Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mary J on July 29, 2009 at 11:09pm

I wasn't in denial - I simply didn't want to be labelled and saddled with the CPAP machine. I heard they were noisy and difficult to travel with - so I simply ignored the problem and hoped it would go away. As a result, I ended up sleeping in a different room so I would not wake up my husband. On vacations, I would snore and my family would be upset with me.

Finally, I mentioned this to my doctor. She said - "no - you probably don't have this...why do you think you do?" I told her I sometimes wake myself up gasping - so she got me right in. I was diagnosed with severe OSA.

Now I'm using an APAP and getting my energy and life back. Also, I'm back in our room and on vacations, the machine doesn't disturb my family at all.

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Permalink Reply by bonesigh on July 30, 2009 at 10:11pm

Hi Jim. I have to admit that I do, very rarely, fall back to sleep on purpose on the weekends without the mask. It's just sooo nice to snuggle in and have my face free from the leech! It's not usually for very long but it's still dangerous and I shouldn't do it at all.

Jim Nadolny, BS, CRT said:

OK, Everyone get ready to yell at me, but occasionally I decide that I am going to take a break from treatment for a day or two... I know it is the wrong thing to do, I am not sure why I do it? I think maybe it is some childish reasoning "nothing will happen to me!" Lately listening to people on this forum has made me realize that maybe I need to stop "taking breaks" Does anyone else have this bad habit?

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Permalink Reply by Mike on July 31, 2009 at 12:25pm

I was in my mom's place last night and she has a very damp house which i'm convinced has some mold/mildew problems. So i didn't use my CPAP last night -- was afraid the mold, if it existed, would somehow infiltrate the machine and stay in there and make me sick. I take those sort of "breaks" out of necessity. But never just for the fun of it.

Jim Nadolny, BS, CRT said:

OK, Everyone get ready to yell at me, but occasionally I decide that I am going to take a break from treatment for a day or two... I know it is the wrong thing to do, I am not sure why I do it? I think maybe it is some childish reasoning "nothing will happen to me!" Lately listening to people on this forum has made me realize that maybe I need to stop "taking breaks" Does anyone else have this bad habit?

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Permalink Reply by susan mccord on July 31, 2009 at 4:46pm

Rock, you are now my online hero!! Thanks again for being there.....

Susan McCord :-)

Rock Hinkle said:

My family is in huge denial. At first I think they thought what I did was a joke. I don't push sleep on them. I have been working with my daughter and have helped a few other family members out with just a few small suggestions. The rest of them are starting to take notice.

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Permalink Reply by Jeanne Berry on July 31, 2009 at 6:51pm

Yes, and I have stopped bringing up my OSA. Mostly, I had conversations with women regaling their problems with snoring husbands, and the husbands faces grow dark and annoyed looking. I asked my doc if he has this same reaction. He said ABSOLUTELY yes, and had been trying to get his best friend Craig to get a sleep study for years, as his wife has left the martial bed due to lack of sleep. My doc looked really sad, and said he went to Craigs funeral this spring. 49 years old. Heart attack. He said the majority of folks together in his office are women complaining about men, and the men, even when tested, are not compliant because they are not convinced that they have anything wrong until they get really ill. We mortals are just not perfect, yet! When I have someone ask me, I will tell them my story, and tell them it is great to be alive and well. If they ask where I got help, I hand them my doctors card. Then, I drop the subject. All I can do is hope they are concerned about their health enough to get help, I can not instill the concern for their own safety.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on August 2, 2009 at 10:43pm

Carolyn, you can get an oximeter at ApneaLife.com if you'd like.

carolyn chalk said:

Where do you get an oximeter?


James Skinner said:

Its very common. My brother-in-law snores so I tested him with my oximeter. He had over a hundred desaturations during the night. I told him he should go get tested but he is not interested. He said he probably just needs to loose a little weight.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on August 2, 2009 at 10:45pm

I relate very much to the sentiment not wanting to "push" sleep on family and friends. I've told so many of them that they have sleep apnea that a few have joked that they don't want to talk to me about it because I might "get them sick" --- that is, bring them to an awareness that they probably have sleep apnea.

Rock Hinkle said:

My family is in huge denial. At first I think they thought what I did was a joke. I don't push sleep on them. I have been working with my daughter and have helped a few other family members out with just a few small suggestions. The rest of them are starting to take notice.

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Permalink Reply by wallace j smith jr on August 3, 2009 at 1:16pm

yes i have but they think its just a "fat" persons disease

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Permalink Reply by The Dreamer on August 3, 2009 at 10:56pm

That burns me so much..... it was time for my weekly call my mother so she can tell me stuff thing.... Once again she managed to find something else sleep apnea/cpap related to reinforce her idea on what's wrong with me and how to fix it.

Apparently there was a funeral, and the person was in some significant position with a sleep apnea association...which she said was obvious because he was fat.

I'm sure there was more to the story, but that was enough for her. Of course, I'm dreading seeing her now for the holidays, because I've put on weight since starting CPAP. I wasn't overweight when I started, now I'm on the edge... And, I had plenty of other factors all my life.

Back when I was a 100lbs 6'3" bean pole, it was hard to find dress shirts....because of my large neck size. They just don't make off the shelf shirts for a skinny kid like me, with my neck size. But, she's forgotten on that....she's all focused on how this is just a fat person's problem and if I dropped my weight back to 100lbs, I would be perfect again.

Or that she thinks all this happened to me in the last couple of years....because I never had problems until now... Of course, CPAP hasn't cured my EDS and those other issues. Which I certainly had for years before I came to live in Kansas.

After all, my like took quite the turn in 1997 when I fell asleep while driving down the #1 highway. Of course, I've never told them that's what happened (its pretty much only something I talk on forums such as this one). And, I probably haven't figured out how far back things really go....probably into childhood. They didn't take my license away or anything....I just choose to never get behind the wheel of a car again. Of course, nearly breaking my neck at C4/C5 could probably have something to do with it.

Of course, before that I had problems with dozing off at wrong times....or always being tired.

The reality is that it didn't become extreme enough for me to discuss it with my doctor until last year. Not talking to my doctor was something my parents had taught me. Now they go on the story that since I pay so much to see my doctor, I should be telling him everything...just don't listen to them, because they only want more money.

Sleep Apnea is just an overdiagnoised thing that doctors use to make more money, its just about being fat....oops. But, there were other things that were wrong with me that my parents also rationalized away like that. Like how everybody has scoliosis.... Or, allergies are normal...you just need to build tolerance to what's causing it. Must be why they never told any of my pediatrian's that I had an adverse reaction everytime I was prescribed penicillin for something (usually because somebody higher than my parents made me stay home from school).... I found out when I went in for a simple outpatient procedure one morning, and suddenly the weekend disappeared.

Of course, didn't occur to me that each time I had those simple procedures....how they were in the morning, and it was just a local...but sitting or laying there....they only thing I could do was fall asleep, and miss the whole thing.

Travel was never an issue...taking the shuttle to the airport (~3 hours), I'd get on and fall asleep until I got there. Get on the airplane, fall asleep until I got there...etc. Never bothered me when I was younger and it was greyhound buses.

But, then I got on my first trip....after 4 months of CPAP. That shuttle ride was so boring, being awake for it all. The airplane trip wasn't much better, also not sleeping through the whole flight. Apparently, there's all sorts of people that also stay awake though, and they have things with them to fill their time.

Of course, the professionals apparently aren't much help either....last week my mom was talking about how a friend of ours...who's a doctor....is on CPAP. Mom asked on how a person get's sleep apnea....and he said its either you inherit it or you get fat. And, if you get it because you are fat, can you get better and now need CPAP....yes. Why is he (doctor) still on CPAP....because he hasn't lost any weight.

Interesting thing was that the doctor volunteered the information....and, because it was some sort of trip with my parents...and he was driving. Hmmm....

The thing that leads me to think this problem goes way back into childhood....is read somewhere that sunken chest in a symptom of sleep apnea. Though it also is a symptom of Scoliosis. It is also a symptom of Marfan's (though I've been tested for that 4 times, 3 times by different pediatricians...and again by the first doctor I got after I left home, after which I found out that parents had let previous doctors test me for it repeatedly....they just choose not to share this information with me or any of them.)

Though since I've been on CPAP, my chest isn't as sunken as it had been all my life.....

But, I had no problem accepting that I needed CPAP or my having sleep apnea....soon after the sleep study, I wanted the doctor to hurry up and give me the diagnosis, etc. Though it would be nicer if all my problems would go away now.

The Dreamer.

wallace j smith jr said:

yes i have but they think its just a "fat" persons disease

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Permalink Reply by Chris H on February 8, 2011 at 5:09pm

This happened to me  this last weekend .

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