It's been 2 years since I was diagnosed with Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (Apnoea as some spell it) and to be honest I haven't done much about it, pretty stupid considering it could kill me. I'm single now and not even waking up to a machine. Life has a way of getting away from you. I heard a quote once "Life is what's happening while you're planning for the future", it's taken me a while to realise that. I'm still smoking (I know stupid, but they're next) but I've curbed my drinking to only socially and a job change (less stress) has me sleeping better, but I still snore. I remember after finding out about my condition I hit the net in search of altenative medicine (listed below), I printed pages and pages of information and wouldn't you know it, can't find a single page...
Alternative medicine is out there, you just have to find whats right for you, this is my goal now!
But for anyone with Sleep Apnea (Apnoea) and who does smoke and drink, stopping them or even toning them down will have you sleeping a little better. Like I said, I now only socially drink and have actually started exercising and just from that I sleep and feel a little better. I guess the main thing you have to do is take a serious look at your health and what is obstructing it. This I've started to do, and what better way to find a cure than to look inside yourself first!
Lifestyle changes are a step in the right direction and can bring on some relief even cure mild Apnea, but for more serious cases like mine, you have to go the extra mile. Following is a list of some treatments out there that I'm looking at myself:
Surgical- extreme, yes, but it could be over with one operation.
These include:
uvulopalatopharyngoplasty
laser assisted uvuloplasty
nasal submucous diathermy
palatal advancement
tongue base reduction
genioglossus advancement
maxillomandibular advancement
Devices- the machine and mask (not my style) or Oral
CPAP- Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (actually most widely used) machine
Mandibular Repositing Device. Oral
Tongue Retaining Device. Oral
These are some treatments and a lifestyle change is that first step in the right direction
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sleep Apnea- the not so silent killer Part 3, Doom and Gloom
So another follow up with the doctor, now the results showed 0 stop breathing per hour, waking only 27 times per hour and my oxygen level jumped to 94%, this as a result of the machine. But in all honesty I felt no different after sleeping with the machine. I'd rather wake up with my woman next to me then a machine, so I started to think about alternative medicine, as you do.
Later on I found out that doctor had a vested interest in the company that sold the machines, didn't really surprise me and then I remembered on my first appointment with him that he immediately stated "we don't believe in alternative medicine, just the machine works".
Anyway, I found the main reason of my problem. We all have a small flap of skin in our wind pipe, mine when I go to sleep it does also, thus closing my airway, thus the snoring, thus the problem.
So, I'm diagnosed with Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea, this had been developing for many years to be at this point, probably since I started smoking and drinking. I also realised this, people don't just die from a heart attack or something, something caused it and Apnea has a lot to do with it.
While my experience with a Sleep Disorder Centre was...well...somewhat unenjoyable I recommend it to anyone who thinks they may have symptoms, at least you'll know what you're dealing with cause Apnea can be different for different people, and even for some people the machine actually works.
Make no mistake about it, Sleep Apnea is a killer and the cause of many problems.
Sorry for the doom and gloom but hopefully this might help someone...
Later on I found out that doctor had a vested interest in the company that sold the machines, didn't really surprise me and then I remembered on my first appointment with him that he immediately stated "we don't believe in alternative medicine, just the machine works".
Anyway, I found the main reason of my problem. We all have a small flap of skin in our wind pipe, mine when I go to sleep it does also, thus closing my airway, thus the snoring, thus the problem.
So, I'm diagnosed with Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea, this had been developing for many years to be at this point, probably since I started smoking and drinking. I also realised this, people don't just die from a heart attack or something, something caused it and Apnea has a lot to do with it.
While my experience with a Sleep Disorder Centre was...well...somewhat unenjoyable I recommend it to anyone who thinks they may have symptoms, at least you'll know what you're dealing with cause Apnea can be different for different people, and even for some people the machine actually works.
Make no mistake about it, Sleep Apnea is a killer and the cause of many problems.
Sorry for the doom and gloom but hopefully this might help someone...
Sleep Apnea- the not so silent killer Part 2, Doom and Gloom
Now the fun part, off to the Sleep Disorders Clinic...
I'll cut to the chase, got there and was told to go into my room and change into my pyjamas (which I purchased the day before, not a jammy person) and wait. That was all cool until the nurse came in pushing a trolley with some computer gadget and about 50 wires on it. Now don't get me wrong, I love nurses, especially in uniform, but when she started placing all these wires over my body I got nervous and it wasn't that good nervous either. When she finished I had wires plugged onto me from my toes to the top of my head. That was when I started to feel inhuman and besides that how was I going to sleep with all this. Never the less I got some sleep and was out of there by 6am.
My follow up with the doctor completely shocked me to say the least. Results showed that I stopped breathing 65 times per hour, I woke up 31 times per hour and the oxygen level in my brain dropped to 82% (normal healthy person 92%). My thought was how am I still alive!
Now the doctor suggested another study with a breathing machine, didn't really know what it was but I said ok, why not, if it will help me to stop snoring.
So, I'm back at the clinic, with my still new jammies (worn once before) and back in the room. The same wires got connected but then something else...a mask with a tube connected to a machine. Any feelings about my humanity disappeared right then, and I had to sleep with this thing on my face...oohh the pain!!! But after composing myself and finding that little bit of macho left in me I said to myself "I'm here, I've paid for it, so shut up and go through it!" The nurse turned on the contraption and instant oxygen came through my nose and mouth, a bit rough but stick with it I thought. Needless to say I fell asleep (I think they put something in the air-con system, cause as soon as you enter the room you feel like sleeping...Conspiracy Theory or what? perhaps just paranoia), anyway at midnight I woke up cause I couldn't breath, the machine malfunctioned and was blowing oxygen a million miles a second down my wind pipe, just as I ripped the mask off the nurse ran in, I didn't know what was going on! She had to change the machine cause she couldn't re calibrate it or something. I fell asleep again somehow but somewhat pissed off. At 4am the machine went Berko again, the nurse runs in apologising but by the I had had enough. I said "that's it, I'm going home", to my surprise she replied "that's ok, most people are out of here by midnight", Idiot I thought to myself.
Next post the plot thickens with my new test results...
I'll cut to the chase, got there and was told to go into my room and change into my pyjamas (which I purchased the day before, not a jammy person) and wait. That was all cool until the nurse came in pushing a trolley with some computer gadget and about 50 wires on it. Now don't get me wrong, I love nurses, especially in uniform, but when she started placing all these wires over my body I got nervous and it wasn't that good nervous either. When she finished I had wires plugged onto me from my toes to the top of my head. That was when I started to feel inhuman and besides that how was I going to sleep with all this. Never the less I got some sleep and was out of there by 6am.
My follow up with the doctor completely shocked me to say the least. Results showed that I stopped breathing 65 times per hour, I woke up 31 times per hour and the oxygen level in my brain dropped to 82% (normal healthy person 92%). My thought was how am I still alive!
Now the doctor suggested another study with a breathing machine, didn't really know what it was but I said ok, why not, if it will help me to stop snoring.
So, I'm back at the clinic, with my still new jammies (worn once before) and back in the room. The same wires got connected but then something else...a mask with a tube connected to a machine. Any feelings about my humanity disappeared right then, and I had to sleep with this thing on my face...oohh the pain!!! But after composing myself and finding that little bit of macho left in me I said to myself "I'm here, I've paid for it, so shut up and go through it!" The nurse turned on the contraption and instant oxygen came through my nose and mouth, a bit rough but stick with it I thought. Needless to say I fell asleep (I think they put something in the air-con system, cause as soon as you enter the room you feel like sleeping...Conspiracy Theory or what? perhaps just paranoia), anyway at midnight I woke up cause I couldn't breath, the machine malfunctioned and was blowing oxygen a million miles a second down my wind pipe, just as I ripped the mask off the nurse ran in, I didn't know what was going on! She had to change the machine cause she couldn't re calibrate it or something. I fell asleep again somehow but somewhat pissed off. At 4am the machine went Berko again, the nurse runs in apologising but by the I had had enough. I said "that's it, I'm going home", to my surprise she replied "that's ok, most people are out of here by midnight", Idiot I thought to myself.
Next post the plot thickens with my new test results...
Sleep Apnea- the not so silent killer Part 1, Doom and Gloom
Hi There,
My name is Zoran and my snoring is like that of a locomotive (full steam ahead). I knew I did but didn't realise the severity. That is until I woke up to find my girlfriend (now ex) sleeping in the lounge room just after she moved in. My initial thought was, what have I done wrong!, we had great sex last night (which I was looking forward to again in the morning, naturally) obviously that wasn't happening! So I approached her and asked "what was wrong?" She said "you were snoring" I replied "yeah and". "No" she said, "I think even the neighbours can hear you". S#*T! I thought, and a million things started racing through my mind, the first was, I love my woman and can't stand the thought of not waking up next to her after a good nights sleep. I couldn't believe that I could have a sleep disorder.
Something had to be done, FAST! I'll get to that later...
Now, I've been honest up till now so why stop here. I'm slighty overweight, I smoke, I don't exercise and I probably drink more than I should (Ok, ok...I do) DEAD RINGER for SLEEP APNEA or SLEEP APNOEA, and when I stopped and thought about it, I've been tired for the last 20 years, no energy, my sex drive had declined somewhat and I forget things, relevent or irrelevent. These I found out were classic symptoms. So naturally I looked up snoring on the net which led me to Sleep Apnea, which led me to a local Sleep Disorder Centre, which led to a Diagnostic Sleep Study.
Read on in Part 2 for the fun part.
My name is Zoran and my snoring is like that of a locomotive (full steam ahead). I knew I did but didn't realise the severity. That is until I woke up to find my girlfriend (now ex) sleeping in the lounge room just after she moved in. My initial thought was, what have I done wrong!, we had great sex last night (which I was looking forward to again in the morning, naturally) obviously that wasn't happening! So I approached her and asked "what was wrong?" She said "you were snoring" I replied "yeah and". "No" she said, "I think even the neighbours can hear you". S#*T! I thought, and a million things started racing through my mind, the first was, I love my woman and can't stand the thought of not waking up next to her after a good nights sleep. I couldn't believe that I could have a sleep disorder.
Something had to be done, FAST! I'll get to that later...
Now, I've been honest up till now so why stop here. I'm slighty overweight, I smoke, I don't exercise and I probably drink more than I should (Ok, ok...I do) DEAD RINGER for SLEEP APNEA or SLEEP APNOEA, and when I stopped and thought about it, I've been tired for the last 20 years, no energy, my sex drive had declined somewhat and I forget things, relevent or irrelevent. These I found out were classic symptoms. So naturally I looked up snoring on the net which led me to Sleep Apnea, which led me to a local Sleep Disorder Centre, which led to a Diagnostic Sleep Study.
Read on in Part 2 for the fun part.
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