What are my chances of recovery

tiredandscared wrote:had anyone suffered permanent cognitive issues? how old were you and what when was you onset. Has anyone recovered to full function. How old were you when you got it and what was your protocol.

I don't believe I was ever cognitively impaired, but if I was, it was temporary. I was diagnosed in my early fifties, surely had OSA for several years at the very least before diagnosis. I don't know what you mean by "protocol."

TexasTom wrote:

tiredandscared wrote:had anyone suffered permanent cognitive issues? how old were you and what when was you onset. Has anyone recovered to full function. How old were you when you got it and what was your protocol.

I'm a six sigma deviation person on this board, so I'm not the one to answer that for you!

NVLD -- I'm a natural born geek. Loved reading about everything and anything. Scored very badly on written test, started using a type writer (long before computers) in the second grade. I suffered from a horrible "writers cramp" when I
tried to write. Simple, my hand would twist around (90 bend at the wrist) while I tried to hold a pen long enough to write something. Wasn't until last year that I heard the term Dystonia. Almost 50 years later learned their was a reason for my cramped hand. The dear sweet Nuns just called me lazy.

My cognitive issues are forgetting words, go to use a word I just used 20 minutes ago... poof it is gone. Something will jog my memory 10 minutes later, poof the word is back. Occasionally I'm en route to a location I hadn't been to in six and not a clue where I am at. Hence Google Maps with volume on loud to jog my memory en route.

So when I say you should learn to live with your CPAP, and loose weight..... yep, both will greatly help.

How long did you have the sleep apnea for?

tiredandscared wrote:had anyone suffered permanent cognitive issues? how old were you and what when was you onset. Has anyone recovered to full function. How old were you when you got it and what was your protocol.

You need to slow down and take the time to work with a doctor to figure out what's wrong with you. You've been diagnosed with NVLD and you do need to know how that condition affects your life and whether there are any ways to treat it. You may have OSA as well; if you actually do have OSA, then it adversely affecting your life as well and it needs to be treated.

Since you suspect that you have sleep apnea, you need to be tested for it. Find out for sure whether you have it or not. If you DO have apnea, then start treating it with CPAP. The OSA-related symptoms usually start to resolve within a few weeks to a few months after optimizing the CPAP therapy. But symptoms caused by other medical conditions are not likely to improve just because you are on CPAP. You'll need to treat the other medical condition(s) as well as the sleep apnea in order to recover as much functioning as possible.

As for permanent cognitive issues and CPAP: Some people have more cognitive issues related to untreated apnea than other people do. In general, most people with plain old OSA and no other medical conditions tend to have a full recovery or a near full recovery in terms of the cognitive problems with OSA-brain fog they were experiencing once they become consistent, long term PAPers and the PAP therapy has been optimized.

Whether your NVLD-related problems will get any better is another whole can of worms. It really depends on what caused the NVLD. My guess is that like most learning disabilities, there's not a well defined "cause" to point to for your NVLD. So if you have apnea, it will be important for you to understand what symptoms caused by the OSA and what symptoms caused by things other than the OSA. And if the NVLD is not caused or aggravated by the OSA, then the NVLD symptoms probably won't get any better once you are on PAP.

It's a good thing to become informed about a possible health condition. But do keep in mind that at this point it is all still in the the "possible" realm. While it is human nature to want to run through all the "what ifs" in our mind, seldom in life have my agonized musings come to fruition. You may well find you do have sleep apnea but it is mild, or it is positional, or it does not cause severe oxygen drops, or treatment totally reverses any cognition problems, or a myriad of other best case scenarios. Do yourself a favor and get answers sooner rather than later so you can put your mind at ease, or at least be able to focus on known factors. The only sure way to discover your outcome is to live it. I do hope as you work through this, if you indeed have sleep apnea and are treated, that you will keep us updated as to how it affects your cognitive abilities. This forum is a treasure trove of personal experiences and adding yours to the mix could help someone else trying to sort through the same issues. Good luck going forward.

I can post recordings of my sleep if anyone would be assed enough to hear them. I usually begin snoring in the 45-50 minute interval. then jammer or snort 55-60th minute and get an AHI like incident. Lying to the left with an elevated head with cloth stacks behind my back to prevent me from turning is marginally better. I was also diagnosed with nvld a long time ago. Although I had problems with school in certsin subjects like maths and arts and woodworking. I excelled in history and languages and geography. I made it all the way to university. But I havent gone back. Now im afraid this issue might have broken my brain and made me too dysfunctional to study. I know that I can manage school if i return to my previous mental capacity. Im really dependent on my cognitive functioning returning for my life to continue. I neither have an inheritance or any crutch to be on. My parents are getting old and i dont want to become homeless vecause i screwed up via anxiety once.

kteague wrote:It's a good thing to become informed about a possible health condition. But do keep in mind that at this point it is all still in the the "possible" realm. While it is human nature to want to run through all the "what ifs" in our mind, seldom in life have my agonized musings come to fruition. You may well find you do have sleep apnea but it is mild, or it is positional, or it does not cause severe oxygen drops, or treatment totally reverses any cognition problems, or a myriad of other best case scenarios. Do yourself a favor and get answers sooner rather than later so you can put your mind at ease, or at least be able to focus on known factors. The only sure way to discover your outcome is to live it. I do hope as you work through this, if you indeed have sleep apnea and are treated, that you will keep us updated as to how it affects your cognitive abilities. This forum is a treasure trove of personal experiences and adding yours to the mix could help someone else trying to sort through the same issues. Good luck going forward.

Well said!

For the original poster, I have Parkinson's. So all bets are off on what I experience. Seriously don't freak out about "what ifs".

The thing is - it's so insidious that if you've had it for a long time, you easily could have forgotten what 'normal' feels like so have a hard time differentiating between stuff, but definitely, if your Cpap experience is as good as it can be and has been for most, your cognitive function should improve very much... but no one can say what's normal for you, including, at this point, probably yourself! Yes you can make just about a full recovery, but who's to decide what that means to you?

tiredandscared wrote:I can post recordings of my sleep if anyone would be assed enough to hear them. I usually begin snoring in the 45-50 minute interval. then jammer or snort 55-60th minute and get an AHI like incident. Lying to the left with an elevated head with cloth stacks behind my back to prevent me from turning is marginally better. I was also diagnosed with nvld a long time ago. Although I had problems with school in certsin subjects like maths and arts and woodworking. I excelled in history and languages and geography. I made it all the way to university. But I havent gone back. Now im afraid this issue might have broken my brain and made me too dysfunctional to study. I know that I can manage school if i return to my previous mental capacity. Im really dependent on my cognitive functioning returning for my life to continue. I neither have an inheritance or any crutch to be on. My parents are getting old and i dont want to become homeless vecause i screwed up via anxiety once.

Recordings of your sleep are not going to be of any assistance here.

OSA doesn't "break" your brain. The odds are that your mental capacity as it is will be able to get you through school. I think everyone relies to some extent on having cognitive function. I think you may be worrying yourself unhelpfully. When is your sleep study?

Julie wrote:The thing is - it's so insidious that if you've had it for a long time, you easily could have forgotten what 'normal' feels like so have a hard time differentiating between stuff, but definitely, if your Cpap experience is as good as it can be and has been for most, your cognitive function should improve very much... but no one can say what's normal for you, including, at this point, probably yourself! Yes you can make just about a full recovery, but who's to decide what that means to you?

To me that means being able to write advanced, analytically and deeply. I used to be able to write and understand complicated texts and create . Hell id probably write entire books and research level texts if i was interested enough. I could argue with the best of them. I scored in the 98th percentile for abstract verbal reasoning and vocabulary. While i had serious problems with visual construction and processing speed. If i lose that ability im doomed. my only way of having a livelyhood goes away.

tiredandscared wrote:I can post recordings of my sleep if anyone would be assed enough to hear them. I usually begin snoring in the 45-50 minute interval. then jammer or snort 55-60th minute and get an AHI like incident.

Rather than asking strangers on a CPAP forum board to listen to recordings of your sleep, you need to make an appointment with your PCP and discuss your sleep with him. Tell him you have recordings of your snoring and have him listen to the snoring and the snorting. He should be happy to send you to get a sleep test. And then you'll find out---for sure---whether you have OSA or not, and if you have it, whether it's mild, moderate, or severe. And then you can worry about where to go from there.

Here's the thing: Not all snorers have apnea (although most do). And not every body with untreated OSA snores (although most do). Snoring is a flag that you need a sleep test. Do yourself a favor and ask your PCP to refer you for a sleep test.

tiredandscared wrote:

Julie wrote:The thing is - it's so insidious that if you've had it for a long time, you easily could have forgotten what 'normal' feels like so have a hard time differentiating between stuff, but definitely, if your Cpap experience is as good as it can be and has been for most, your cognitive function should improve very much... but no one can say what's normal for you, including, at this point, probably yourself! Yes you can make just about a full recovery, but who's to decide what that means to you?

To me that means being able to write advanced, analytically and deeply. I used to be able to write and understand complicated texts and create. I could argue with the best of them. I scored in the 98th percentile for abstract verbal reasoning and vocabulary. While i had serious problems with visual construction and processing speed. If i lose that ability im doomed. my only way of having a livelyhood goes away.

(1) Have you been retested to see if you still score in the 98th percentile for abstract verbal reasoning and vocabulary?
(2) Have you had any vocational counseling? There are many, many ways of making a living.

Drowsy Dancer wrote:

tiredandscared wrote:I can post recordings of my sleep if anyone would be assed enough to hear them. I usually begin snoring in the 45-50 minute interval. then jammer or snort 55-60th minute and get an AHI like incident. Lying to the left with an elevated head with cloth stacks behind my back to prevent me from turning is marginally better. I was also diagnosed with nvld a long time ago. Although I had problems with school in certsin subjects like maths and arts and woodworking. I excelled in history and languages and geography. I made it all the way to university. But I havent gone back. Now im afraid this issue might have broken my brain and made me too dysfunctional to study. I know that I can manage school if i return to my previous mental capacity. Im really dependent on my cognitive functioning returning for my life to continue. I neither have an inheritance or any crutch to be on. My parents are getting old and i dont want to become homeless vecause i screwed up via anxiety once.

Recordings of your sleep are not going to be of any assistance here.

OSA doesn't "break" your brain. The odds are that your mental capacity as it is will be able to get you through school. I think everyone relies to some extent on having cognitive function. I think you may be worrying yourself unhelpfully. When is your sleep study?

In two weeks. I managed to find a private clinic that does test. I thought AHI could be heard directly if you recorded them( cessation of breathing). Im sure oxygen saturations need definitive tests though. Sure but the stuff i've read from studies and peoples wxperiences worries me. Like how people say they have to use post it notes or cant do maths/arithmetic or have hard time learning or short term memory.

tiredandscared wrote:My parents are getting old and i dont want to become homeless vecause i screwed up via anxiety once. (emphasis added)

Then slow down and take a series of deep breaths. Because your posts are full of excessive anxiety. And the anxiety of worrying about whether you have OSA and whether it's the cause of your current cognitive problems is making everything worse right now.

So stop freaking out about the possibility that you have OSA and deal with it by asking your PCP to send you for a sleep test. If you have OSA, it's not the end of the world. If the OSA is causing some cognitive problems (OSA-brain fog), then getting diagnosed and starting therapy will keep the problem from getting worse AND given some time (weeks to months) you should find your cognitive abilities start to return to normal--for you.

If you don't have OSA OR if the cognitive stuff doesn't improve after several months of PAPing, you and your doc will need to start looking at other potential causes for your on-going problems. But you don't need to be worrying about that right now. Right now, it's enough to just worry about setting up the sleep test and finding out the results.

When I realized that there were people smarter than me, it was a shock.
Later, I learned that people with much less gray matter have accomplished far more than I.
When you have a smaller bucket of water to take to the fire, you just take more trips.
The job still gets done.

Irrelevant....edited