I'm Brittany, I live in Connecticut and im 23years old. I was diagnosed with obstructive and mixed apneas. I went to the doctor after my fiance noticed a change in my sleeping patterns over the last year that then led to night terrors. (Rediculous right!? heh) I also had a bad run in with Mono about a year and a half ago and have never felt quite right since. The doctor doesn't quite know yet what is causing the problem. I have no tonsils to speak of because they were removed as a child, my blood pressure tends to run very low (96/62) I am very active person and am in my target range if not only a point or two high for my target BMI. Im a photographer on the weekends, and a full time college student so no sleep has always been a normal thing for me. Pulling all nighters was always OK. Now i sleep for 8 hours and still find myself exhausted in class. I am thoroughly freaked out about all of this and have only had my machine for about a week. During which time I think im sleeping even less than I was before. :-/
As of late I am all about trying to navigate my way through this information overload and getting things back to as normal as possible. I have already read some helpful things on this site and decided to join to see what else I can find here. I am just feeling very overwhelmed.
I'm sorry you had to find out that apnea can just as easily affect fit young women as fat old men (and everyone in between). Sometimes it's simply your individual anatomy (shape and/or tendency to collapse) and there is no other reason (for the obstructive apneas that is; I guess you could say the centrals are "all in your mind" :-) ).
I'm actually way more sensitive to sleep schedule disruptions than pre-CPAP (just a couple of years ago). I think now that I can actually sleep, I'm more dependent on it.
It's pretty common for their to be an adjustment period. If you're lucky, it may be a short as a week or two. For others, it may be years.
Make sure you have (or find) a mask that works really well for you. If it leaks significantly, that can wake you up, dry out your eyes, etc. (I can only use nasal pillows; everything else leaks and/or moves my teeth and changes my bite!)
Brittany. I'm glad that this was caught early in your life. Sleep apnea can take a toll on your body over years of being undiagnosed. This will give you a headstart on getting proper treatment for it. There are many options for treatment. If you have to get used to a mask, it may take some time, but you will in time. If you don't find your doctor to be helpful, don't get discouraged. Find another. There are some excellent doctors out there so don't give up. The one I found just happend to be a pioneer in the field and knew more about sleep apnea than most doctors even knew about it existance. He is a neurologist and I think is probably the best suited kind of doctor for sleep issues.
Good luck and keep us up to date on how your treatment is going.
Brittany
I'm Brittany, I live in Connecticut and im 23years old.
I was diagnosed with obstructive and mixed apneas. I went to the doctor after my fiance noticed a change in my sleeping patterns over the last year that then led to night terrors. (Rediculous right!? heh) I also had a bad run in with Mono about a year and a half ago and have never felt quite right since.
The doctor doesn't quite know yet what is causing the problem. I have no tonsils to speak of because they were removed as a child, my blood pressure tends to run very low (96/62) I am very active person and am in my target range if not only a point or two high for my target BMI. Im a photographer on the weekends, and a full time college student so no sleep has always been a normal thing for me. Pulling all nighters was always OK. Now i sleep for 8 hours and still find myself exhausted in class.
I am thoroughly freaked out about all of this and have only had my machine for about a week. During which time I think im sleeping even less than I was before. :-/
As of late I am all about trying to navigate my way through this information overload and getting things back to as normal as possible. I have already read some helpful things on this site and decided to join to see what else I can find here. I am just feeling very overwhelmed.
Nov 2, 2011
Brian Katzung
Hi Brittany, and welcome.
I'm sorry you had to find out that apnea can just as easily affect fit young women as fat old men (and everyone in between). Sometimes it's simply your individual anatomy (shape and/or tendency to collapse) and there is no other reason (for the obstructive apneas that is; I guess you could say the centrals are "all in your mind" :-) ).
I'm actually way more sensitive to sleep schedule disruptions than pre-CPAP (just a couple of years ago). I think now that I can actually sleep, I'm more dependent on it.
It's pretty common for their to be an adjustment period. If you're lucky, it may be a short as a week or two. For others, it may be years.
Make sure you have (or find) a mask that works really well for you. If it leaks significantly, that can wake you up, dry out your eyes, etc. (I can only use nasal pillows; everything else leaks and/or moves my teeth and changes my bite!)
Nov 2, 2011
Jeffrey Donaldson
Brittany. I'm glad that this was caught early in your life. Sleep apnea can take a toll on your body over years of being undiagnosed. This will give you a headstart on getting proper treatment for it. There are many options for treatment. If you have to get used to a mask, it may take some time, but you will in time. If you don't find your doctor to be helpful, don't get discouraged. Find another. There are some excellent doctors out there so don't give up. The one I found just happend to be a pioneer in the field and knew more about sleep apnea than most doctors even knew about it existance. He is a neurologist and I think is probably the best suited kind of doctor for sleep issues.
Good luck and keep us up to date on how your treatment is going.
Nov 2, 2011