days I have found myself only waking up to my alarm clock. I don't even go to the bathroom overnight when I used to go 2 or 3 times a night. While the meetings at work are still as exciting as watching paint dry, I no longer have to try to keep myself awake. At home, all of a sudden I'm the one that stays awake in the evening until it's time to go to bed. No more food comas. Best of all, I adjusted to the CPAP and my mask within the first night and I look forward to going to sleep and using my CPAP every night.

Now I'm a total nerd when it comes to measuring sleep quality. I load up my SD card on my computer every morning and I'll soon be ordering an oximeter that allows for tracking nightly data. My AHI as measured by my CPAP data is down to a 0.5 average and I've hit 0.0 on three nights so far. I walk around at work telling everyone how well this therapy has worked so far and encourage anyone whose spouse snores like a maniac or feels tired during the day to have them get checked out. This has not only changed my life, but I'm sure it has saved my life as well.

[DavidCarolina]

IM not gonna lie, im jealous. You go from 133 to 0. No work interruptions no apparent other health problems related
to longterm undiagnosed apnea.

Glad to hear it, most of us suffer multiple problems in compliance, adaptation, and onset medical issues of one kind or another.

[Newbie Woman]

What a wonderful testimonial. Welcome to life.

[simplyme]

First Welcome. Second WOW!! That's some bad apnea! I am so glad that it is working out so well for you. Maybe your body was so bad off from no real sleep and no oxygen that it just forced everything in you to LOVE CPAP and give you no problems!

Now I'm a total nerd when it comes to measuring sleep quality.

I'm getting to be the same way, It helps me to want to use my machine to see what things happen during the night... (it's kinda like a video game)

[cosmo]

Welcome aboard, better late than never

[Suddenly Worn Out]

CPAP saved my life as well.

Eric

[Mazz212]

Glad you are feeling so much better
I too, had much the same story, up 3 or 4 times a night and sleepy through the day
this CPAP machine is truly life changing, but my AHI is nowhere near 0,I'm lucky if it gets below 4
but I'm still adjusting machine,so am hopeful of reaching that one day

[bap40]

One of my pharmicists' told me the story of her late husband who was a doctor to boot. He was finally diagnosed and put on Cpap but died shortly thereafter. She told me the death was a heart attack but the contributing factor was being undiagnosed for apnea for so long the damage had already been done by then. Very sad, when people don't want to admit they might have a problem.

[herefishy]

I used to work Midnight shift and would sometimes come close to going to sleep driving home, besides being sleepy at social events made me real popular. I imagine CPAP saved my life too.

[stage0]

I agree the your life has changed wonderfully for the better. I would add to keep up with the following: 1. any weight loss or gain of 20 lbs. wil change your pressure need; 2. keep up with any other diagnosis like high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma...OSA can ba a cause of these (except asthma) and your medicaton need for each could change; 3. become an advocate for OSA in your community, we see many ppl just giver up on cpap.

[yoyoyomonica]

so very happy for you. Keep up the good work.

[DoriC]

Great news! I'm sure your post will help many who need encouragement. I'm curious, do you know what your pressure is? With an AHI that high some would imagine that you'd need a very high pressure but not necessarily so it would be good to know that. Good luck and keep us posted.!

[Madalot]

Welcome to the forum. Congratulations for coming out of denial before it was too late.

Your post is a great testimonial. Thanks for sharing.

[pablomac]

IM not gonna lie, im jealous. You go from 133 to 0. No work interruptions no apparent other health problems related
to longterm undiagnosed apnea.

Glad to hear it, most of us suffer multiple problems in compliance, adaptation, and onset medical issues of one kind or another.

I do consider myself very lucky that I've been able to adjust to the therapy very quickly. I have many posts where others have not been so lucky. I did have a slight problem after the first two days where I went through my first battle with a cold. I am normally reliant on Afrin but it did too good of a job as it dried me up enough where I actually developed a bit of a cut on the edge of my left nostril and made my nose pillow uncomfortable for 3 or 4 days. I switched to a regular saline spray and it worked much better.

Lately I've been noticing some dryness in my mouth which tells me that for whatever reason, I've been breathing through my mouth more than when I first started. I'll be picking up a chin strap this week to see if that helps.

[pablomac]

First Welcome. Second WOW!! That's some bad apnea! I am so glad that it is working out so well for you. Maybe your body was so bad off from no real sleep and no oxygen that it just forced everything in you to LOVE CPAP and give you no problems!

My jaw dropped to the floor when I got my results. I figured I probably had a severe case, but not that severe. My fiance broke down in tears when she heard it from the doctor. I felt horrible -- we get married next month and here I find out that who knows if I would have made it to the wedding date.

I'm getting to be the same way, It helps me to want to use my machine to see what things happen during the night... (it's kinda like a video game)

It is! I've been known to stay up late but now I force myself to go to sleep just so I stay in compliance! If I wake up in the middle of the night to adjust my position or something like that, I make a mental note in my head of what time it is so that I can correlate it to my waveform and any blips on my reports the next morning. My wedding is in Las Vegas -- I don't know what I'll do to stay fully compliant over those days!