A New Phase in My Life

Hello All,

Forgive me if I bore y'all but I find telling my story to be therapudic.

It all seemed to start around nine years ago. I was freshly out of college and was ready to start my career as a high school history teacher. The district that I got a job in has a lot of problems (as most public school systems do in this country). To make a long story short, after six years of feeling like a failure every day (I failed to mention, it was a inner-city school, with all of the problems that that situation brings), I quit. I told my wife that either she would give her blessing to let me pursue a career that I could see myself doing for thirty years, or one of two things would happen: she would be burying me in ten years due to all the stress that comes with teaching or taking me to Georgia Regional Hospital (the local funny farm). Luckily she chose the former option.

During those six years of hell, I developed all kind of health issues. I gained 100 lbs., developed hypothyroidism, developed GERD, developed high blood pressure, developed high cholesterol, developed anxiety/depression issues, and finally was diagnosed with type two diabetes. I take full responsibility for the weight gain as eating crappy food seems to be my way of dealing with stress. I believe that all of the health issues I have, except the hypothyroidism has something to do with my poor diet decisions.

After quitting, I decided to embark on a career in Law Enforcement (I know what a lot of you are saying - "he's going from one high stress job to a Very high stress job). I don't see it that way. I have always enjoyed helping people and my wife and I deeply believe in contributing back to society (my wife is a nurse). Police work can be stressful sometimes, but I work mainly in a upper-middle income, mostly residential precinct. I have been happy with my career for the past three years.

Now to the part of the story that is pertinent to this message board. My wife has told me for a number of years that i stop breathing periodically during the night and snore really loud. I have noticed that I am tired all the time during the day (and night when I have to work midnight shift). My Primary care physician sent me to a pulminologist who in turn set me up to have a sleep study.

For the last month, I have researched all I can about OSA and all the equipment that goes into the therapy surrounding that condition (how I stumbled upon this message board).

I had my sleep two days ago. It was a weird thing to endure. However, I have a positive attitude about all this if the therapy will make me feel better. The nurse woke me up at about two in the morning to tell me I was having a lot of apneas and she was going to hook me up to a CPAP machine. She put a swift model nasal interface on me and it felt weird. It hurt my nose and it took awhile for me to go back to sleep. She woke me up again and put a nasal mask on me (i don't remember what model) and I did a lot better with it. She woke me up when it was time to go and told me that I had actually achieved deep sleep enough to get a titration of 12 on me.

I am now waiting for the pulminologist's nurse to call and set up an appointment with him. I have already researched what equipment and masks I want to try and am going to tell him to write a RX for the equipment I WANT. I have already checked with my insurance company (Blue Choice of Georgia - an HMO policy) and they said as long as the doctor prescribes it as a medical necessity, they would pay for it (didn't matter what brand). They also said I could choose from a list of 25 DME's in the Savannah area.

Thanks for listening to my story. If y'all don't mind reading them I will keep all of you updated with my situation as I find it good to share with people who are going through the same situation that I am.

Can I ask you, what exactly are two ''types'' of diabetes...Type 1 or Type 2?
Which unit are you interested in? Many people on here can give you their experiences..Also are you getting a htd humidifier?
Just a few off the top questions to you? But I am interested in your diabetes quote?
Good luck with gaining all the knowledge you'll ever need is right here! It's helped soooooo many of us.........

[quote="Shakey Puddin"]Hello All,

Forgive me if I bore y'all but I find telling my story to be therapudic.

It all seemed to start around nine years ago. I was freshly out of college and was ready to start my career as a high school history teacher. The district that I got a job in has a lot of problems (as most public school systems do in this country). To make a long story short, after six years of feeling like a failure every day (I failed to mention, it was a inner-city school, with all of the problems that that situation brings), I quit. I told my wife that either she would give her blessing to let me pursue a career that I could see myself doing for thirty years, or one of two things would happen: she would be burying me in ten years due to all the stress that comes with teaching or taking me to Georgia Regional Hospital (the local funny farm). Luckily she chose the former option.

During those six years of hell, I developed all kind of health issues. I gained 100 lbs., developed hypothyroidism, developed GERD, developed high blood pressure, developed high cholesterol, developed anxiety/depression issues, and finally was diagnosed with type two diabetes. I take full responsibility for the weight gain as eating crappy food seems to be my way of dealing with stress. I believe that all of the health issues I have, except the hypothyroidism has something to do with my poor diet decisions.

After quitting, I decided to embark on a career in Law Enforcement (I know what a lot of you are saying - "he's going from one high stress job to a Very high stress job). I don't see it that way. I have always enjoyed helping people and my wife and I deeply believe in contributing back to society (my wife is a nurse). Police work can be stressful sometimes, but I work mainly in a upper-middle income, mostly residential precinct. I have been happy with my career for the past three years.

Now to the part of the story that is pertinent to this message board. My wife has told me for a number of years that i stop breathing periodically during the night and snore really loud. I have noticed that I am tired all the time during the day (and night when I have to work midnight shift). My Primary care physician sent me to a pulminologist who in turn set me up to have a sleep study.

For the last month, I have researched all I can about OSA and all the equipment that goes into the therapy surrounding that condition (how I stumbled upon this message board).

I had my sleep two days ago. It was a weird thing to endure. However, I have a positive attitude about all this if the therapy will make me feel better. The nurse woke me up at about two in the morning to tell me I was having a lot of apneas and she was going to hook me up to a CPAP machine. She put a swift model nasal interface on me and it felt weird. It hurt my nose and it took awhile for me to go back to sleep. She woke me up again and put a nasal mask on me (i don't remember what model) and I did a lot better with it. She woke me up when it was time to go and told me that I had actually achieved deep sleep enough to get a titration of 12 on me.

I am now waiting for the pulminologist's nurse to call and set up an appointment with him. I have already researched what equipment and masks I want to try and am going to tell him to write a RX for the equipment I WANT. I have already checked with my insurance company (Blue Choice of Georgia - an HMO policy) and they said as long as the doctor prescribes it as a medical necessity, they would pay for it (didn't matter what brand). They also said I could choose from a list of 25 DME's in the Savannah area.

Thanks for listening to my story. If y'all don't mind reading them I will keep all of you updated with my situation as I find it good to share with people who are going through the same situation that I am.

Welcome to the list and of course we want to know how it goes and your experiences. We are a support group after all and have all been there.

Gail?

He said Type 2 Diabetes.

I know... late in the day, dyslexia... I had to read it twice the first time through. Then after seeing your Q I read it again... and then once more! <LOL>

I think we both need a nap!
- JB

Shaky, every single one of the conditions you mentioned can be a direct cause of Sleep Apnea: the diabetes, the high blood pressure, the weight gain, the depression, the heart problems. EVERY SINGLE BIT OF IT!!!! Not sleeping well, also tends to make us choose those crappy high carb, high sugar diets to give us some energy (any energy) or make us feel better. So, again, that was possibly something that was not totally under your control.

Embracing your CPAP therapy is under your control and so is compliance, at least about 99%. There are some who fail for various reasons, some mental, some emotional, some physical. the point is that nearly all your problems are reversible with CPAP therapy.

I found an article while trying to encourage a friend to go back on his CPAP that connected diabetes, high cholesterol and even hypothyroidism with improvement. It turns out that these are all part of what is called a Metabolic Syndrome. The thyroid controls many of the hormones of the body, and once one metabolic function goes, it is like a domino effect and one thing after another follow.

I am not a doctor or even in the medical field. These articles are out there for anyone to read. Do a search on CPAP, diabetes or CPAP, high cholesterol or just about anything else and you will get a whole host of hits.

Hi Shaky,

I did read your post and want to congratulate you for taking care of yourself and your health. This forum has been an enormous source of help and support for me too. I also have depression, insomnia and OSA. I also have a condition called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). This is where my natural sleep/wake cycle is later that the rest of the world (2 to 10 am), hence I am a night owl.
I have come to realization that the sooner you get in charge of your health, the better off you are and you don't suffer as much. Weight gain, depression, high blood pressure .... can all be improved by treating OSA using CPAP. As someone who stumbled many times and eventually got used to CPAP, I highly recommend reading/posting on this forum. Please please don't expect miracles and just decide that you will do whatever it takes to take care of your OSA. The rest is support and knowledge. Few issues that I can suggest for you to look at are:

1) Auto PAP (APAP)
2) Humidifier
3) Nasal Mask or pillows
4) Software to see/check your progress

Best wishes

P.S. I hope I get the courage to change my career to something more satisfying. How did you do it I really think that it's a balancing act between who you are, what you are good at and what is out there. Why did you choose to be a police officer vs. a firefighter vs. .... ???

Sorry,
That was me.

Anonymous wrote:Hi Shaky,

I also have a condition called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). This is where my natural sleep/wake cycle is later that the rest of the world (2 to 10 am), hence I am a night owl.

OK, This was a new one on me, but it describes me. I've always been considered a "night owl". I've always been told by family and others that I just need to "set my clock" differently, and that it was all me, but I'm just not tired till much later in t he evening.. even on the days when when I'm exhausted all day, It's very hard for me to get to sleep at a "decent" hour. Do you have more info on this?

Kluemaster wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi Shaky,

I also have a condition called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). This is where my natural sleep/wake cycle is later that the rest of the world (2 to 10 am), hence I am a night owl.

OK, This was a new one on me, but it describes me. I've always been considered a "night owl". I've always been told by family and others that I just need to "set my clock" differently, and that it was all me, but I'm just not tired till much later in t he evening.. even on the days when when I'm exhausted all day, It's very hard for me to get to sleep at a "decent" hour. Do you have more info on this?

Hi Kluemaster,
This link is great to start with, learning about the condition and treatments.
http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.net/dsps/
There is a great Yahoo user group which is very informative and gets into all kinds of specifics:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/nite-owl/
This is a very little known-about and very frustrating condition that might cause a lot of frustration. You get labelled as "lazy". Please check it out.
Good luck.

Now to the part of the story that is pertinent to this message board.

No need to say sorry for posting stuff like that here. Post away, we've all been there. It is nice to read it to remind me how far I have come on CPAP.

Lurker! wrote:

Now to the part of the story that is pertinent to this message board.

No need to say sorry for posting stuff like that here. Post away, we've all been there. It is nice to read it to remind me how far I have come on CPAP.

Sorry, previous post was the philosophical me again