new member

Hi Everyone who has already discovered this site.

I am 52, and was diagnosed with significant sleep apnoea in August 2004,. I found the diagnosis very upsetting, I felt a failure at not even being able to go to sleep like most normal people do. However, at least the diagnosis made me realise why I was feeling as I did, so tired all the time, depressed, struggling to hold down a job and run a home, social life non existant due to tiredness.

Well I got my cpap machine in September, and my boss allowed me to still work full time but to work my hours over five shifts and not the four ten hour shifts I was presently doing. Within four weeks I felt like a new woman, I felt I had woken up, life was good, my memory was good, I was interested in everything, a new life!!!

Then my boss told me I had to go back onto the four ten hour shifts, by the end of the first week I felt a deterioration in my wellness. This continued until my first consultation with the Doctor, I felt I felt tired because of the long shifts, but he thought I had become used to the pressure on the cpap machine and promptly up it by 2. Since then I have not had hardly any sleep. Today I am off work sick, as I cant cope, I am exhausted. I am seeing the respiratory nurse tomorrow.

My questions are:

Do you think working the longer shifts tires me too much

Might I feel better on shorter shifts

Can you become used to the pressure and need it increasing???

Greetingws CMURPHY,

Long shifts can be hard on people with sleep apnea. Changing your schedule is especially hard on sleep apnea patients, why I don't know. My own experience is I would rather not change schedules frequently,because once I finally get used to working a set group of hours, my body locks on to it and it rebells if I change it.

I would ask the doctor if you could use a pulseox meter at your linitial pressure to see if your blood oxygen level is dropping. The new level may be too much for you. I would continue to keep asking questions until you find answers to why you are so tired during the day.

Most of all, don't give up. You rememver how you felt when you first started, you can get back there once more.

Thanks for posting..

Ted

Welcome cmurphy,

With the longer shifts are you allowing yourself enough time to sleep. I have found that if I start "cheating" on the sleep time I need to make up for it. Teds pulse-ox suggestion is a great one. That will give you a good idication of how your treatment is going. Also you may want to try an auto-titrating cpap. It will adjust the pressure a you need (less guess work). the units also have software that allows you to download data on your residual apneas/hypopneas etc... and whether or not you are having any mask or maouth leaks which could also affect your results.

Keep at it and Good Luck!

Hello from a fellow Englander!
I'm relatively new to CPAP, only been using it for 5 weeks, so don't feel qualified to answer your questions, but I'm sure the advice from more experienced CPAP users will be worth it. From what I've seen, there's a tremendous amount of goodwill and sound advice given in this forum, though it might be worth posing your questions in the main forum rather than the introductions.
What I will say is it's a shame your employer can't be more understanding. I've been very lucky, I have a very understanding employer who has been flexible on working patterns whilst I come to terms with the treatment. Does your boss really understand what apneoa is? If not, I'm sure there's plenty of material you could show him/her in these forums that will make them understand how serious a condition it is. Why not start with the article "Obstructive sleep apnea and what is it..." featured in the streaming news above? Is there a HR department, or a Union rep that you could talk to?
Don't give up on this. Your health is too imprtant, and surely your boss would rather have you healthy as well?!
Good luck
Paul in Essex