Thank you carol. i was just diagnosed. I go on 7/29 for a sleep study with a mask on. Its all to me. Thank you for welcoming me.

Thank You carol, I look forward to participation in this group.

thank you , i look forward to learning more about sleep apnea, which i have had diagnosed for 10 yearsand have had a cpap machine all that time... i am sure without it i would be dead!!!! ps i barely tolerate my mask but it beats the alternatines....

Thanks for a message. I'm new to forum in general, but I look forward to participation.

Thank you for the welcome message...I do not have sleep apnea...but my husband does and we lost our first son 27 years ago and my nephew 21 years ago to SIDS which is apnea in infants.

Thank You so much! I have sleep apnea and I use a CPAP Machine! Again Thank You for the welcome message!

One out of every 1000 babies dies from SIDS every year..#1 cause of infant death..odds go up on subsequent births to 20 out of every 1000...odds do not go down until 2 years of age. All of my children have stopped breathing...
Has any chromosome research been done on sleep apnea?
I am asking because we found out in the studies done at the U of R that SIDS, Alzheimer's and Down Syndrome victims all have a chromosome disorder...same chromosome !

Thanks for the welcome sleepycarol. I was diagnosed with obstructive and central sleep apnea in the late 80's. I was sent home with a "corset" that recorded heartbeat and my breathing and a log book. Soon after I had my tonsils and uvula removed and was prescribed some meds. Later I had a more comprehensive sleep study done and started using a c-pap, no meds.
So that's what sleeping through the night is like!

Thank you.

Hi,
Thanks for the welcome. I was diagnosed in 1994 and just received my 2nd machine. I am sending my first machine(with the remote) to my older sister who was just diagnosed at age 54. I somehow draw people to me with similar issues and encourage them to go for sleep studies, my record is 5 out of 5 so far. Getting a good night sleep is crucial to our emotional, physical well being. I encourage anyone to find the help if they are even a little curious.

Hi Carol. Thanks for the kind welcome. I have had sleep Apnea for 8 years now, but there is very little that the doctors say they can do for me. I must lose weight. OK but it can't happen over night and I have a brain injury which makes sticking with it very difficult. I'm hoping that I can find some answers here to help me. Thanks again for the welcome.
Theresa Anne Allen

Thanks. I have had Sleep Apnea for about two years. I have been on both a C-PAP & Bi-PAP machines. I am using the Bi-PAP presently. It has been very frustrating and compounding the problem is that I suffer from depression. I still lack that get up and go that I so desparately crave. Medicines have been adjusted .

Thank you for the warm welcome.

It is pretty ironic about what you said about Apnea & Depression. My Dad has been in and out of Psych Hospitals(Shock Treatment). He is overweight and I know he has Apnea. I pretty much take after him, especially all the health issues.

Thank You Sleepycarol I appreciate your welcome to the group. Have a good week.

Thanks SleepyCarol. I look forward to contributing to the group when and where I can as a dental sleep professional.

Thanks for the warm welcome

Thaaks so much and if I can be of any help, I am a Psychotherapist by profession; not a sleep apnea professional but a good listener :-)

Cheers,

Gene

Thanks for the welcome. I don't know what all I can get out of this, discouraged is what I am. My husband has sleep apnea, was diagnosed a year ago. He went into a sleep clinic, they said he stopped breathing 58 times in one hour. I can't imagine any worse numbers than that. 90% of the time he sleeps on the couch, so I can SLEEP. He tosses and turns constantly and snores pretty much in every position. Didn't used to be that way, used to be only on his back. It is so stressful on both of us... but he will not go for help. $$ is a factor and I can tell you, he absolutely will not wear a mask, he refuses. So we are still at square 1.
Kim :(

Thanks for the welcome, I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea about 2 weeks ago, was told that I will be contacted by someone in Louisville about a machine. I was told that my oxygen dipped down to 58 three times and that while sleeping my highest oxygen level was 91 and she said it hit 91 only five times. I am currently using oxygen at night when I sleep. I have numerous health problems that I think the Sleep Apnea has caused. I have gained over 100 lbs in the last 3 years, am suffering from memory loss, have been hospitalized several times because of Athsma ( which I also developed 3 years ago) and I have to take breathing treatments every 4 hrs.
I have developed nasal allergies ( which I have never had before) I have recently started suffering from depression for the 1st time in my life and I am starting to suffer from severe anxiety attacks and am on Xanax for that as well. I have recently been diagnosed with high blood pressure and edema and am taking meds for that. I wake up gasping for air sometimes and sometimes I feel like I forgot how to breathe. I am no longer able to work because I can no longer stay healthy long enough to even bother trying to work. I feel like I'm slowly dying and it makes me feel so isolated from the rest of the world because I dont feel like anyone really understands what I am going through. I have hope now because I know that there really are prople out there that understands what I have been dealing with.

I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH MILD SLEEP APNEA. I AM NOT USING A CPAP. IS IT STLL HARMFUL TO NOT BR USING IT? AND HOW DOES SLEEP APNEA CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN ? THANKS, SUSIE

Thanks for the warm welcome. Today is a big day - back to Kaiser for reading of my data. My best guess is that I'll get the same machine you did. I'm getting total resistance from the respiratory techs when I talk about getting a data-capable machine. Wish me luck!

Thanks again for your kind words - Mr Capers

Thanks for the comment.

Thank you for the coment. So does this mean that I should use the cpap, even though it is mild?

Hi Sleepycarol,

Thanks - maybe your good wishes were the charm. My entire appt. was something to see. They had not registered what my sleep report said - I had way too many central apneas to be put on any straight xPAP machine. The printout from the titration CPAP showed they had reduced my 35 AHI to 30 AHI.

The RT called the Doctor (Who I've never seen) and was told to titrate me on an ASV. So, a whole week had been wasted with me on a machine which did almost noting for me. However, they had only one ASV machine, which had been checked out the previous day for two weeks.

So, they set in motion the bureaucracy to buy another ASV for the department. And, she called some other department and asked for a loaner.

It then looked as if I would leave with no relief at all, so I begged, and she let me have a BiPAP. I slept with it last night.

Do you know anything about ASVs? The RT claims they are very complex, saying she hadn't been trained on it so some other RT was going to set me up for my titration week.

This is my second week of blowing cold air up my nose - boy, I sure see the virtues of humidifiers. Kaiser doesn't issue the machines with them, claiming they can't clean them adequately.

By the time I'm through, I may have the longest titration on record!

Keep the good thoughts coming - I'll need them to finally get on the right machine!

Hi Sleepycarol, so sorry it's taken me so long to respond, the chimps name is Louie, and I did fall so in love with him, it's been a lifelong dream to hold a chimp and just by chance I heard of someone who had one and I arranged to meet him on my 46th birthday, instead of giving gifts we decided to create memories or do things that we have always wanted to do, I saw Louie a total of 4 times over the year and a half that I knew him, as he and his older brother were begining to mature the were becomming harder to handle and they had to go to a sanctuary, thank God a nice place where they can play and be chimps, It's been heartbreaking for me, bittersweet I know i'll never see him again, he could recognize me, but I know he's happy, tell me about your in-law, doesn't PETA or anyone else give her a hard time? I know we shouldn't try to make them live like humans but at the same time I would have never got to meet him if people didn't raise him, sorry to go on and on I miss him so much. bless you, Lisa

I WAS NOT ISSUED A DEVICE . I AM SEEING MY DR. ON TUESDAY. BUT I HAD THE TEST 4 MONTHS AGO. SHE HAS HAD THE RESULTS, BUT NEVER CALLED. SO, I AM TAKING IT , THAT IT IS NOT REAL SERIOUS. I CALLED THE LAB AND THEY JUST TOLD ME THANT IT WAS MILD AND IT WOULD BE MY DR.'S DECISION WHEATHER I GET THE CPAP OR NOT. I WAS CONSISDERING THE DENTAL DEVICE TOO. BUT I DO THINK THAT IT WOULD BE COSTLY AND WOULD TAKE ALOT OF ADJUSTMENTS TO GET IT TO WORK RIGHT . I WOULD PREFER IT OVER AIR BEING FORCED DOWN MY THROAT. I DON'T THINK I COULD SLEEP LIKE THAT. I HAD A VERY HARD TIME EVEN GOING TO SLEEP FOR THE TEST. I ONLY SLEPT FOR ABOUT 2 HOURS, DURING BOTH TESTS. OH, AND I WAS TOLD THAT I HAD O.S.A. 11 TIMES AN HOUR. AND BLOOD OXYGEN DOWN TO 85 A COUPLE OF TIMES. I GUESS I AM GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT TO SEE WHAT I HEAR AGAIN ON TUESDAY. THANKS FOR LISTENING AND COMMENTING, SUSIE

In answer to your question it was a very fundamental action, I lost weight ,almost 100 pounds ,and gradually my problems started to disaparear,It was amazing and I enjoy every moment of that experience,I have 2 friends I meet lately and they both shared similar result and experience,You may not believe how simple was that and I did not either at the beginning but well you know,it has been almost a year since I had any problem to sleep and breath and OMG it is beatiful!

I started program to loss weight, because anything else was not working, my wife got me into a program where I had to use some products (I did not think it was to be any good but I did it anyway.it did! and now I feel great!

Thanks for the welcome, sleepycarol.

Thank you for the welcome message. I'm sure I need help. Don't have time to talk about it now, but maybe I will have time this evening to throw some questions and concerns I have about using or not using the equipment.

Thank you so much. I've been on CPAP for a little over a year, and it has been wonderful; although I'd rather be able to sleep w/o it.

Thank you.

Thanks for the note. I have to go back and have a second sleep study done because no one seems to be able to determine why I am so tired all the time. It doesn't seem to be my thyroid and even when I eat right and exercise the fatigue never seems to subside. I wake up tired in the morning. My husband says I snore loudly most of the night so I guess this is one avenue I'll try again. Hope I come up with something soon. I'm tired of feeling tired~

Thank you! I have already read some good info and look forward to staying connected with through the different forums.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea over 10 years ago. It was easily cured with CPAP. When this did not relieve my sleepiness they did further test to find I had RLS/PLMS. This was much more difficult to control. It took a further 5+ years to bring under control. I am now on 5 meds to control the RLS/PLMS. I just completed a sleep tech program to learn about the problem, and hopefully help others.

sleepycarol, Thank you for your kind welcome & your story. My story is kind of different. I started with Lindcare & ended with a smaller company. Lindcare came & set up my bipap machine & o2 exchanger. The rt showed me a few things but didn't go into much detail. He told me to only touch the on & off button on my bipap. When I joined forums & asked him how to retreive data...things kindda went sour. When I had questions or problems, he was well hidden. I would call the office & was told he'd call me back. That never happened. My bipap machine's blower went berserk & it took me 3 days to finally convince Lindcare that I could not use the machine. They finally sent a lady out that didn't know as much as I did about the machine. But she brought me a machine to "borrow". She told me there would be no charge for the use of the bipap, so in a month I called about my machine. Of course, they found out the machine was "really" not working properly, so I got to keep the loaner. I ordered a new cushion & after 3 months, I finally called back to see where it was. They told me that there was a mix up & now my cushion was ordered. I finally found a small, locally owned shop & am glad I switched. Thank you again for your kind welcome! :)

Thank you for the welcome. I am 64 and have been on the CPAP for about 4+ years. This past year I started to experience insomnia issues. I will be tired at 11 PM but cannot fall asleep, and then I am up and down until sometimes 4 A.M. or later, do fall asleep and wake about 8 A.M. I often get really tired after a meal and end up taking a nap. I have my machine on in bed, whether I am sleeping or not and also when I nap so that when the sleep doctor looks at my usage hours it looks like I am sleeping too much. I know I need to go back to both the sleep doctor and my primary care physician. I also developed arthritis in my hands, which does not help at night, and I am on a number of medications. Just want to watch the discussions from people who have been doing fine on the CPAP, who have also developed insomnia problems. I will keep watching.

Thanks for getting intouch, i think i have had this problem a long time now but i did not realise the severity of what it was, i am a new resident to the US my wife is a US citizen and she has confirmed to me that my problem is quite severe i snore then stop breathing for more than 28 seconds then gasp for air i also on occasion get acid reflux wich has nearly taken me a couple of times its deathly scary and pain full.
i would like some kind of help ufortunatley right now i am looking for work and have no insurance so i feel quite nervous about it all i will be trying everything i can to help my self i just dont have the big pockets full of money foe cpap machines right now
w

Sleepycarol,

Thank you for the welcome. I'm on most of the top forums that Googling "sleep apnea forum OR forums OR board OR boards" finds.

My sleep specialist and equipment provider here (they are in Evanston, IL; I'm in Northbrook) are one and the same. They seem to be very knowledgable and helpful, but you generally have to ask for details if you want them (I think they try to avoid overwhelming the majority? of their patients).

Thankfully, they are extremely liberal in allowing new patients to test a wide variety of masks. So far I've tried a ResMed Activa and Swift LT nasal, and a Quattro and F&P 432 "full face" (I'm fighting with mouth leaks on the nasals).

Except for the mouth leaks (a chin strap helps, but doesn't stop them all), I really like the Swift LT. I'm going to ask them if they have the Innomed Hybrid 500 next. I tend to get a lot of leaks with the larger area masks.

Hi sleepy carol thank you for the quick reply, no i havn't had a sleep study i am a new resident in the usa and i have no insurance to see a doctor.
I plan to see a doctor soon as i get a work position. Ihave posted our discussion, maybe some members advice can help. As far as lying on my side goes i already do that to no avail, hey ho

Hi - thanks for the comments. Only recently have I been complaining about my mask. I purchased a "no-mask" and could not get used to it at all. Looking forward to spending some time reading others' comments and experiences.

I stumbbled upon your site this morning from a facebook link. I viewed the video titled "this is so hard to watch" I was and I have seen this before many times, with my husband. He even does this sometimes while sitting up on the couch and dozing.
His sleep study showed he's unable to breath 90 times an hour.
He does wear his c-pap machine everynight. Today I thanked him.

Hi Carol! Hey, I got on this Newcomer Site tonight for the first time--saw that song "The CPAP SONG" for the first time. It's great!! Can we post it on the regular Discussion board so new people, including me, who are over there, can see it??? We could stand a little humor about now!! Thanks for your consideration of this.

Susan McCord :-)

Thank you sleepycarol for this information, I hope I can find something to get rid of this disorder soon. Its hard to see some one not being able to sleep and having it effect there mood all the time.

I am still learning about sleep apnea, and wondered what percentage of people suffering from it are over weight? I am very athletic, and do not have a problem with my weight 5'3, 113 lbs.
I want to take a baseball bat to my machine, and drown myself with ambien to stay asleep....I'm so frustrated.

Thank you for the welcome...my husband has been treated for sleep apnea with a CPAP machine for close to 8 years now. (He will be 50 in September) and has gotten zero relief from the fatigue, weight gain, etc from the use of the machine. They are now talking Uvula Surgery. He is 5'8 and weighs approx 210 lbs so he doesn't really qualify for bariatric surgery but I have read that that is more successful in treating sleep apnea than the other surgery they are talking about. We are very confused and really don't know what avenue to take. They added a drug within the last couple months (Provigil?) to keep him awake during the day. (He does not have narcolepsy).

Has any one had success/failure with the surgeries and/or the CPAP machine not helping?

Thanks!

Thanks

hey, I didnot know what was causing me to fall asleep while driving home from work. then one day in 07 i had a bad spell with my heart it was out of rythem the doctor asked me about falling asleep during the day that is when i found out about the sleep apnea an had a sleep study an got the cpap machine i sleep now but my heart is still out of rythem.

Hi sleepycarol! thanks for the welcome. I see you leave a lot of comments. Are you the site administrator?