Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

After all these years I have been now diagnosed with sleep apnea...

P

Pete in MI

New member
my oxygen level drops from 96 - 98 when awake down to upper 70s - low 80s when I sleep. Today I received a breathing machine (oxygen concentrator) so now I get oxygen pumped into me as I sleep. Was told that when I get the oxygen level right I will feel like a 100 bucks. Right now I feel like a dollar ninety-eight. By answering some questions I found that there is a more physical problem that has to be checked into but for now the oxugen will keep me from getting strokes or brain damage. So thank you God for getting me help I didn't even know I needed. Only You truly know our needs and meet them. Thank you Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
 
They want me to do a sleep study too. I most likely have it too. Glad you are doing better.
 
Glad you have that under control!
 
I have been being treated for sleep apnoea for nine years now. Like you Pete, I had no idea I had any problem except that I was always tired. I purchased a ResMed Sleep Apnoea machine and have been using it EVERY night without fail since then.

It does NOT produce oxygen. It pumps pressurised air with the purpose of forcing your throat open when it collapses. Apnoea is the involuntary collapsing of the throat that blocks the upper airway. When it collapses you are unable to breathe and so wake up. You then breathe again and go back to sleep and, just a minute or so later, the whole process repeats. This waking up happens below the level of your consciousness and so you are not aware of it. All you know is that you are tired, lack concentration and often drop off to sleep when you are resting or worse, whilst driving. In my case I did not drive for well over a year as I was just too tired to do so.

The machine I have constantly monitors your breathing and, when an apnoea occurs, it instantly increases the pressure forcing the upper airway open. Again you are not aware that this is happening. It took six weeks to "work" on me. Suddenly I just felt good again. I was alert, awake, and could drive all day without any trouble at all. To me it was a sort of miracle. The six weeks delay was a catching up time of the "sleep debt" that I owed, or so it was put to me. Whatever the case, all I know is that I was exhausted for several years and now I am not.

Some people have a bit of trouble adjusting to the machine. This is mainly because they are "consciously" breathing in and out and thus get all out of sequence, over-oxygenate themselves and go into a sort of panic mode. It possibly happens to most new users. Just try and forget all about the mask and soon you will be used to it.

There are various machines available. The best ones, in my opinion, are ResMed with constantly variable pressure; that is self-adjusting machines. The lesser ones push a constant pressure. Here's something you may not know: these machines are an Australian invention and the whole process was developed in Oz. And my nephew wrote the early software for it!

My machine has a humidifier. I found that to be necessary. Without it my airways just dried up and became sore. I have several mates with these machines and ALL needed a humidifier. They are all happy that they got the machine too.

Here's a four step plan to follow Pete.

1: Do the sleep study and it will confirm whether or not you have sleep apnoea.

2: Spend the money on the machine.

3: Be patient and within a few weeks a new Pete will emerge.

4: Tell us all about it.
 
Thanks for all the info. I am fortunate in that the Veterans Administration is providing for everything. Will be glad to be alive again. Falling asleep trying to read, watch a good movie and not being able to stay awake when company comes over is irritating. I thought it was a matter of being tired from working mid night shifts for the past year. A sleep test is in the process of being setup in Detroit sometime in the hopefully near future. Again thanks for the info...and I always did likethe Aussies. Thanks Mates. They were there in Vietnam too and always had my respect.
 
Is your machine like a C-Pap? My brother had to have one when diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension where his oxygen level really dropped from walking and I guess while he was sleeping! It had moisture, too, for Cliff would get so dry if there wasn't any way to receive moisture along with his oxygen! He only used the C-PAP during the night and had trouble getting used to it and when he was in Hospice Care they had him to discontinue using it, but still was on Oxygen, for he would panic if he was trying to breathe more than usual and so he did just before he passed away about a week later after discontinuing it! It sounds a lot like what you are using....so I am curious to know if they are the same? Glad you are feeling like a human being able to do lots of things again! I wake up very tired and with a headache and Osteo-Arthritis hurting most every day and only feel better after several hours of being up! I am on oxygen but still tired most of the time and get very exhausted when driving long distances and doing shopping and etc. I do wake up several times while I am sleeping and have to go to the bathroom for incontinence which disrupts my sleeping as I should! Thank you and I hope you can understand what I am trying to ask and say! :shrug: :angel: Ma Betty
 
It is a C-PAP machine Ma Betty. Some do have real trouble using it at first. Panic attacks are common due to over-breathing. Mine is set-up so that the real pressure does not come on for about ten minutes. This delay is adjustable to suit the user. The delay allows you to go to sleep before the pressure rises. However, once you are used to it, there is NO pressure. At least you are not aware of it.

Robyn has arthritic pain that keeps her awake and she too goes to the toilet several times each night. That's the problems of advancing years I suppose. It's just part of life I suppose.

My sister and brother-in-law were in Vietnam Pete. They were medical missionaries in a hospital mainly treating locals affected by the war. In fact there over there right this very minute re-visiting old places. They're coming home late next week. Some of my mates were in our Army/Air Force there but, as it turned out, I was not.
 
Jumping in late, here...Pete isn't on CPAP yet, he just has O2 delivary via nasal canula...however I believe a CPAP is in his future (after the sleep study), since the O2 delivery isn't really doing anything for the apnea. It IS, however, keeping his O2 sat from dropping 25 points while he's sleeping - or so we hope :).
 
If Pete has apnoea then the C-PAP will work for him. But it may take him, and you (Pete's wife) , a while to get used to it.

Most wives find it a bit of a nuisance as it discharges air on them at times, makes a noise as the air blows on the sheets etc but, after a while, these things get sorted and sound sleep returns.

And then suddenly you have a new husband at the old address!
 
Prayers (and thanks) to your sister and brother-in-law for what they have done and are doing now in Vietnam. Not everyone does or can serve in the military and I have no problem with that (except those who went to Canada, or college to avoid serving their country then getting a warm welcome home while the Vietnam Vets got eggs and yellow paint thrown on them and called baby killers).

God bless you and yours Nyal.
 
The machine does provide me extra oxygen but unfortunately it is drying out my nasal passages and giving me nose bleeds...being on blood thinners that is not good.. or it dries up whatever is in my head so that it blocks the nasal passages. Doesn't have a water unit on it but the VA is going to get one of those for me as well so it will put moisture into the oxygen and keep the above two things from happening. The VA is also going to provide me with a 'traveller's oxygen package' so when I am travelling (as a passenger) I can have O2 when on the road for sleeping. In April I am scheduled to be in Detroit for a sleep clinic so they can wire me up and find out for sure if I have sleep apnea and what to do about it.

I really have to get on the stick and file for disability for Agent Orange. Going to be getting a biopsy on my prostate. Its enlarged and the PSA numbers keep going up - not down. Prostate cancer is one of the things our wonderful Agent Orange help people to get and is a qualifier for disability.

God bless you and yours
 
I'm sorry to learn of your other problems Pete, but age catches up with us and things start to fall to bits.

I've been down the same roads you are describing, so I know how concerned it made me.

Overall the Lord is in charge and His way is always best.

Every blessing in Him to you and yours Pete.
 
my nose but I end up breathing out of my mouth and I know what you mean about drying the sinuses and having a very dry mouth when waking up! I think I have sleep apnea but at my age I will just take the oxygen and do the best I can....because sooner or later I will be in the hospital and then they will do tests to find out how ill I really am with COPD and sleep apnea! I, like you and others with it, wake up tired and weak until it is so difficult to do anything that needs done! I truly pray everything works out for the good for you and Sherry and for God's purpose! The corrupted, sinful world is hard to live in even with Jesus as our Protector and helping us to survive until it is time to leave this old Earth! May God Bless you, Sherry, Casy and Leelan! He is really growing up fast...seems impossible that he will be three in April! Time flies and holds still for no one! :angel: Ma Betty
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top