I'm a 50-year-old woman. I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (hyopthyroid with auto-immune component). I've been taking Synthorid since my diagnosis 15 years ago. I also suffer with chronic mild depression and back pain (herniated discs, sciatic problems), and in the past few years have become more anxious for no real reason. Recently I have been unable to lose weight and seem to be gaining despite eating normally. All my blood tests are normal and according to my doctor I'm in perfect health, but I usually feel sub-par so I think something must still be wrong. I have good days and bad days, but lately more bad days.

During the past 6 months I began to notice that I was not sleeping well, and my husband told me that I was jerking in my sleep. I have also been noticing that my sciatic problems are worse no matter what I do (or don't do).

My husband got a sleep study done because for years he has snored a lot and snorted loudly in his sleep. Diagnosis: SEVERE obstructive apnea. He has been on a CPAP for the past few months with an air pressure setting (whatever you call it) of 10. He says he has a lot more energy now.

He strongly suggested that I get a sleep study done, which was recently completed  (I had to go back twice). It was found that I have moderate hypopnea, with my oxygen level dropping to 94% many times throughout the night. I haven't gotten my CPAP yet (it's a long story of stupid doctor delays) but hope to soon. After the most recent sleep study the lab said my setting might be 6.

What scares me: the jerking and twitching have gotten much worse in the past few weeks. Now it's not just my leg jerking, but twitching in other parts of my body, too. I'm even twitching a bit during the day in odd places like the tip of my nose and my soft palate, and I feel very anxious. I also find myself sometimes waking up with a pounding heart and rapid pulse. Some of my joints feel achy and when I wake up in the morning, I usually don't feel well-rested and my back is incredibly stiff. For the past few weeks, I have felt absolutely awful most of the time -- achy, tired, having a hard time concentrating, anxious

I'm starting to fear that I am developing an neurological disease, or some other auto-immune disease like rheumatoid arthritis. I am considering consulting a neurologist or going back to my endocrinologists for more tests. I have been tested for RA in the past and it has always come up negative.

One thing that pisses me off: my endocrinologist said that my weight gain, etc is "middle age." I don't think my symptoms are menopause because I'm still on oral contraceptives and my GYN says that I would not be getting any menopause symptoms. Sometimes I wonder if still being on The Pill at my age is making things worse for me. My GYN plans to slowly taper me off the pill by the time I'm 55. Sometimes I want to just get off of it, but I'm afraid doing that might cause even more problems. (sigh......)

My husband insists that this could all be related to my hypopnea. He has an extra travel-sized CPAP machine, and this week we are going online to get me a mask so I can try it. I hope to have MY OWN machine by early August but don't want to wait that long. I am very pissed at how long this is dragging out because of doctors being on vacation, the sleep lab screwing up, etc. I wanted to start on CPAP two months ago and feel that I'm wasting time.

I would like to hear from anyone (espeically women) who had restless leg or jerking symptoms, and/or back pain and/or anxiety before starting CPAP, and how CPAP helped (or didn't help).


Thank you very much.