Good News To Share

OutaSync · Post by **OutaSync** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:11 pm

Dori,
I'm so glad that your husband's therapy is working for him. And he owes it all to you! You have been fantastic, taking charge of his therapy. Is your husband aware of the changes? Or did he not realize that he was slipping in the first place? Just curious.

Bev

DoriC · Post by **DoriC** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:06 pm

Hi Bev, I like the "fantastic" part! Actually, we were firmly told by his cardiologist, heart surgeon and all the others that this extreme fatigue and fogginess(I would say between all the naps and nighttime hrs he was sleeping at least 16 out of 24hrs/day) was caused by the 2 Triple Bypass surgeries he had and lack of oxygen while twice on the heart/lung machine, and there could be no reversal, just one of the high risks of the second surgery to replace the very diseased aortic valve. This went on for several years and I was becoming resigned to losing him. The only Dr who kept shaking his head no, and pushing for a sleep study was our dear Primary Dr who had been kind of pushed into the background with all the "specialists" causing confusion. He was the ONLY Dr who ever asked the simple question, "does Mike snore"??. Once that was asked and I described his sleep patterns,etc, well, here we are a year later, 1 hr nap in late morning(with cpap) and then he's good to go until 10:30 sometimes 11PM. Now aren't you glad you asked that question, sorry for going on but it feels good to look back and see how far we've come.

OutaSync · Post by **OutaSync** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:15 pm

Indeed, you have come a long way. And you are an inspiration to all of us who have been following your story.

Bev

SleepyT · Post by **SleepyT** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:05 am

Dori,
I've never written to you before...but I have been following your story...and now I just must say "great job"! You did a wonderful job taking care of your husband and I know you are his hero. You saved his life! It's true!

Caretaking is no easy task, so kudos to you. I hope you have the occasion to take good care of yourself as well!

SleepyT

Mr Capers · Post by **Mr Capers** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:08 am

Hi Dori,

What a wonderful story! Celebrate this victory with your husband. He is one lucky guy to have someone who so clearly cares about and helps him. If your arms reach around that far, then give yourself pats on the back - hugs are even better.

Thanks you so much for sharing the good news. Enough of this therapy seems to be a slog, not much progress, backsliding, etc., we all need to hear each other's success stories. I'm sure in the slog stage, so you were a huge help to me.

Rested Gal seems to collect all the best threads - has she done one on big and small victories?

Happy naps to you and your husband,
Mr Capers

DoriC · Post by **DoriC** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:16 am

Thanks Sleepy for the kind words. Sometimes even my children forget to ask how I'm doing, their Dad's progress has been all-consuming for them too. Next month will be a year since we began this journey and I can finally say that it's been about 2 months since I've returned to a somewhat normal sleep routine for myself and not lying there listening and worrying about every sound. I'm glad I've shared a piece of my life here, it's brought me many new friends. Dori

Muse-Inc · Post by **Muse-Inc** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:47 am

DoriC, I'm glad you've posted the story of you and your DH. The apnea jouney has mountains and seemingly crossless cravasses, support makes them easier to navigate. Yet your actions go way beyond support, you've learned about the condition, its daily mechanics, and frustrations, you found this site to ask questions and educate yourself in this common yet mysterious condition...so much more than support. He is one lucky guy to have you in his life Dori, your dedication is amazing, inspiring, a lesson in the very active expresssion of love. May both of you be blessed with years of improvements and togetherness.

roster · Post by **roster** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:23 am

That's a heartwarming story. Both the part about your husband beginning to recover and that his loving wife is determined to help him.

DoriC wrote:........ The only Dr who kept shaking his head no, and pushing for a sleep study was our dear Primary Dr who had been kind of pushed into the background with all the "specialists" causing confusion. He was the ONLY Dr who ever asked the simple question, "does Mike snore"??. ...........

All the docs in the country need to learn from this one.

Thanks for posting,

robertmarilyn · Post by **robertmarilyn** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 11:27 am

DoriC wrote:Thanks Sleepy for the kind words. Sometimes even my children forget to ask how I'm doing, their Dad's progress has been all-consuming for them too. Next month will be a year since we began this journey and I can finally say that it's been about 2 months since I've returned to a somewhat normal sleep routine for myself and not lying there listening and worrying about every sound. I'm glad I've shared a piece of my life here, it's brought me many new friends. Dori

You've always been special to me since I met you on the forum and getting to see your picture sealed the deal on your specialness. We want YOU to be alright too. What you are doing for your husband is priceless and is the type of giving that shows how really GOOD people can be. I always see your picture and wish I could have a real life hug from you.
mar

DoriC · Post by **DoriC** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:54 pm

Get ready, here it comes....A GROUP HUG WITH EVERY ONE OF YOU!! Seeing my photo you should understand that you are all "my kids" in some way.

Uncle_Bob · Post by **Uncle_Bob** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:22 pm

Just read this thread, love it congrats and well done DoriC

Now if my wife was just half as supportive of my treatment as you are I'd be happy

ricochetv1 · Post by **ricochetv1** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 3:36 pm

kteague wrote:DoriC, I am SOOOO happy for you and your hubby. You have done an amazing job of advocating for him and he is blessed to have a wife with your dedication and determination. Now you get to reap some of the rewards!

How much one regains cognitively is so individual, depending on what's going on in the brain. Sometimes more of the memory impairment is from years of fractured sleep rather than (or as well as) brain damage. I've read that the brain and body both need sleep that is restorative to the different functions for optimal performance. The brain resembles a computer in that there are systems designed to manage the info taken in and store it in an orderly fashion for easiest retrieval. When our computers get bogged down and keep giving us error messages instead of the info we asked for, we know to do disk cleanup, defrag, etc. to help our computer function more efficiently again. It is thought that during sleep the brain kinda defrags, slotting related memories together, categorizing and organizing so that when we go back to retrieve those memories, they won't just be in a scattered jumbled mess. The longer we have poor sleep, the harder and harder memories can be to retrieve.

My MRI's through the years showed areas of "microvascular ischemia" that increased in number and in size. Haven't had a scan since being on effective cpap therapy, but I'm guessing they are not progressing. While I'm not nearly as sharp as I once was, the difference (in memory and cognition) between me now and three years ago is in my mind nothing short of amazing. Little by little the light came back on. Granted, I still may not be the brightest bulb in the pack, but at least the light's on and somebody's home. I still have so-so days and not-so-ok days, depending heavily on my sleep the night before. Because I have other sleep disorders, my mind still doesn't get the restorative sleep it needs, but with good cpap therapy, it's soooo much better. Just from you describing the difference in your husband in this short time, I expect you will continue to see improvement over time, and hope you will continue to share those milestones with us.

Kathy

That's an interesting analogy between computer hard drives and human memory...
A good way for a computer geek to think of sleep with apnea is like the scheduled nightly defrag being cancelled every time it starts, with the start times being right before there's an AI event. Each HI event pauses the defrag, while each AI event cancels it. What happens when many days/months/years go by without a solid defrag? The computer sits there thinking about what it's trying to do for a long time before it actually does anything. Performance is sluggish, and can even throw error messages. Files can get crosslinked and corrupt, and the OS can eventually crash.

DoriC · Post by **DoriC** » Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:46 pm

Kathy, I like your computer analogy too. How did you know those are some of the few things I know about computers, disk cleanup and defrag? Oh, and I know how to get to this great forum!

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Additional Comments: IPAP: 14/6 cm H2O; EPAP: 6 cm H20; Back-up rate: Auto Oximeter: CMS 50E