Sleep Apnea

[bakerbarber]

I went for a sleep study tonight.

I left when I found out how much it costs. I need to call my insurance company to see if I'm able to afford it.

Is there any way to self help or home remedy?

I feel like a foggy headed zombie all day. Headaches are killing me.

[ddandb]

I started with my family doctor.. symptoms of horrible snoring all night, tired all day.
He sent me for the sleep study so insurance covered it all.
Also covered the cost of the CPAP Machine.

Are you over weight at all? That can cause Sleep Apnea.

[bakerbarber]

I did the doctor route. He scheduled me to have the study. My insurance must suck, sounds like it's gonna cost me $1,300.00.

But I need to call in the morning.

I'm 6'4" 280. BMI says I'm obese. LOL

BMI is a crock. It says most NBA players are overweight.

I'm pretty big though yeah. I snore like a freight train. When I went to my doctor I told him it was because my ribs hurt, from my wife elbowing all night.

[BuLLitz]

I wish I knew why my apnea went away so that I can help others.

I had never had it before and then all of a sudden I had it. I suffered through it for a couple years... and then it was gone.
I have weighed the exact same weight for as long as I can remember so I really don't think it had anything to do with weight.

[ddandb]

I did the doctor route. He scheduled me to have the study. My insurance must suck, sounds like it's gonna cost me $1,300.00.

But I need to call in the morning.

I'm 6'4" 280. BMI says I'm obese. LOL

BMI is a crock. It says most NBA players are overweight.

I'm pretty big though yeah. I snore like a freight train. When I went to my doctor I told him it was because my ribs hurt, from my wife elbowing all night.

Well that does suck.
I had a friend in a similar situation and the doctor ended up prescribing the CPAP machine without the sleep study.
If the insurance isn't going to pay I'd go back to the doctor. Let him know about the cost.. you can't afford it... how your life is suffering, etc, etc, and see if there isn't something that can be worked out.

The alternative and I wouldn't suggest this except as a last.. and I do mean last resort, because it it just to horrible to even contemplate... lose 50 lbs.

[beja]

I know it's expensive, but you'll be glad that you went through with it. My mom has sleep apnea and has been using a CPAP machine for about 12 years now. She really hated the thought of having to use the machine at first, but after she realized how much more rested she felt in the mornings, she now won't go without it. A friend of mine also had sleep apnea and his energy level went through the roof once he started using the machine.

I have seen CPAP parts and units sold individually on eBay, which could help bring down your overall cost if insurance doesn't cover the machine. I don't think people can sell entire units, but they are able to sell the parts separately.

[tom502]

I think I have it as well. But I think the reason is I am too darn fat. I do not want to use a machine, even though it may help, the idea of it just really turns me off. What I need to do is lose weight. That would fix about all my health issues. But I think it'd be easier to get off heroin than lose weight and keep it off.

[ddandb]

I think also if it's just sleep apnea they are checking for this is something that can be done at home.
With a sleep study they are checking for everything. You have wires connected to almost ever part of your body.
Once it is determined that nothing else is going on and that you are snoring they come wake you up and put a mask on you to determine how much air pressure it takes to stop the snoring.
I could be wrong about this but I really think I remember seeing or hearing about a machine that is loaned to you over night from the doctors that does the same thing. You put on the mask and it records the info needed.


The most important thing is......

Try not to lose any sleep over this. :lol:

[ddandb]

I think I have it as well. But I think the reason is I am too darn fat. I do not want to use a machine, even though it may help, the idea of it just really turns me off. What I need to do is lose weight. That would fix about all my health issues. But I think it'd be easier to get off heroin than lose weight and keep it off.

Let me tell you all my story.
My snoring started about 6-7 years ago. My daughter was still at home then. It was so bad that I kept her awake and their are two walls between my room and hers.
Even though I slept all through the night and got 7-8 of sleep I was tired all the time.
Went to my doctor just complaining of the tiredness, thankfully my wife was with me, because when he asked me if I snore I probably would have told him no or just a little bit. She gave him an earful of how bad it really was... He sent me to an Ear, Nose and Throat guy who sent me for the sleep study.
That revealed the apnea but I had all kinds of problems wearing the mask that pumps in the air.. back to the ENT Doc and he finds a sinus issue that has to be addressed.
Operation on my sinuses.. healing... and back for another sleep study. Now the machine worked fine on me.

So.. Two sleep studies, two different doctors, an operation, healing, follow up, etc. etc.......in general, just one big pain, but it was all worth it in the end. No more snoring and no more mind numbing tiredness all day.
It improved my life 100%.

In case anyone doesn't know what is going on with sleep apnea, here it is in layman's terms.
If you have sleep apnea you stop breathing while you are sleeping. Your mind or body just forgets to breath. (of all the things to forget this is probably one of the worst)
So all night long you have this cycle going on.. you stop breathing, eventually (and hopefully) you start breathing again and give out with the awful long loud snores. Imagine holding your breath for as long as you can and how your body reacts when you start breathing again.. and this is going on all night long while you are sleeping.
Because of this your always just on the point of wakefulness and you never go into a deep sleep.
Though it is rare people have died from sleep apnea.

I can't remember the exact figures from my study but I do remember that they were scary. They measured how often I didn't breath during the night and the length of time I went without breathing. A lot of the times were well over a minute. On purpose I can't hold my breath anywhere near that.

[Roo]

Sleep Paralysis?

Sorry for perhaps straying off topic here, but I'm curious if anyone else experiences sleep paralysis. Basically, when you are in your deepest REM sleep as I understand it, your brain shuts down most motor functions, so that if you are dreaming of running through spring pastures, you don't actually get up and run into the wall. At least this is how it has been explained to me.

Sleep paralysis is a malfunction in which upon waking the motor-control "switch" is still off, so to speak, and for a period of perhaps a full minute every muscle in the body except the eyes are completely paralyzed. It started out as a pretty terrifying experience, but over the years as I've gotten fairly used to it, it's become just terribly uncomfortable. It's the ultimate in clausterphobia I guess I would say -- you wake up, realize that you can see and look around, but you are completely unable to even lift a finger. Often times I will be trying so hard to move something, that when the "switch" turns back on I start flailing around and sometimes I'm screaming or just making scary noises because I can't vocalize either. Some poeple often report the strong sensation or perception that someone or something is in the room with them when this happens. I've felt this a few occasions. Since the paralysis is related to REM sleep, when it happens it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between dreaming and waking, so some people even attribute other people's claims of alien abduction to potential sleep paralysis episodes.

One time I was having a particularly intense bout of it, drifiting into and out of sleep and paralysis, and I didn't know it at the time but I was dreaming there was someone in my apartment and I was running around in the dark with my sword (not the one in my avatar lol, unfortunately that is not me) trying to stab whoever it was, and upon fully waking I couldn't tell if I had actually been running around my apartment with my sword or not, despite the paralysis element of the experience.

Anyway, sorry to ramble away so hard on that. Anyone else deal with this? I've read that it's hereditary but no one in my family knows what the hell I'm talking about. I snore louder than Fran Drescher having an orgasm but I don't think I have sleep apnea.

EDIT: Interesting Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[Badfish74]

From my personal experience Fran Drescher does tend to get a little noisy during climax! :lol:

Well i haven't been officially diagnosed with sleep apnea, but i do snore, and i figure if you stop breathing to the poiont of waking up struggling to breathe it's probably the ole apnea! But on top of this, i also have severe insomnia, and have to take pretty heavy sedatives in order to sleep, so this whole death by apnea thing worries me a bit!


I'm really starting to consider this whole sleep study deal!


Did i also mention that i am a chronic worrier? So thanks a heap guys! :lol:

[bakerbarber]

Re: Sleep Paralysis?

I snore louder than Fran Drescher having an orgasm

I'll never think of her the same again.

I've heard of sleep paralysis. I've heard about the alien abduction theory also. very interesting. Consciousness is a gray area.

When I was very young I remember waking up in the bath screaming. I had a fever and was having a night terror. My mother put me in the bath with cool water to try and get me to snap out of it. I remember her trying to sooth me, I'll never forget the raw emotion of trying to get away and not understanding why she wasn't worried about the big frickin monster that was chasing me.

I asked her about it one time. She was surprised I remembered it all. She said it happened twice. Both times when I was sick and had a high fever.

But, as far as the sleeping goes now. I feel groggy a lot and have a hard time waking up. I'm told I snore pretty bad.

I called my doctor's office today. I get to add some more shekels to his coffers by making another visit to him before we try something else.

The sleep study apparently costs over 3K.

Like ddandb said there are things they can send you home with to test for sleep apnea. you don't have to have the entire sleep study done.

Thank god the nurse there told me about the cost before I signed anything and got all hooked up to wires. I was in the bed and had all my stuff on the night stand ready for sleep.

She said I should ask for an overnight oximeter or an apnea link. Both you do at home and have the results analysed.

She was real honest and cool about it. I was embarrassed I hadn't asked about the cost first. It was weird to get up and get dressed and leave. I had psyched myself up for the whole thing for weeks. A lot of anxiety for nothing.

[spirit72]

Re: Sleep Apnea

I went for a sleep study tonight.

Is there any way to self help or home remedy?

I feel like a foggy headed zombie all day. Headaches are killing me.

Basically, no. If you still smoke at all, quitting may or may not help some.

If you're overweight, losing weight will help a bit, but probably will not cure it, depending on how severe a case you have.

I was diagnosed with OSA back in Spring of 2007. It's a two-study process to do it right. The first time, they'll wire you all up and have you sleep normally for 5-6 hours, during which time they'll find out how bad off you are. The second time, they'll do the same while having you on CPAP, starting with the lowest pressure setting and raising it every so often until they find the pressure at which your snoring stops, and hence the apneas.

I knew something wasn't right, because I was nodding off at the office. At 9:30-ish AM. Immediately after coffee. Luckily, the doc asked me if I snored, and it was all downhill from there.

Turns out I was a real mess. The main number is called 'AHI', which stands for Apnea/Hypopnea Index; Apnea being a complete stoppage of breath, and Hypopnea being a partial stoppage.

My AHI was 84. What that means is that from 11PM to 5AM, I partially and/or completely stopped breathing 84 times. The longest complete stoppage was just over a minute. My pulse oxygen(percentage of oxygen saturation)dropped as low as 64%.

So basically, I was halfway to being dead every night and didn't realize it.

Call your insurer. You want the study. It doesn't kill you directly, but starvation of oxygen all night damages all of your systems over time. And then as a smoker at the time, I was adding carbon monoxide and all sorts of other crap to my system all day on top of starving myself for oxygen all night. Not A Good Thing.

So I've been using CPAP nightly for a bit over 2 years. It is a completely different life. In fact, I can only rarely fall asleep without it. I still snore when I do, but my wife says it's nowhere near as bad, and I don't stop breathing anymore. Of course, I've quit smoking now, and lost about 25lbs since January, so that has probably helped.

If anyone thinks they may have it...if you snore, or your spouse says you stop breathing, or you are tired during the day after what you thought was a full night's sleep, or you wake up with a dry mouth or sore throat, take this quick test called the Epworth Sleepiness Scale: http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/epworth.html . Doc had me do this in the office that day, and that ended up being step 1.

[bakerbarber]

spirit72 thanks a lot man.

I think I learned more reading your post than I did talking to my Dr.

I'm trying to be coy with my insurance company. So I'm going to go see my Dr. one more time before I start complaining and raising red flags.

After reading what you and everyone else says about feeling so much different after being on CPAP I may ultimately just have the tests done and figure out how to pay for it later.

I know I can't go on living the way I am now.

I'm struggling with the weight thing. I've put on 60 pounds in the last five years. Stress and a desk job both haven't helped. I'm really conscious about it now.

Like cigarettes, this thing sounds like a slow killer that I need to be proactive about.

[spirit72]

spirit72 thanks a lot man.

I think I learned more reading your post than I did talking to my Dr.

I'm trying to be coy with my insurance company. So I'm going to go see my Dr. one more time before I start complaining and raising red flags.

After reading what you and everyone else says about feeling so much different after being on CPAP I may ultimately just have the tests done and figure out how to pay for it later.

I know I can't go on living the way I am now.

I'm struggling with the weight thing. I've put on 60 pounds in the last five years. Stress and a desk job both haven't helped. I'm really conscious about it now.

Like cigarettes, this thing sounds like a slow killer that I need to be proactive about.

You'll be glad that you did. My impression is that most insurers will cover it. I was very lucky, I've got pretty decent insurance at the moment, so each study basically cost me an office co-pay. When it comes to the equipment, your deductible will apply, but after that it falls under 'durable medical equipment'.

As far as the weight thing, tell me about it. It is not easy to be good about it in a place like the U.S., where restaurant portions will feed someone in Nairobi for a week.

Quitting smoking helped me gain 30 lbs last year, even while using snus, so while I have lost 25 this year, that puts me back where I started.

Basically, you want to quit fast food and restaurants entirely. That is step one, and is the *most important one*, no questions asked. If I must hit the drive through, it *has to* be a salad, and no dressing.

Step #2 is giving up caloric beverages. For me, it's been iced tea(UNSWEETENED), water, hot tea, coffee. I **really** like ginger ale though, so once or twice a month I'll allow myself a Canada Dry or Vernor's. Juice is ok, as long as it's 100%, and you take it easy--1 or 2 8oz glasses a day.

Step 3? FIBER. Use a supplement like Metamucil for soluble fiber. Preferably sugar-free. Get non-soluble as well through normal means--whole wheat anything, bran, oats, etc.

Step 4--Check out http://www.fitday.com . You can track everything you eat here, plus input details for whatever you like and track your progress. Currently, I'm trying to hold myself to 2,000 calories a day and make sure that they're coming from the right places.