Follow up to Sleep Apena Post–2nd Opinions sometimes are FANTASTIC

So I go to another sleep doctor today for a second opinion regarding my sleep apnea. Boy am I glad I did. It has been a long time since I enjoyed going to a doctor of any type, but today was actually fun. The office was wild and the doctor looked like he stepped out of a old television series. What counts is the end result, and it is 500 times better than I could have dreamed.

As it turns out, this doctor helped develop sleep labs and has an independent lab with the most sterling reputation in the area. He personally has trained the personnel at other labs, including the one I had my study at. He is currently the medical director of the sleep lab he founded.

I told him that I didn’t want to become addicted to “klonopin” as a way to relax to handle wearing a CPAP or BIPAP mask. He didn’t blame me. I told him the previous doctor had said I had the worst study results he had ever seen. Today’s doctor said, “he must not have seen too many”.

After looking over my study results he said I was only moderately severe and most of my episodes were “obstructive” apneas in the supine position. On my side, I had only a few episodes and they were more “central apnea”. He looked at the results of the study again and then stated that he thought it would be a waste of time and insurance money to repeat the test or to do it to “desensitize” me so I could handle the CPAP mask. He had a better solution.

He suggested my wife sew a pocket on the back of my sleep shirt with a way to close the pocket. I am to get a tennis ball and put in the pocket each night. Each time during the night when my body wants to roll over from the side to the back, it would feel the tennis ball and roll back on the side. He said this type of training lasts a short time and the habit of sleeping on ones back is broken.

That was it. That was the extent of treatment recommended by someone who was a pioneer in the field of sleep apnea. No CPAP machines, no threats of impending death if I didn’t get hooked on tranquilizers to handle a mask and no wearing political buttons on his white doctor’s coat either. Just good and sound medical advice.

The lesson I learned through all this is that sometimes it is a very good thing to seek out a second opinion on medical matters. Sometimes it is vital to seek out a second opinion. I know of people where it is a matter of life and death to get a second opinion. I have had close friends die of cancer that was not treated soon enough because of the lax attitude of their family doctor. I have had close friends endure painful treatment for diseases they never had due to mistakes being made reading test results.

If anyone reading this has obstructive sleep apnea that is far worse sleeping on your back vs. your side; I urge you to try the tennis ball approach to train the body to stay off its back. If it means being set free from the bondage of a CPAP machine, it would be worth a try. Of course if the apnea is “central” in nature, all the tennis balls at Wimbledon wouldn’t help. Good luck and good night.

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.