Attn Newbies: your brain may be fried.....

Inspiring. Thanks C'Man. I'll get there. I know it.

bump...for the new class.

It's your life.
It's my life.

Amen Carbonman,
I seriously thought I was having a nervous breakdown before I got my CPAP. I have 2 special needs kids and a friend of my youngest living with me. Yup he's special needs too. It is quite a challenge getting 2 19 year olds thru their last semester of High School Yea!!!! and a 22 year old who can only take 2 college classes at a time. My mom had strokes this last year and had to go to a nursing home.
My job was on the rocks ever since I found out in February that I needed a cervical neck fusion from a Workman's comp accident. I had complications after the surgery and now I've been diagnosed with dysautonomia. That's when your adrenaline or fight or flight response is ramped up to defcon 5 ALL the time. Not fun. Meanwhile I was trying to hold everything together, falling asleep at the drop of a hat and short term memory? What's that? I used to call it the in and out disease....It goes in one ear and out the other...and Lord, I don't know where it goes after that!!!!
Even tho I had a horrid night in the sleep lab on the mask, I felt better that morning than I had in I couldn't remember when...remember the short term memory thing?
I'm just grateful I've adapted so quickly to CPAP. My brain is returning. Yeah!!!! I couldn't understand before why things were falling apart, I thought it was my fibro, my stress, my depression. Now I know it was because I had OSA. My only regret is that originally I had orders to get a sleep study in January. Because of other problems, (they thought I had MS, but I didn't, and then I had the surgery) I didn't f/u until I could get in in June. I probably could have saved myself from some of the Hell I went thru this year but can't look back, must look forward to a very wonderful bright future!.

Oh the mental fog.... I almost lost my job, and did loose 1/3 of my job responsibilities because I couldn't function. I couldn't remember things. And the rage I felt every day ! My co-workers quickly became afraid of me. If I messed up they would talk to my manager's boss who had the skills to deal with me. Anything out side of my normal routine triggered rage, tears, feelings of insecurity, depression. Worse yet... I could not master anything new (a must where I work). I thought I had early onset Alzheimers!

After three months of APAP everyone could see the old me slowly coming alive. I have all my job responsibilities back and beginning to run circles around some of my co-workers. My co-workers are really relieved that I'm not lashing out at them over some silly mistake. One recently told me, "You really ARE a nice person." It's taken 4 months of 100% compliance, reading everything here, and fixing leaks and trying lots of other things (thanks to everyone here), to get the old me back...the one that smiles a lot and laughs at jokes.

I'll never sleep without my machine. I flat out refuse to re-experience those last two years of hell.

Cindy58 wrote:Oh the mental fog.... I almost lost my job, and did loose 1/3 of my job responsibilities because I couldn't function. I couldn't remember things. And the rage I felt every day ! My co-workers quickly became afraid of me. If I messed up they would talk to my manager's boss who had the skills to deal with me. Anything out side of my normal routine triggered rage, tears, feelings of insecurity, depression. Worse yet... I could not master anything new (a must where I work). I thought I had early onset Alzheimers!

After three months of APAP everyone could see the old me slowly coming alive. I have all my job responsibilities back and beginning to run circles around some of my co-workers. My co-workers are really relieved that I'm not lashing out at them over some silly mistake. One recently told me, "You really ARE a nice person." It's taken 4 months of 100% compliance, reading everything here, and fixing leaks and trying lots of other things (thanks to everyone here), to get the old me back...the one that smiles a lot and laughs at jokes.

I'll never sleep without my machine. I flat out refuse to re-experience those last two years of hell.

Cindy,
Most of us accepted the gradual change as "normal" and never realized the impact Lo o2 had on our body, brain, organs, and even mood swings. Then bc this became normal for us we "Denied" there was any problem sleeping.

Glad things are working out for you.

..bump for me.

I'm coming out of the fog and darkness of the past 2yrs.

Sleep degraded from stress.
Sleep hygiene degraded due to new neighbors.
Brain reduced to mush from it all.....
thanks to cpap, I have survived.

It's dynamic.
It's a journey.

Hi, C-man: Gratitude is a wonderful thing to feel, especially on your birthday.
I'm glad you are feeling better, and hope this trend continues for many, many more miles.

I appreciate the bump...I've completed my third night on CPAP and slowly feel like I'm coming out of a coma and I'm glad to know it takes a few months to feel 'normal'...as I feel like I am still moving in molasses, catching up on years of non-sleep...thank you

Yep! In my early 20s a general practitioner diagnosed me with dysthymia (chronic mild depression) because of excessive sleeping, feelings of inadequacy, feeling overwhelmed and discouraged by things I knew weren't actually that bad, not finding making plans and doing things worth the effort of making them happen, wanting to hide and just be left alone instead of having to deal with the other people and the world. I certainly had all the symptoms of chronic mild depression so I've been on and off anti-depressants at various times during my adult life as I alternately accepted and rejected the idea of living my life as a chronically depressed person.

Finding out I have sleep apnea and treating it has really made me reconsider everything I thought I knew about myself. It is amazing how different you feel and how different you feel and the world looks when you get adequate regular restful sleep!

chunkyfrog wrote:Hi, C-man: Gratitude is a wonderful thing to feel, especially on your birthday.
I'm glad you are feeling better, and hope this trend continues for many, many more miles.

Christmas a year ago, I got a Kindle Fire.
I got a diary app for it and started a daily gratitude journal.
Every morning and every evening, I record what I am grateful for.
It has saved me. I start the day being grateful for all I have
and end the day with gratitude for where I have been.
When things seem really bad, when the sadness seemed too much to bear,
I go back and read my gratitude journal.......and some how, some way,
I prevail.

Gratitude has changed my life.

Thank you! I am feeling better.
I am coming back to life.
It feels really good.