Adventures in Sleep Apnea, CPAP and Sleep Doctors

So I go to the Sleep Doctor today to go over the results of a sleep study done earlier in the month. He proceeds to tell me it is the worst case of sleep apnea he has ever seen. In the three hours of deep sleep I had that night, I quit breathing 167 times. He said I had all the different kinds of apnea known to medical science.

This is nothing new to me. I had sleep studies done in 1997 and 2000 which both showed the same results. Both times attempts were made to fit me with a CPAP mask and I “freaked out” due to longstanding claustrophobia. Both of the previous times I was told I had to overcome the phobia or face certain premature death.

Due to a dramatic increase in physical problems over the past year, my cardiologist suggested I have another sleep study done. Thus the reason for the current test. If you have never endured a sleep study, consider yourself blessed. Electrical leads are placed all over your head and jaws and forehead and EKG leads are on the chest. Somehow you are supposed to sleep with enough wires attached to your head to cause Frankenstein to run in fear.

My main problem is that periodically when I sleep, my brain forgets to tell the lungs to breath. This is extremely troubling since breathing is supposed to be an involuntary activity. We do not sit around all day telling ourselves to breath. We just do it and never think about it unless we have a cold or other disease. It is very disconcerting to think that while sleeping, my brain ‘forgets” to send a message to the lungs to breath.

When we stop breathing, the body goes into panic state. Hormones are released which cause the heart to beat rapidly so the body saves itself. This is what shocks the lungs into breathing. The problem is the damage to the whole body repeated episodes of apnea have when repeated night after night. It is no wonder that I fight edema (fluid retention), loss of kidney function and inability to lose weight even on a very restricted diet. These, along with various heart problems, are classic symptoms of bad sleep apnea.

Now that I know how bad my situation is, I must wait a month until the next available opening in the sleep lab to repeat the study as the techs there try to fit me with various masks. To combat panic, I will have to take a heavy dose of a nerve relaxing medication. Oh boy, I look forward to that night with great anticipation.

I understand that I must do what needs to be done to compensate for this problem in my body. As much as I don’t want to endure the night of fittings and the hassle of sleeping with a machine helping me breath each night; I understand the consequences and accept that I must at least try to do what has been suggested. It is a bitter pill to swallow, but sometimes that is just the way life goes.

I sat with my elderly mother in a sleep doctor’s office a few years ago. She had had a sleep study done and it evidently was as bad as mine. She too could not handle the CPAP mask. The sleep doctor told her in no uncertain terms that either she figured out a way to handle the CPAP or she would die within a year or two. She did try the CPAP as much as she could handle. She died a little under two years from the time she saw the sleep doctor.

Since I don ‘t want to go through what my mom did, I must resign myself to doing what I have no desire to do and that is learn to sleep using the CPAP. Due to sinus problems I cannot handle the nice new nasal CPAP devices. This is too bad for they are much easier to deal with. Oh well, there are worse things to deal with in life.