CPAP'ers - Too Lazy to Lose Weight

I started on CPAP in September of 2004 and at that time I was approximately 60 pounds overweight. I have been on a diet and exersize plan since then and being on the CPAP has been a real LIFE SAVER! Because I am on CPAP my energy levels are much better and I actually feel like working out again. I had sleep apnea for about 10 years and didn't know it. By the time I went in for treatment I was waking approximately 80 times a night. This meant I wasn't able to get any restful sleep. Since starting the exersize program I have discovered that I sleep much more soundly and for longer periods of time with the CPAP machine. I am also scheduled to go in for a checkup and I MAY be able to wean myself off of CPAP as the sleep apnea condition is much diminished through diet and exersize. I have 18 pounds more to loose and then I will schedule some sleep center testing to see what effect all of this has had on the problem. Finally my ENT and my sleep center doctor both have said that if my sleep apnea continues after the weight loss, that it is possible an operation on my throat could then eliminate the problem. I hope and pray they are right as i don't want to be in the continuous "Sea Hunt" movie with the infernal machine for the rest of my existence. I think the goal is to improve your health and loose weight so that you can get away from the CPAP eventually.

Ozij - i just read your post from yesterday..... can I just say....

I WUV YOU!

ozij wrote:[
Have you ever thought of the similarity between the present day "virtue" of not eating, and the older "virtue" of refraining from sexual activity? If you think calling people "lazy" is going to help them lose weight and keep it off, I suggest you keep the term for yourself.

I don't care of you're fat yourself - fat people are maligned like absolutely no other part of society - and that makes me furious!.

Maybe you really are lazy, intellectually lazy, (do you think it's OK to call fat people lazy because they're fat, but not becuase on any other behavior?) since you're making pronouncements about the people in this forum, without even taking the trouble to do a search of the posts.

I agree with you 100% Ozij!!!!!!!!!!!!! Everytime I read this subject line it made me so mad....I'm fat but I am anything but lazy and I resent being called lazy. How dare you judge me! I'm not fat because I want to be...I've been to d_mn tired to accomplish everyday tasks let alone exercise. But, I'm trying! I'm eating well and exercising and am starting to lose weight but it's going to take a long time and being called lazy sure didn't help my incentive. If you feel the need to belittle people, maybe you should find another forum At this forum, we try to encourage people, not call them names.

One more thing....my mother also has OSA and she's never been overweight!

Just want to add my two cents. My healthy weight is 140-145 lbs. I was up to 222, I am currently weighing in at 211. I started my own WW at home along with excercise and drinking water a couple of weeks ago.

I have very large tonsils and have had lots of problems with swollen uvula and strep throat. I have had strep throat every month, treated with antibiotics and then it recurrs.

I have made the decision, no matter how painful it is going to be, to have the surgery this winter that will eliminate the tonsils, etc. All the crap that is getting infected and blocking my airway.

As I lose weight and have the surgery I'm sure I will get off of this CPAP, as I don't remember ever snoring when I was thin.

I actually met a couple who were on WW and the man said that his sister was severe OSA and lost weight and now does not need the CPAP, so there is hope.

That is what I'm hanging onto. I'm 38 and good looking, married. I don't want to be hooked up to this thing for the rest of my life...

Heidi

I'm 38 and good looking, married.

Heidi, don't take the following personally, and I wish you all the health in the world.

That statement is a an example of the way society has drummed agism and fatism into us, especailly into us women, and we are rarely even consciuos of it.

38
good looking
married.

So what?

Suppose it was
55
deformed
single

Would that make a woman or man less worthy of taking real good care of themselves?

And suppose a person of 24 was informed they had to use cpap (or insulin, or cructhes) for the rest of their lives?

If cpap can be a temporary solution, fine. If it can't but can help one be healthier, that is also fine.

O.

Your immune system is out of whack, girlie, if you are getting strep every month. Have your thyroid checked if you aren't already on replacement therapy. Also get an allergy test done. I had "colds" every 6 weeks, no itching in the ears or nose or other allergy symptoms, just colds that lasted 2 weeks and that went into severe bronchitis every time sometimes within a day, and I would be on antibiotics, and then after I got over that one, a month later it would happen all over again. Pretty fatiguing I don't mind telling you. My wonderful GP is a fantastic diagnostician, although she missed my OSA as causing my chronic fatigue, and sent me to an allergist. Now I'd been the whole antigen routine two separate times when I lived in New Mexico. I knew allergies. I didn't have the symptoms. Imagine my surprise when I was allergic to some of the things back there, still, and among others my beloved Liveoak Trees, the reason we moved back to central Texas! About a few months after I went on the antigen shots I had not had cold, and seldom have one now. And not a single Liveoak has come down. I wasn't allergic to Cedar, which everyone around her is to the point of deathly illness, I wasn't allergic to dust (good thing, since we live down a caliche road--white clay for you non-Texans--), or dogs (and I've got plenty of them in and out of the house)

BUT OSA/Apnea can lead to a compromise of the immune system, that's why folks often have low thyroid and many other metabolicly related things happen to them like high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, low libido and that other thing that effects men in times of need where the libido is fine.

Also, considering surgery is NOT a good idea. Read the thread on Can We Ever Quit? My last post gave just one incident with my ENT who had a 100% success rate, but never did followups after about months. Fact is, I don't think there is any ENT or surgeon who has removed everything and done a followup, because if they did they would find out they put those people through hell for nothing. A year or two later, tops, they had Sleep Apnea again. And lets don't even talk about the unmitigated PAIN you go through for AT LEAST TWO WEEKS!

My opinions are still out on the Pillar procedure. I think there are simply too many things causing OSA, maybe even smoking which would enlarge the tonsils through constant irritation of the smoke -- my sons were back to normal one week after he quit. And the Pillar procedure is still very new. There are no long term studies available, and it only fixes the soft palate.

There is the tongue or jaw advancement devices, which might work for some, but not all. They might reduce the pressure you need if you don't get everything else done and have problems there.

Losing weight can help. It actually cured my sons OSA but over about a 5 month period, and he only had to lose 38 pounds. But he now knows he has the potential to have it again if he doesn't stick to the diet, the exercise, and stays off tobacco. He is now also off of Lipitor and blood pressure meds. He is 32.

One of my biggest problems is that my tonsils and uvula are very large, even when I am not sick.

I know there is nothing wrong with my thyroid, just had a brain tumor removed, they did all kinds of blood work to check for everything...

So I think my best option is to get it taken out...

Heidi

Heidi, wait 6 months after you started CPAP and have an ENT look at your throat again. Chances are your tonsils and uvula will have greatly reduced themselves and you aren't getting as sick anymore.

Also if your insurance will pay for it, get a referral to an allergist for the patch test to see what you are allergic to. I'm betting a lot. And that all this sickness you have could be allergy related. The shots are a whole lot less expensive than the surgery you are contemplating. A blood test won't check for allergies and can't.

Why go through a lot of pain and suffering if it isn't necessary and you have to be back on CPAP in a few years anyway?

So where was I after the **** hit the fan with this post? Why wasn't I sent the link to all these new posts?

May I just add one last comment (like I know how to just add ONE comment to anything)? Maybe the author of this post by using the term "lazy" meant too tired to exercise when you have OSA. I was too tired to exercise until I went on therapy. Then when my energy level came booming back at huge proportions, thank God, I actually felt the desire to get healthy. I was never "fat" but a bit overweight and definitely unhealthy, obviously. High BP, migraines, oxygen desaturations, not sleeping, debilitating fatigue, not a healthy state to be in. But my OSA did cause me to be "lazy," I guess you could call it, as I had absolutely not one scintilla of energy from the second I got out of bed in the morning.

Thanks to diagnosis and treatment of the OSA, it has awakened the desire to get my health back, which to me included not being overweight, exercising, drinking a lot of water and eating nothing but heathy foods. I am loving my new lifestyle and would never call it a "diet" as I prefer to think of it as something I will do for the rest of my life now that I see what rewards come of it and feel energetic enough to want to do it.

When this author said the taboo word of "lazy," maybe she/he just meant too tired as a result of OSA. I know I was, as were probably every other one of us on this site. I like to try to believe people are good, at least most of us, and I don't believe this author went out of her way to try to malign anyone or insult anyone. Could I be wrong? Yes, but I am hoping that I'm not.

That's my two cents (I know, who asked for it).

I have been using my Remstar Auto with C-Flex every single night since January 24, 2005, even in the hospital after having a crainiotomy!!

The truth is that my tonsils are huge and cause problems now...I don't know if I lose weight, if they get "skinny" too????

I don't know what else to do the ENT says "out they go"

Heidi

Heidi,
When my twin boys were around the age of 4-6, they kept getting strep throat every month. They would go on 10 days of antibiotics and get well, then about 2 or 3 weeks later would start running fevers and have that strange, mediciny smelling breath that we came to know all too well, indicating another strep infection.
I kept blaming myself, thinking I wasn't keeping a clean enough house or providing proper nutrition; I began sterilizing everything; dishes, silverware, sheets, towels - I was a mess.
This went on for nearly two years, and finally we saw an ENT. He said that the strep bacteria was being harbored in their tonsils. The antibiotics were beating it down enough so that they felt better, however the bacteria was still present in their swollen tonsils. We had their tonsils removed (they had surgery the same day!) and never dealt with strep again.

But a tonsilectomy in a child is a totally different matter than a tonsilectomy in an adult. In an adult it is extremely painful. You have to take pain killers, liquid painkillers, that hurt to swallow, so you can swallow liquids just so you can eat. And you will be on liquids for two weeks of excruciating pain, and in some cases more.

A child's immune system is not fully developed. And it could be that the chronic strep infections are due to the tonsils harboring the bacteria but it would make more sense to pursue other avenues to see if the immune system can be boosted and eliminate other factors which might be causing immune system, like allergies, low thyroid, to not be strong. Certainly, if we are not getting enough restorative sleep, our immune systems will not be strong.

If you begin to eat healthy, get healthy sleep, and eliminate all other factors (metabolic and medical) that affect the immune system, then the tonsils just might be taken care of by a healthier system and the strep eradicated by the body.

To me, surgery on any part of the body should be a last resort, especially when it involves such extreme and long-lasting pain.

Sure an ENT is going to tell you that you need to have them and everything else in your throat removed and while they're at it they'll straighten your deviated septum that has never caused any problems. How do you think they make their money, by flushing and packing sinuses? No, they make the most in surgery.

Wow, I had no idea when I posted this subject line about CPAPers being too lazy to lose weight that it would ever get the kind of attention it has received.

Here is what I think about others comments:

No I didn't mean too "tired" as someone suggested, I meant what I believe the word lazy means "not strict". I admitted in my very first sentence of the original post that I was speaking of myself. At least I am honest enough with myself to admit that I have not been strict in my over indulgence of food and that is the reason I am still 25 pounds overweight.

Ozij and Lola's posts are unbelievable...you two must be very unhappy people. Are you the ones that sued McDonalds for making you too fat? Seems like you are in a major blame game with the fact that you are overweight. If you don't want to admit you are "not strict" how did you put on so much extra weight? You weren't born overweight so somewhere along the line you lacked the self control to just say NO to that next Big Mac.

And no, I cannot suggest some great diet that people should go on. I have admitted that losing weight is a big struggle for me and has been for years as my weight has been anywhere from 30 to 40 pounds over what it should be..

For those of you who are going with this "body positive" baloney, I guess that's up to you, but to me it is a major copout. Look at Oprah, wasn't that what she suggested for a long time and now she too has joined the masses that want to look slim and attractive?

Yes, let's all be healthy, wonderful idea and maybe drop some pounds in the process.