I did a sleep study too, and found out that I stop breathing about every minute or two in my sleeop and my oxygen got down to 74%. CPAP makes a big difference. Takes some practice to get used to, but eventually your brain convinces you it’s worth doing. There are a couple of excellent message boards for people with sleep apnea, if you want to read about others’ experiences with the condition and with the CPAP.
My wife did her sleep study, and while we were in the office, I picked up a brochure that showed what sleep apnea could do to you.
I went down the list.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes…
I arranged for a study that day, got my CPAP almost immediately, and have been happily sleeping and dreaming like I haven’t done in years. Plus I don’t snore now, even when I sleep on my back.
It’s a bleedin’ miracle, I tell ya!
My husband has had one for 3-4 years now, and it really is a friggin’ miracle. His snoring was so bad I was ready to smother him with a pillow, and he wasn’t quite to the point of falling asleep behind the wheel, thank Og, but he was super tired all the time; he’d come home from work and take a nap almost every day. With the CPAP, he doesn’t snore at all, and we both get a lot better sleep. He has TMJ, so the first mask he tried didn’t work because the straps went across his jaw and aggravated that, so he switched to the snorkel-type nasal mask. Looks funny as hell, but works great.
Alas, I have had nothing but misery using my CPAP. I switched to a BiPAP, which was slightly better, but I just cannot sleep with anything attached to my face. I have terrible, terrible insomnia, and having something on my face drastically limiting my freedom of movement and following my face around in the limited movements I can make is about the worst thing imaginable for my insomnia. (But at least with the BiPAP it wasn’t blowing a constant stream of air at my face, which was quite irritating to me).
I’ve only tried two different masks, but when I asked to try another, they said they didn’t think it would make enough of a difference.
Also alas, the surgeon I consulted reported that I was a poor candidate for any surgical intervention as well.
So it goes.
You can go about a month without food and survive. You can go about a week without water and still live. With limited rations you could extend this time period. Without oxygen you might live 2 minutes before irreversable tissue damage starts to occur followed shortly by death. How much oxygen can you afford to ration?
I used a pulseoximeter (sp?) over the Labor Day weekend and the results showed that my O2 levels dropped as low as 80% for many minutes. My doctor explains that this condition actually comes down to making a choice; do I start to breath again or do I die?
Tonight at 8:45 my sleep study begins.
I rarely snore but the tiredness I feel during the day is unbelievable. All my muscles burn and any exertion tires me out after 5 minutes; not to mention the difficulty in breathing and the lightheadedness.
I sure hope this helps me as much as it has helped you guys and other people I have talked too. I can’t go on much longer feeling this way.
CedricR.
cedman:
Good luck, I hope it pans out for you. I was feeling like you described, and it had become nearly unbearable. I started feeling short of breath and dizzy constantly, and it just wears on you.
Crossing my fingers for you, hopefully you’ll get some relief 
Hrm.
My wife needs a minimum of 10 hours sleep every night, and is still tired during the day. Often, she’ll take a nap as well, 1 or 2 hours.
We’ve always assumed there was really nothing that could be done about it – it was just the way she’s wired.
Are the tests, studies, etc. something that you can only afford with good insurance, or are they reasonably priced (in the U.S.)? I’m thinking maybe she needs to check this out, if what most of you are saying is true…
(I don’t know that she has apnea, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she did. Maybe I’ll stay awake tonight and listen to her breathing…)
I’d check into it for sure. Maybe your local doctor can give you an idea of the cost(s) involved.
BTW, I have a friend who was from Spokane. His Dad was/is the…chancellor?.. of some college there. Last name is Uibel. Know anybody with that name? It’s been forever since I’ve seen or talked to him.
CedricR.
Erm. I don’t know Howard Uibel personally (I assume that’s who you mean; the last name is pretty distinctive!), but interacted with his department a few times at Eastern Washington University. I’ve got a semi-photographic memory; if I’ve read it, I probably remember it. Doesn’t work at all for faces or pictures, though, dammit. I read Howard’s name on the PE department directory while looking for the right room to find a friend of mine in.
I wasn’t a student at EWU, but a few of my friends were and, strangely enough, so was my mother; I gave her rides to school for a time while she was recovering from a car accident. Strange days.
Anyway, Mr. Uibel died in '99 – one of my friends was pretty broken up about it and we took her out for drinks that night, so I remember the date pretty well – so I’m not sure if that’s the same guy you’re thinking of. And he wasn’t a chancellor (?), but the chairman of the PE department, if I remember correctly.
Same guy? Like I said, I didn’t know him, but the name I’ve seen before.
I sleep like shit, but “sleep” and “apnea” are two words that I don’t dare even breathe loudly if I want to keep flying. The last guy that got himself checked for that was grounded for almost 2 years. I’d rather deal with lethargy.
I’ve had mine for over six years - before that, I was having episodes 63 times an hour - I stopped breathing more than once a minute! and my oxygen level was in the low 80’s as well. Oh, and my wife had taken to sleeping most nights on the living room couch.
Once I got my CPAP, all that got better. My blood pressure also dropped 40 points and I was able to go off my BP medication (last check: 128/79).
My current insurance allows me to get a replacement mask every 6 months, so I’ve tried several different kinds and found one that’s pretty comfortable for me. I really can’t sleep without it (a few weeks ago we had a problem and I had to go a whole night without it – it seemed like the longest night of my life).
My wife has a BiPap (I had a thread a while back where I mentioned she was getting it.) She was having like 94 episodes an hour, was falling asleep in her chair with a cup of hot tea in her hand, and was terrifying her specialist.
I won’t say she’s Speedy Gonzalez now, but her quality of life is ever so much better. Between Ontario Health Insurance and my work insurance, we were totally covered, which was nice, cause those suckers is expensive (although I would have come up with the money, no matter what the cost).
I hope it’s not too late to bump this. Are the CPAPs very loud? Do they disturb your partner?
Well, mine is pretty quiet. Since it was my partner who insisted I see a doctor about my snoring, she hasn’t complained about the machine. Overall, I think she’s much happier with the constant low backround noise of the CPAP instead of my Fred Flinstone-like snoring.
Mine is just a quiet hum that’s pretty much completely drowned out by the fan we have running in the background. It’s miles better than the snoring I was doing before.
I don’t love my CPAP. I appreciate it, but I don’t love it.
When I saw the results of my sleep study, I gasped, and accepted the machine into my life, but it wakes me up at 2:30AM, 3:30AM, and 4:30AM, for reasons unknown, so while I’m sleeping more healthily, I’m not sleeping better.
My mother loves my father’s CPAP. He’d had some pretty bad apnea, and so she used to wake up, hearing him stop breathing, then gasp and start again. Compared to hearing that several times a night, the CPAP is heavenly for her.
Mine is great; I’ve had it for 3 weeks now. The noise is perfect background noise for sleeping. I’m more rested and feel better. I’m still waiting to feel like I’m 24 again… that’s a few weeks in the future!! 
CedricR.
I have one as well, it is set at 14psi and blows a helluva good amount of air down my throat. I have a full facial mask as well. I absolutely love it too. I sleep like a baby now and can’t even nap without it. Great invention, a lifesaver really.
14?!? I scored a 9 on my sleep test. My sister-in-law asked me, “A nine out of what?” I explained that your score showed how many times per hour, on average, that you stopped breathing. She said, “OH! ANY score is a bad score!” :eek:
CedricR.