HappyHoser in Montana!

Greetings All!
I've been visiting this board for a short time now and figured it's time to jump in. I see that many on the board are discouraged and I hope I can help. I'm a 47 year old guy recently officially diagnosed with severe obstructive apnea. At my study prior to cpap I had 91 events in an hour and stopped breathing for 49 seconds in the longest event. Suprisingly, it only took 8cm to correct. The doctor pointed out that severe does not neccessarily mean gale force winds. I should add that I spent Thanksgiving week in intensive care with congestive heart failure and astronomical blood pressure. After a heart cath, they got me on medications and knocked a ton of fluid out of me. I went in weighing 315 pounds and had legs like stumps. When they let me go, I was at 291 and could see some of the bones in my feet again. As of this morning I was at 249 and still dropping daily, which is easy to do on my new no sodium diet! If you look at the sodium content of ANYTHING it is huge. The biggest blessing was that I could go to bed again, praise the Lord! I knew from my ex that I was having a problem at night, and I've known for years that I had hypertension. Now I'm a typical guy, been outwardly healthy all my life and with an amazing ability to deny my symptoms. Didn't seem to have any daytime problems and stayed up late all the time. Boy, was I wrong! This is a sneaky sneaky disease. Until the fluid started swelling my feet and legs, I just seemed to be gaining weight. Makes sense as I was eating out almost every meal. Energy problems? Of course, I was staying up all the time. The REAL reason was because I was short of breath when I layed down. While I was in the hospital I talked with the cardioligist about the liklihood of apnea and they did a simple test with a cpap and the oximeter. My O2 sat dropped signicantly at intervals and despite being an "unofficial" test, established that it was happening as suspected. When they set me loose the doc referred me to a local sleep center. Despite being a small town, there were two places available. I was nervous about the study but made the appointment on a Sunday night. There was NO reason to be nervous. Nothing they do hurts, nothing they told me after the study was a suprise, the treatment prescribed is painless, and it was actually kind of a chuckle when I saw myself in the mirror all wired up! Much less life changing then being told you have heart disease. My Doc gave me a list of cpap providers and hinted at one in particular which I saw the following evening. The mask I used at the study was really pretty comfortable for me, a Respironics Comfort Select so she fit me and sent me on my way with a new Remstar and humidifier. My nights are no longer something to fear, and I have the energy that I had years ago. I used to fall asleep in front of tv at night, now I just get bored. Blood pressure is being medicated and the weight is coming off. My mind is clear and my attention span is boundless. I got my life back! In exchange I will be connected to my machine for life, NO BIG DEAL! I'm trying to decide on a name for it. But because I ignored my symptoms, I will also see a cardiologist for life. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Unwillingness to face the truth almost killed me. I guess the moral to my story is that fear of doctors, fear of humiliation, fear of a quiet little machine on your nightstand, are very real but very poor reasons to ignore the obvious. Now that I can recognize the difference, I can think of symptoms going back YEARS. For those who are struggling, fight it out! If you don't feel good about your caregiver, find a new one! Relaxe and give your mask a chance and if it just won't work, get another. don't worry about looks, I look like Marleys ghost with my chinstrap on but I wouldn't go back. Get a good laugh out of it, it's healthy! It's not like you have to give up sex, just remember to put in on later! Don't give up, the reward is life!

Hey Doug,

Sounds like you got the "your amazing, but for all the wrong reasons" speech that I received this past week. I just picked up my machine today (Remstar Plus) and I have a Comfort Gel mask, that seemed unobtrusive at the fitting. Fotunately, I received fantastic treatment from my physician and the sleep center (SDI). However, I left my condition go untreated since my high school years and now have to medicate my blood pressure as well. Sorry to hear about the heart problems. I have to deal with various issues pertaining to my heart throughout my life and I am sure this disorder has only complicated things. I guess sleep apnea wasn't an obivious cause when I was younger (now 35) as most people just made jokes about the way I slept. Since my brother and father both have it, I could see where it could be funny if you didn't know what was happening and if it wasn't something to make a joke of you woke them up because it was annoying to listen to. Besides in my younger days i was 225 lbs of solid muscle; I still am, it just that I've wrapped it in a 275 lbs body. I hope to have more energy with regular use of the machine and get back to a more ideal weight; if not, I will be a well rested big man.

Your story was very motivating. Best of luck with your heart condition, but you sound great.

Thanks Procrastinator, that name would have fit me well! I sense some of my reluctance to address the problem in some posts and I'm hoping that our good experiences prompt those people to get the help they need, it's really so simple to deal with in many cases. It would have been a lot simpler if I hadn't put if off for so long. Like you it sounds, I may have had this well before there was such common knowledge of the OSA and cpap. It used to just be funny when someone was snoring at 100db!