Sleep Apnea

B_Lightkeeper

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I have just been diagnosed with it after a sleep test. I am scheduled to spend another night next week where I guess I will be outfitted with a breathing apparatus to supply oxygen to my lungs while I sleep.

I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to sleep with this attachment.

Have any of you gone through this and is it permanent?
 

nudeyorker

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I have not, but I know someone else who has. I think he had a minor out patient surgery and the problem was solved. I will e-mail him for details.
 

klyn67

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I, too, have sleep apnea, and have had a C-Pap machine since February 2008. WHAT a lifesaver it has been!!! It was such a blessing to finally be able to sleep more than 2 or 3 hours.......... I take it with me when I travel! I'm so used to it, I can't sleep without it, even for just a nap.
It does take a period of adjustment to get used to the apparatus, but don't give up, trust me. It's worth it!
I don't know if it's permanent or not, I've heard that losing weight can help alleviate the symptoms of apnea.......
 

Florida Boy

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I have had the diagnosis about a year ago. They are our previous threads here about sleep. There are also support groups online. A simple Google search will give you all the information you need.

From what you say, I am not certain of your need to supply oxygen. That is to say, an oxygen tank. What you probably will get is a CPAP machine that will force air through your nose and probably mouth as well. There are a number of force settings to offset the blockage. The blockage comes about when tissues in your throat sag as you grew into the unconsciousness of sleep.

Believe me, the idea of sleeping with a mass connected with the plastic to to a machine blowing air in your direction is much worse than the actual practice. It took me no time to adjust. I have known people who never made the adjustment. It's strange to me, considering the alternative. No one, to my knowledge, has ever died using a CPAP machine. Plenty of people, on the other hand, have simply stopped breathing because of sleep apnea. Look at it seems as positively as you can. They even come in "smart" traveling cases. They are not that much trouble to travel. Be sure to get a machine has a humidifier.

As they are letting you do a second night, that probably means you are in the moderate category. The computer figures out the numbers. That means something close to 30 sleep events an hour. For all practical purposes those are times that you stop breathing and your brain has to wake up your breathing mechanism because of oxygen depletion. If that process gets short-circuited, you die.

I wish you luck.
 

Pecker

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I've been using a C-Pap machine for several years. It keeps a constant pressure in my breathing passages so that my throat can't close up and block the air (as it would without the machine.) Like klyn67 I take it everywhere with me when I overnight. When I'm sharing a room on a trip I get no complaints because they know how noisy my sleeping was before the C-Pap.

I used to be tired all the time and had to have a nap every day around noon (sometimes earlier) because I just didn't sleep deeply enough during the night. Now I do very well and I've never minded using the machine at all.
 

klyn67

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It kinda makes you sound like Darth Vader........not too sexy, but get your sexy business out of the way before sleep time, and it's all good...... :)
 

MarkLondon

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I know a couple of guys who've had to use CPAP. They both said they adjusted to it much more quickly than they thought they would.

I've spent the night with one of them, before and after, and believe me the slight hissing sound is a lot easier to sleep through than the sound of someone struggling with their breathing all night.

(And if your "spend the niter" should happen to have a gas mask fetish I'm sure they'd be thrilled.)
 

B_Stronzo

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In one case I know of once the guy stopped drinking himself silly it ceased. He dropped considerable weight too.

Don't know how medically correct that is but it worked.
 

Industrialsize

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One of my best friends has sleep apnea and uses a Cpap machine.(Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). I've slept in the same room with him before and after he started usinG CPAP. The soft hiss of the machine is far preferable to the incessant snorinG. He tells me that it didn't take him lonG at all to Get used to the machine.
 

IntoxicatingToxin

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One of my best friends has sleep apnea and uses a Cpap machine.(Continuous Positive Airway Pressure). I've slept in the same room with him before and after he started usinG CPAP. The soft hiss of the machine is far preferable to the incessant snorinG. He tells me that it didn't take him lonG at all to Get used to the machine.

Is there some secret code in your message or something? Trying to figure out why all your g's are capitalized... :confused:
 

Industrialsize

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Is there some secret code in your message or something? Trying to figure out why all your g's are capitalized... :confused:
The "g" key on my laptop doesn't work, so whenever I need a "g" I have to cut and paste them in......somtimes all I can find is a capital one.........
 

Rikter8

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Sorry for the old thread revival... but just wondering how you made out Dirty Videophile, and how you have been sleeping since this thread.

Im starting to do some research on this for myself. I don't wake up in the middle of the night, but I wake up and feel wiped out, and not rested.
Oddly...I'll stop breathing during the day, have a heart palpitation and gasp for air out of the blue.
Wondering if these are symptoms other folks have had with sleep apnea.