Sleep Apnea?

[paigette]

My dad has sleep apnea & my mom says the mask is way more soothing than his snoring ever was. When I stay over, my room is next to theirs & I never hear the thing.

My dogs run in fear when they see my dad in that mask. Porter has actually hopped on bed, seen my dad, barked psychotically, & ran UNDER the bed!!

[lauraelmore1033]

Oh, I do love my Cpap machine! I've been using it faithfully for 3-4 years now and I sleep like the dead as soon as I turn it on. It was well worth the hassle of the sleep study and all the hoops to be jumped through for the insurance and all the out of pocket costs. I'm not too keen on housekeeping, but it's also worth the trouble of keeping the darn thing clean. I experienced the aforementioned insomnia, depression and high blood pressure, but also experienced memory loss to the point that I thought I was sliding into dementia! I couldn't function on many disturbing levels and the doctor even laughed (?!) and said I shouldn't even be driving. The Cpap machine turned that all around and I began feeling like a woman closer to my age, not like an 80 year old. My memory problems improved to the point that I was inspired to return to school and complete my degree.

[Thistle]

I agree. I was diagnosed in June this year... after 14 years of shocking sleep. Now that i know about it i wonder why it took so long for someone to think of it!!

The sleep studies arent the greatest thing to go through, but if you have sleep apnea, finding out and hooking yourself up to a CPAP machine is like being re-born

I used to sleep every sat and sun arvo cos i was just so tired i couldnt stay awake. I felt so lazy and worried DH would think i was the laziest person around. I never studied at home, cos i knew i would lie down and sleep in the afternoon cos i was always so tired.

I havent looked back since. It has made a huge difference to my life. I can concentrate and think this has been a big bonus cos i'm studying

I just cant tell you how good it is not have to struggle to keep my eyes open, not to struggle with falling asleep in meetings, and to feel like i have energy

[Offthegrid]

Pooks, did you have the study yet?

[lauraelmore1033]

you know, offthegrid, if you couldn't really sleep during your sleep study, then that would make the results of the test suspect. I had trouble falling asleep during the sleep study because I had decided that not having coffee the day before would make it easier to fall asleep. WRONG! I had withdrawl symptoms--head and body ache that kept me awake. My doctor threw the results away and sent me home with a diagnostic cpap machine which I wore to sleep for the next week or two. Not only did it provide sweet, sweet relief for the problem, but it could measure how many times my breathing was obstructed during the night (something like 80 times a minute!) and provided a comparison of how long I was able to sleep with c-pap against the sleep journal I had been keeping. It was hell, though, when I had to take that machine back and then endure two weeks without it while waiting for the results to be analysed and various appointments to be made