Brett ([info]wakko) wrote,
@ 2006-05-09 15:08:00
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Current mood: awake
Entry tags:personal

CPAP Ahoy.
So... last night I had a sleep study done. It was bizarre having so many wires attached to me. The first part of the night, I definitely didn't sleep well due to one of the monitors being just inside my nose. The second part of the night, they hooked me up to the CPAP to see how I did.

Apparently I did pretty good, because I've been awake all day without any of the drowsiness or nodding off that I've been dealing with for the past several months. I'm still tired, but I'm staying awake. That's a huge step forward from where I've been lately.

It's amazing how much this has impacted my sense of self. Being unable to control whether I'm going to doze off at any given moment has been very demoralizing, not to mention hazardous to my employment.

I don't like having to plug my face into this machine in order to sleep. It definitely changes the whole dynamic of going to bed.

However, if this is what's going to help relieve my obstructive sleep apnea and make my sleep more restful, then I'll at least give it a shot. When the corrective surgery has only a 30% success rate, it seems like my options are fairly limited.


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[info]saintcynr
2006-05-09 11:51 pm UTC (link)
I know several folks that use CPAPs, and after a while, you don't even feel them, according to what I've been told. Good luck with it!

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[info]turtle_avenger
2006-05-10 01:27 am UTC (link)
I wonder if it'll be much of an adjustment to sleeping with almost no noise, after 4 years of rolling thunder....

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[info]wakko
2006-05-10 01:32 am UTC (link)
Heh heh... we'll see. ;-)

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[info]metalmensch
2006-05-10 05:45 am UTC (link)
I wonder if the neighbors will complain! ;)

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[info]metalmensch
2006-05-10 05:44 am UTC (link)
So nose surgery wouldn't fix it?

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[info]wakko
2006-05-10 03:13 pm UTC (link)
It might, it's just not likely to fix it.

What's happening is that the airway at the back of my throat, where the nasal passage meets the trachea and esophagus, isn't staying open, and is instead flapping shut. This causes me to suffocate just a bit, which then causes me to wake up just a tiny bit (not enough to become conscious, but enough to stop getting restful sleep) while my lungs fight to get oxygen.

The CPAP basically creates a pneumatic splint that holds the airway open.

The surgery just makes all the holes bigger, but doesn't keep them open like the CPAP does.

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[info]metalmensch
2006-05-10 03:24 pm UTC (link)
Huh! Nifty. Sounds like it certainly fills the need. :)

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[info]wakko
2006-05-10 05:32 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, there's definitely room for improvement of the machine's design, but so far it seems to do the job.

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[info]dahmers_corpse
2006-05-10 03:01 pm UTC (link)
osa also is a contributer to stroke, heart disease, diabetes....all the fun stuff. getting it under control now is a good thing.

i'm still trying to get my dad to get a psg too. he has had apnea for years. =/

i hope everything works out well for you.

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[info]wakko
2006-05-10 03:14 pm UTC (link)
Thanks. *hug*

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[info]oni_anne
2006-05-10 05:08 pm UTC (link)
I have a co-worker friend who has sleep apnea. He has opted for trying to lose weight before going into surgery. I use to have a very hard time sleeping and would snore a lot and wake up in the middle of the night. Most of my nights are pretty restful ever since i lost over 95 lbs.

I hope everything works out well! :)

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[info]wakko
2006-05-10 05:36 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna work on losing weight in addition to machine-assisted sleeping.

I'd much prefer if I could sleep normally on my own. However, I've always been a big snorer, so there may be only so much I can do.

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