How long have U had sleep apnea? All my life?

So sorry . You must be frustrated. Have you looked into your Thyroid. Here is a link that discribes many symptoms . It is very good.

http://www.thyroid.org.au/Information/T ... uotes.html

There is lots of reading here. But worth it. Hear is a bit to get started with.

“There are other medical conditions which have been found to be associated with an increased risk of thyroid dysfunction. These include carpal tunnel syndrome and depression. The painful weak hands of the former may improve or even become normal after thyroid treatment.”

“Thyroid dysfunction is so common in depression, and especially in the roller-coaster disorder known as manic depressive disease, that most psychiatrists do a TSH test looking for thyroid dysfunction in every patient with depression. Follow-up TSH tests are also indicated if lithium or Zoloft are used to treat depression, since they may worsen thyroid function, too. If that is your situation, you can still take these useful drugs, but you may need thyroid treatment too.”

“Finally, women are at particular risk for thyroid dysfunction right after they have a baby. In America approximately one in twenty women can be shown to have a change in thyroid function in the months following delivery. Presently some doctors advocate checking all women for thyroid dysfunction at least once during pregnancy and again 2-3 months following delivery. At the least, we believe that women who have developed symptoms of either hypo- or hyperthyroidism or who have a family history of a thyroid problem or related autoimmune condition have such testing "


Cheers,

Chris

chrisp wrote:So sorry . You must be frustrated. Have you looked into your Thyroid. Here is a link that discribes many symptoms . It is very good.

http://www.thyroid.org.au/Information/T ... uotes.html

Cheers,

Chris

I have had my thyroid tested several times. it always came back normal. Other than the heart failure 3 years ago and now sleep apnea I have always been healthy. overweight but healthy.

Tonimari, I also went through the heart failure thing. As far back as I can remember, I was told that I was a very loud snorer. Looking back now, I had many symptoms of osa but it really spiraled out of control last year. The cycle was something like can't sleep laying down cause it makes me short of breath, sleeping sitting up in the living room makes the then undiagnosed heart failure worse which makes it harder still to breath laying down etc... When I met with my sleep doctor he theorized that I've had osa for DECADES! Now that I'm feeling good again, the pieces seem to fall more into place and I agree with the doc. I feel kind of special for having a disease before it was even recognized!

Tonimari,

I know I had it definitely for five maybe seven years, for I remember nodding off at inappropriate times, when I never used to. But I've snored for years. My brother used to tease me endlessly, until I learned HE SNORED, the heartless bum! I snored so much, I often woke myself up from it, and could hear myself snore. The energy had been going steadily downhill for years, even before the nodding off. So I suspect it had been building for a long time.

Linda

Toni:
Don't beat yourself up. I have 20 yrs on you, and when I think of all the similar complaints we all have, depression, wt, b/p, whatever, younger and younger, you are on the right (if somewhat uncomfy) path of correcting these things to some extent, (I am not a dr) before you develop other problems, conditions etc. I am 54, my dr. reaches for the scrip pad when I come in, starts writing, and says ''uh huh" when I b&c about fatigue. I get the usual looks, the story (you're middle aged, menopausal, diabetic, as if every thing else that is wrong comes with those problems. Maybe it is the sleep apnea, causing or attributing to the effects of the various ailments, and medications to treat it.

I am on apap, am downright resentful, do not love it, and do not feel "perky and full of energy" when I get up. But my system has decades more apnea and deprivation, so you are to be commended for addressing these problems at your younger age, before you get older and success is even harder to achieve. I am determined to win over this apap, and hypopnea /apnea problems, but time is someting we all have to adjust to.

Well enuf preaching about me, good luck and keep writing, ok?

This board is our best salvation....

Keep writing.

!

tonimari98 wrote:I believe that I have had sleep apnea for the most part of my life I am 32 years old. I have always been over weight although not obese (until recently) But have always been very active playing sports in school, hanging out at the park and playing ball I always walked every where. I was just as active if not more active than my slim friends. I did not eat huge amounts of food no more than my peers. But I was always heavier… but my sister and my brother who were never into sports, and not nearly as active, were always thinner than me. I remember as a kid 7 or 8 years old having my mom wake me up for school and tell me to get a bath. I would get out of bed, go to the bathroom turn the water on and lay down on the floor and fall back to sleep for another 10 minutes…I never felt rested in the mornings no matter how much I slept. Maybe back then it was a minor sleep apnea. Three years ago at the age of 29 I had my third and last child 13 months apart from my second child. I was pregnant for basiclly 2 years straight that took a toll on my body. One week after delivery I went to my Dr. and when they tried to take my vitals they were off the wall. My heart rate was @ 19 beats per minute and my oxygen levels fell below 85%. At the age of 29 I was diagnosed with Cardio Myopathy (congestive heart failure). So any way we got that under control and my heart is fine today. I do remember while in the hospital they made me sleep with the oxygen mask on…and on about the 3rd day in the hospital I remember waking up one morning and feeling so rested and alive better than I have felt in years. So any way shortly after that diagnosis I started feeling more and more fatigued so much so that I have been going to my PCP for 2 years now with the same complaint I'm exhausted and b*tchy. Depression set in, lack of sexual drive, every thing annoys me…I think I'm going nuts…and yes even saying I just want to sleep all day. And not once did he say hey...sleep study? I went to him and said, I think I have sleep apnea about 45 days ago. …So here I am, one week with my hose & mask…hoping this is the beginning of a new energitic life.

Sorry for the long post…But I need to know does any one else feel that they may have had this for more than just a few years?

I too think that I have had this for years. I am 34 and as far back as I can remember I have snored and it just kept getting worse. It is so bad that I have slept in a different room than my wife for about six months. While in high school I played football and my junior year at my physical my blood pressure was so high that they would not let me play. After reading about OSA and how it can cause hypertension I think that may have been the cause. I always fell asleep in classes and could never seem to feel awake. I drive quit abit for work and at one point thought that I had a exhaust leak because I could not keep from falling asleep while driving. After spending a holiday at my brothers, my sister-in-law is a Dr. and she could not believe how loud I snored and she said that I stopped breathing all the time. She was the one that convinced me to get a sleep study. I get JEMS (Journal of Emergency Medical Services) magazine and there is an article in it this month about a paramedic that was diagnosed with OSA and in the article he says that some children with ADHD may actually have OSA. There are so many other problems that can come from having sleep disorders and as easy as it is to diagnos you think that Dr.s would check that first. Well don't feel like you are alone with thinking you have had this for a long time.

I believe I've had sleep apnea all my life too. I have reason to believe my grandfather had it. My doctor took an X-ray of my throat when I started seeing him. He said my air passages are simply smaller than normal.

There are other reasons that a person that does not eat a huge amount may be overweight. Eating too many foods that have a high glycemic value such as sugar and even bread can be a factor. I have to confess to being a carb addict. I suppose it might be because my body craves the energy boost.

Well, I'm 39, with very severe sleep apnea, and my sleep doctor said I've probably had it all my adult life. Logical, since sleep apnea of such severity (RDI of 110) wouldn't develop overnight. However, I didn't really notice the fatigue until it got suddenly worse about October 2003 -- I noticed I just didn't have enough energy when I got home from work at night to do anything much. And then it got much, much worse, up to the point where every day was like wading through molasses.

Fortunately, I don't have high blood pressure, but I am morbidly obese. I'd been seeing a doctor for about five years about the obesity but nothing helped, I just got fatter and fatter. Fortunately my GP is a good one, so when I started complaining about the fatigue, he did start investigating, though he was hampered by the fact that there were other problems that coincidentally happened about the same time, so some of the stuff he investigated turned out to be a wild goose chase. But it got diagnosed in the end, and here I am, a hose-head for six months. And I've lost some weight too!

I personally believe that the seeds of my OSA were sewn when I fell out a two-storey window when I was a mere 18 months old; that that caused some mild brain damage to me which lay in wait for years until I got to that magic number of weight which narrowed my throat just enough to start mild OSA, which then sent me into the "death spiral" of sleep deprivation -> weight gain -> sleep deprivation. Thing is, for the first ten years of my life, I suffered from another chronic problem which gave me low-level chronic infection -- I was a thin waif of a girl, and my parents desperately tried to make me eat. So when that was cured, I then went from thin to plump without much in between. And then about ten years after that, well, it was death-spiral time.

But at least I'm diagnosed now, and if I had to have a disease that causes chronic fatigue, I doubt I could have found one that was easier to treat than OSA! No surgery, no drugs that one has to have more and more doses of to make effective, and even better, there is a treatment -- instead of being left with something that was not only incurable but untreatable. I know, this sounds far too Pollyanna, but while I was still in the "don't know what's wrong with me" phase, I looked at some of these diseases and they are Not Nice At All.

Do you have obstructive sleep apnea or central apnea? Babies are checked in the sleep labs for apnea. Idon't know if they are positive if they use cpap for the rest of their lives or not.

I was diagnosed with Obstructive apnea at 21, but had snored and been sleep for at least 7 years previously. I am however obese. In my opinion sleep apnea is rather like diabetes type II, the potential is their but something triggers the apnea. The trigger is not necessarily weight.

I hope that cpap helps you as much as it has helped me.

I think I've had it all my life as well. Getting up for school killed. I couldn't wake up and catching my breath in the morning was hard. I did awfawl in school I know my teachers and my mother thought I was a slow learner. I wasn't I was just in space all the time because of being tired. Even socially I was so out of place. I also know I had apnea because I've always had night terrors from three years old until I recieved my c-pap a year ago. I never have now.

Yes, I'm thin and do not fit the profile for sleep apnea. As a result, I went undiagnosed for years, in spite of mentioning sleep problems to my internist and even getting checked out by an ENT. It took a sleep study, which I got by going to a sleep specialist, to determine that I needed CPAP treatment.

tonimari98 wrote:I believe that I have had sleep apnea for the most part of my life I am 32 years old. I have always been over weight although not obese (until recently) But have always been very active playing sports in school, hanging out at the park and playing ball I always walked every where. I was just as active if not more active than my slim friends. I did not eat huge amounts of food no more than my peers. But I was always heavier… but my sister and my brother who were never into sports, and not nearly as active, were always thinner than me. I remember as a kid 7 or 8 years old having my mom wake me up for school and tell me to get a bath. I would get out of bed, go to the bathroom turn the water on and lay down on the floor and fall back to sleep for another 10 minutes…I never felt rested in the mornings no matter how much I slept. Maybe back then it was a minor sleep apnea. Three years ago at the age of 29 I had my third and last child 13 months apart from my second child. I was pregnant for basiclly 2 years straight that took a toll on my body. One week after delivery I went to my Dr. and when they tried to take my vitals they were off the wall. My heart rate was @ 19 beats per minute and my oxygen levels fell below 85%. At the age of 29 I was diagnosed with Cardio Myopathy (congestive heart failure). So any way we got that under control and my heart is fine today. I do remember while in the hospital they made me sleep with the oxygen mask on…and on about the 3rd day in the hospital I remember waking up one morning and feeling so rested and alive better than I have felt in years. So any way shortly after that diagnosis I started feeling more and more fatigued so much so that I have been going to my PCP for 2 years now with the same complaint I'm exhausted and b*tchy. Depression set in, lack of sexual drive, every thing annoys me…I think I'm going nuts…and yes even saying I just want to sleep all day. And not once did he say hey...sleep study? I went to him and said, I think I have sleep apnea about 45 days ago. …So here I am, one week with my hose & mask…hoping this is the beginning of a new energitic life.

Sorry for the long post…But I need to know does any one else feel that they may have had this for more than just a few years?

I feel I have had it so long, that I can't even begin to think in terms of years, more like DECADES. Good you're younger and get a gripper on this problem and prevent other med problems later on in life when things start happenin''.....Do not feel alone, you are not, and have this board to come to...

I look at this board like a cpap diary, only difference, is we have unlocked the hidden stuff and opened up about our health problems and sought advice, and friendship. And in LIam's case, downright enjoyment, even with many of us having some beaut's of stories and problems!

Hang in there, ok?

Gailzee, who's tired enuf to sign off for tonight!

tonimari98 wrote:I believe that I have had sleep apnea for the most part of my life I am 32 years old. I have always been over weight although not obese (until recently) But have always been very active playing sports in school, hanging out at the park and playing ball I always walked every where. I was just as active if not more active than my slim friends. I did not eat huge amounts of food no more than my peers. But I was always heavier… but my sister and my brother who were never into sports, and not nearly as active, were always thinner than me. I remember as a kid 7 or 8 years old having my mom wake me up for school and tell me to get a bath. I would get out of bed, go to the bathroom turn the water on and lay down on the floor and fall back to sleep for another 10 minutes…I never felt rested in the mornings no matter how much I slept. Maybe back then it was a minor sleep apnea. Three years ago at the age of 29 I had my third and last child 13 months apart from my second child. I was pregnant for basiclly 2 years straight that took a toll on my body. One week after delivery I went to my Dr. and when they tried to take my vitals they were off the wall. My heart rate was @ 19 beats per minute and my oxygen levels fell below 85%. At the age of 29 I was diagnosed with Cardio Myopathy (congestive heart failure). So any way we got that under control and my heart is fine today. I do remember while in the hospital they made me sleep with the oxygen mask on…and on about the 3rd day in the hospital I remember waking up one morning and feeling so rested and alive better than I have felt in years. So any way shortly after that diagnosis I started feeling more and more fatigued so much so that I have been going to my PCP for 2 years now with the same complaint I'm exhausted and b*tchy. Depression set in, lack of sexual drive, every thing annoys me…I think I'm going nuts…and yes even saying I just want to sleep all day. And not once did he say hey...sleep study? I went to him and said, I think I have sleep apnea about 45 days ago. …So here I am, one week with my hose & mask…hoping this is the beginning of a new energitic life.

Sorry for the long post…But I need to know does any one else feel that they may have had this for more than just a few years?