do you recall your thoughts before your 1st sleep study?

Hi there,

I was at the hospital today to pick up a new machine, and I ran into a fellow PRE apnean who was making an appt for a sleep study.
He was joking with the nurse, seemed like a fun sharp guy.. so I thought.. Im gonna do this guy a BIG favor and tell him about this site..
so I scribble it down on a piece of a paper, and I said, "Hey, youre getting a sleep study right? " he said, "YEP, in a few weeks."
I replied, Well, take this, and check it out, youll be glad you did..

He said, No, not interested, I dont need it.

I said.. Youre going to wish you had it after the study..

He said, Nope, Im not into stuff like "THAT.."

WTH DID THAT MEAN? like "THAT.."

the nurse asked.." what did you try to give him, a blogging site? " I didnt answer her, and just left with my new machine..
My husband said, "geez, he doesnt know what he is getting into."

So, I was just wondering, where was your head when you are making appts for your first sleep study.. Were you in denial? Were you hungry for information? Did you think you already knew it all? Did you think youd skip thru the test and be told you were NORMAL? I did! HOW could I have sleep apnea?
I had never been sleepy a day in my life!

What do you think this guy is going to think after he has his first sleep study? Ya think he is going to wish he took my little piece of paper?

Elena

You are right he will wonder. for me I was surprised that the my PCP asked me if I wake up tired,now my wife had told me the week before I saw the Doc that I stopped breathing sometimes and she would just bump me to get me going again of course I snored like crazy my son said he could hear me down the hall with the doors closed. Anyway so the Doc says I am going to schedule a sleep study you may have Sleep Apnea. I went straight home and started looking on google to see what this was all about low and behold I stumble onto cpaptalk and started reading and ask a few questions, but thats me knowledge is power and I am always looking for more knowledge. So he will be wondering what was on that paper in a few days

Chris

elena88 wrote: So, I was just wondering, where was your head when you are making appts for your first sleep study..

I was brain dead preparing for the sleep study.
I could hardly function. I was losing my short term memory,
my coordination was going south. I dropped things and knocked
things over....I was not present. I had no idea what sleep apnea was.
I went to an orientation 2days before the study. They put me in one of
the rooms to watch a video of what was going to happen.
I went to sleep. I don't remember any of it.
The night of the study I had a vague idea of what was going to happen.
I took an ambien so I could sleep. I was out.
I remember the tech coming in and putting a mask on me and
then a chin strap. She woke me up in am and I felt like I had
a really bad hangover. I stumbled out.....no clue.

I passed out little slips of paper at a totally inept cpap support meeting
that the sleep ctr. had. One guy posted a couple of times.

You can lead the horse to water.......

My thoughts weren't particularly coherent back then. I was grateful that I was going to be tested to find out what was going on with me. I had been having an overwhelming feeling that I wasn't going to live very long, but I wasn't sure why. My sleep was so messed up that wake and sleep were starting to meld into one convoluted version of semi-reality.

At that time I was bummed because I believed my PCP who had told me that I was going to end up getting UPPP. I didn't like the idea of that. In fact, it was that "threat" that kept me from being more vocal about my sleeping difficulties.

Fortunately, my sleep doc took one look down my throat and then hit me with a 2x4 as gently as he could. I am thankful for it. He said I would be using a machine the rest of my life. I mentioned UPPP. He said, "You would still need to use CPAP, so why bother?" He said, "There are plenty of surgeries we could do on you to make some money, but bottom line is that you will still need to use CPAP, and as long as CPAP works for you without the surgeries, there is no reason to think about surgery." I asked about using a mouth piece. He said, "That might help, but, like I said, I can tell by looking down your throat that you will have to use CPAP in your case." That was a turning point in my life in that the conversation with the sleep doc kept echoing through my head every time denial started rearing its ugly head. I'm not sure all sleep docs would have known how to word things that well for me.

Not everyone is cut out for online discussions on medical matters. You can lead a hoser to a forum, but you can't make him post. Cpaptalk is a great resource for the people who are willing to use the tool. But many people don't understand that fellow patients have a role to play in any long-term therapy like this. Remember that many patients get a test, get handed a machine, go home with their first mask, sleep like a baby, and never have problem one with it. Those people don't need cpaptalk.com. It would still be great to have them here. But they don't need it. Let's hope that was the case with the future-hoser you tried to help. If it isn't, what you said and tried to do will come to mind when things get rough, and the person may then go looking for us and find us. All you can do is plant the seed. The rest is up to the person and his or her need, or lack of need, for help.

Carbonman, sometimes I swear we must be related.

jnk wrote: Fortunately, my sleep doc took one look down my throat and then hit me with a 2x4 as gently as he could.

Is this one of those cpap moments that you will always remember.....
when and who delivered the 2X4 that brought it all home.

I know I will.

elena,
I was hungry for information. I had a little from my husband's experience and cpap use: went with him to his sleep lab in Dec. '08 and, yes, took photos of him all wired up Talked with the friendly tech who showed me the monitor my husband's data was displayed on. As Spock would say, "Fascinating!" I quizzed my husband the next morning: what was it like...how did that feel? What did the tech do next?"

Two months later he told me about this forum and I began reading... a lot. I'm no expert. Still learning about how much I don't know about this. And me? Fast forward my life one year. After one sleep lab and two home studies stretching from Jan. to March '10, I got my machine in April. Often I have a question and after reading on the topic I get answers to try. I love this group of caring people and read here as often as I can.
Good luck and much success in your journey. Hope you get lots of replies.
Cindy

jnk wrote:Carbonman, sometimes I swear we must be related.

Before I went for my sleep study, I felt pretty carefree. I did NOT know how serious OSA is. I mean, my mom has had it for 30 years, it must not be a big deal? It's just a matter of getting better sleep so I can get off my sleep meds. And the machine sounded like no biggie either. I knew I would be diagnosed, I knew I would be getting a machine. I had this idea that would go into the sleep study, get diagnosed right away and be handed a machine by the doctor in the morning. Then it would just be a matter of figuring out how to plug the machine in.

I got to this site after my sleep study. I was alarmed at the difficulty I had tolerating the nasal mask, and surprised that I would have to shop for an expensive machine of which I was totally ignorant. Knowledge is power, as KC5cychris has said. I have another forum I belong to for a different medical problem, so it seemed natural to look for an OSA forum. Thank heavens for you guys!

BTW, the minute I found out how dangerous OSA is, I wrote my mom a long letter. Let's hope she takes in what I was saying about stroke and heart attack risks.

I WAS one of those people refusing the help. They told me about apnea support groups and I thought the concept was funny. I thought, "People need support because they wear a mask every night? Huh? Are we going to sit around and talk about how the mask makes us 'feel' inside?"

Well it turns out, yes, we DO need support! And now I realize why. I am just now, barely, getting over my denial that this is serious, and it will be a long road, and that it's not always a simple fix (I was assuming it was easy to figure out and a simple fix). And when the fix isn't simple, we need people...a village....supporting us along the way.

I have only been on this forum a couple days, but I am already SOOOO glad I found it! Thank God!

carbonman wrote:

jnk wrote: Fortunately, my sleep doc took one look down my throat and then hit me with a 2x4 as gently as he could.

Is this one of those cpap moments that you will always remember.....
when and who delivered the 2X4 that brought it all home.

I know I will.

The biggest moment for me, I think, was when I realized that the information I needed most in life had already been collected and organized by Rested Gal. I started reading back in time almost every one of the 10,000 posts she has made here. When I had a question I needed to look up, I would start at this link: search.php?author_id=29&sr=posts . I would then put my search terms in the box labeled "Search these results." It never failed me. Not even once.

The next biggest moment was when I realized what a valuable asset -SWS is here. He is humble. He is focused. He is truly interested in the science, the application, and the people who benefit. I started reading his posts back in time too. Some of them I must have read a hundred times, looking up the words he purposely uses as an educational tool, springboards for further exploration.

Books are great. Magazines are fine. Lectures can be cool. But the resource contained in the posts of those two members alone in this one forum are an education no money could buy on this stuff. And it's all right there in print for free!

Please don't tell either of them I said the above. I get the feeling they embarrass easy. And the posts of many others are, of course, very valuable to me too. But when I think of the turning points connected with my therapy, I think first of this forum and the posts of quality posters like them who know what they are talking about, treat people well, and go out of their way to be helpful, without trying to take the place of anyone's doctor.

We all have different gifts to give. And each of us has learned from various ones in various ways depending on our individual needs. But it is amusing to me when I think back to how much I owe to those two people whom I've never even met in person.

It was about six weeks after i had my tonsils and the rest removed. Honestly i thought the survey did it. As in cured the OSA. Results were moderate OSA. Ahi of 26. Titration study went well and i couldn't wait to get my machine.

I felt really good after my surgery. No headaches, sleepiness, etc. But felt so much better after that night on the hose.

very interesting replies!

I had thoughts before my study..

I couldnt believe I was about to spend all this money for a sleep study that would tell me to sew a tennis ball in my jammies..

I didnt snore, I didnt wake up with headaches, I was not tired, so why me? Oh maybe all the other crap osa causes? like the heart problems?

mmmm?

Really, I was just freaking about the money, and I think I even slept worse the weeks ahead of the study.. then an hour in the study..
I was actually calculating how much it was costing me a minute!

I wonder if someone handed me a paper, maybe I would have run away too, because I knew I didnt have osa, and all this was just a very
big mistake..

I bet he thinks he is going to "beat" the test!

I'm only 2 nights in, but I can tell you, I didn't know my Head from my Arse - not entirely sure that's a result of OSA...

I think this guy has a problem with "message boards" in general based on his response. Honestly, he sounds like me. I have not once, and I mean NOT ONCE, posted or even entertained posting or participating in an online forum until now - and there are 2 reasons I am into this board:

1. This issue is exceedingly important to me, for obvious reasons.
2. This board is made up of a special a group of people willing to help each other fight a common battle.

It's his loss, but I think only temporarily. Sounds like in a few weeks he will be in search of a place and needing some answers. And you know what? Should he stumble upon us, you will all be there for him.

My main thought before the sleep study was--gawd, this is going to be worse than Motel 6, and it was.

Actually I was pretty well sure that I had sleep apnea before the study and had resigned myself to wearing some god awful device at night but, back in the old days, we didn't have no fancy interweb sites to go to for further information as a matter of fact, I didn't even know anyone who knew someone that had sleep apnea, now I can't even count the folks that I personally know that have been diagnosed. The guy was a putz for not taking the url to this site.