My Apnea Story

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Comment by Sandra Kay Goodwin on December 4, 2009 at 9:51am

I have had sleep apnea for several years. I have had obstructive sleep apnea surgery, removing my tonsils and part of the palate of my tongue. I didn't know what was wrong at first. I was waking up every few minutes gasping for breath. I also have Central Sleep apnea. I use a B-pap machine. Never got used to wearing it, probably never will. I used to wake up in the mornings and I had taken my mask off during the night and wasn't aware of it. I do sleep better now. It is just so hard to get comfortable with all the hose and mask. I have noticed memory loss over the years as well. I assume it is related to the apnea.

Comment by Sugarshirl on July 27, 2009 at 6:28pm

My Apnea story was the tip of the iceberg, but without knowing or being treated for it, I would surely have died by now. I have worked for 37 years and loved working, my last position was as an Import Manager and a Human Resource Manager for 17 years at the same company. It require a lot of talking, both in person and on the telephone. About three years before I found out I had sleep apnea (5 years ago) I was not sleeping very well and found myself sitting on the side of the bed most of the night. Just thinking it was because of my heart or weight, I just lived with it. Sleeping only 3 hours a night and working about 10 hours a day caught up with me in regards to job performance, breathing and energy level. I had 5 bypass heart survery 10 years ago and had gained more than 75 pounds, my diabetis was getting more out of control so I went to see my Doctor. I told her that I could not walk very far without panting and even that holding a long conversation with someone made me out of breath. She sent me for all kinds of tests and it was found that my lungs are pretty messed up and that only 20% of the oxygen that I breathe in gets through my lungs to my other organs. They put me on oxygen 24/7 at 3 liter per minute. That helped a lot, but I still was not sleeping. Another thing they did was send me to a sleep clinic and even though it was uncomfortable, I did sleep enough for them to determine that I have severe sleep apnea and my AHI is 90. I am a mouth breather, always have been and believe me, it is still hard sometimes because I forget to breathe through my nose to get the oxygen I need. Sounds funny, but it's not when I feel terrible and can't figure out why. Anyway, I had to go back for another night at the sleep clinic this time using a CPAP and of course it was a good night. I started using a full face comfort mask with a humidifier two years ago and from that point on, slept 8 to 9 hours every single night. I was one of the lucky ones that did not have any problem in adjusting to the mask, I just knew that it was my friend and like I have said before, I surrendered to it. The setting is at 14 and that is pretty strong, but I relaxed and it worked!

Last October I almost died with congestive heart failure and respiratory failure. It took a specialist some very agressive Lasix treatment on me to keep me alive, guess I was drowning in fluids. After entubating me for 6 days and losing 66 pounds of water weight in ICU, I was ready to live. Another 9 days in the hospital where they had to put me under again to shock my heart back to normal, guess it had developed arrthymia. I had my own CPAP there with me and I made sure all the personnel let only me take care of it because I knew how important it was to my recovery. When I was released, I started going to pulmonary rehab where they taught me how to breathe through my nose to get more oxygen in my body. I also started working out, slowly but surely and lost an additional 64 pounds.

All the health problems that I have, are pretty scary, but the sleep apnea is the lynch pin that has enabled me to get through all of it. Having good sleep, energy and attitude helps me to continue to work hard on my weight and it has improved my quality of life. Thanks to my CPAP!

Comment by David on June 2, 2009 at 9:18pm

My Apnea story is fairly short but informative. I began taking Prozac for mild depression as soon as it became widely available, mid 80s. Shortly after I began having muscle twitches before and during sleep and increased snore to the point my wife spent many nights on the couch. My doctor at the time said "that sounds more like your wifes problem than yours". Since that time Apnea and whatever you want to call the muscle twitches have been linked to SSRI and related drugs. My doctor calls the muscle twitch RLS.

I had a life long history of infected Tonsils, unrelated to APNEA I had Tonsils and Uvula removed as well as a Deviated Septum repair all at once about 1990. Just coincidence that those procedures are the same recommended for APNEA though they had no effect on my APNEA symptoms. My wife continued to complain of the snoring and I forwarded her complaints to the doc.

He sent me for a Sleep Study back in the early days of APNEA treatment and I was diagnosed with SEVERE Sleep APNEA. The CPAP equipment I received was beyond primative compared to what's available today and I tried for two years without success to use it. In 1993 I began urinating during sleep and reported that to the doc. He said it was probably caused by the APNEA but sent me for a full Urology work up that found nothing. I have worn CPAP every day since and never wet the bed again. But I never had an AHA moment all of the symptoms increased with age. The RLS prevents any sleep without lots of drugs and sleep without CPAP is worthless but CPAP has minimal effect on daytime tiredness although with chronic back pain, severe depression etc requiring lots of meds I would suffer respiratory collapse without it. My (new) wife an RN says my end will likely come from an airway obstruction during sleep. I am over weight but not morbidly so if I can provide a cautionary tale here it would be to avoid anti-depressants unless you have no choice all else is just my bad luck.

Comment by Marianne Dollar on April 24, 2009 at 11:41am

I was diagnosed in March of 2008 with Sleep Apnea. What a difference my CPAP makes in my sleeping and how I feel throughout the day!

Comment by Mike on April 23, 2009 at 2:08pm

Great Idea for a New Group, Patrick!