For those need some reading material to help them fall asleep read this post and then the one below. Guaranteed ZZZZZZs
Well OS friends, I spent last night back at the old sleep lab trying out a CPAP mask. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. Well let me tell you that after it was all over I felt like crap.
Not only do the zanies at the sleep lap hook you up to about 20 different leads, they also strap on (hey keep it clean out there) the CPAP mask, which is hooked up to this device which sends humid air into you nose.
Drawing Courtesy of WebMD
NOTE: IT IS A LOT LESS COMFORTABLE THAN THIS DRAWING
Now we tried a couple of different masks, and I did not choose the one in the illustration above. I chose one that I thought was the least confining. It looked something like this:
Courtesy of CPAPsupplyusa.com
The top photo with the headgear (except I also had a chin strap) is what I wore from 9:30 last night until shortly after five this morning. I wish I could describe the sensation. It was like having two straws stuck in your nostrils. You inhale moist air and it is awkward to breath. If you've inhaled while under water and felt the pressure of the water going down your airway, this is closest I can describe the feeling except it's air being forced not water. As someone who has breathed through his mouth for much of his life due to a deviated septum and high palate, this was difficult.
It took a long time upwards of an hour to finally fall asleep. Just try and find a comfortable position. You can't. This would be a kinder alternative to waterboarding. A couple of nights of this and I would confess to almost anything.
Leaving the lab this morning I couldn't reconcile that I would have to wear this apparel, apparatus, whatever, every night for the rest of my life. There had to be an alternative. And thankfully there was.
I went to a Ear Nose and Throat specialist and had a consult on a surgical procedure that would remove some the excess tissue in my uvula that was closing my airway at night and whose vibration causes snoring. The specialist felt I was a good surgical candidate (which meant I was: a) breathing, and b) had insurance).
Chance of infection low. Little bleeding since I had parted with my tonsils over 50 years ago. He did say I would be in severe pain for about 4-7 days. To which I said, "I'll take the pain if I can get a decent night's sleep."
So I will go under the knife in the near future to allieviate the sleepless nights and the snoring. It beats the alternative of CPAP every night or my wife threatening to shoot off my uvula, both of which are crappy options.
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Comments
Those things are plain scary. I'm wishing you minimal pain and pleasant sleep.
Rated.
I'm so pleased to know you are young and healthy enough for a surgical solution. The pain will be a short-term investment in the "rest" of your life.
--rated--
4-7 days of pain seems like a small price to pay in comparison. And just think of the painkillers you can probably get out of the doctor. It might not be such a bad week after all.
He gave it back to them. It wasn't comfortable, it drove me nuts and kept me from sleeping and now we are back to me waking him up gently once in a while so that he will change positions. That usually keeps him quiet enough that I can sleep. He has never seemed like snoring actually bothers him or keeps him awake.
It was me suffering and the CPAP did nothing for me. I appreciated that my husband went through all of that so that I could sleep better. Now I just comfort myself with that memory right before I nudge him...
I hope the surgery doesn't hurt too much or too long.
My husband sleeps with a CPAP machine. It sounds like I'm sleeping with Darth Vader, which sounds sexy, but it's not.
Hopefully he'll comment.
denese
BahHMM -- Breath right strips are ineffective.
Lois -- This was like being hooked up to a ventilator in ICU. Yecch!
Stim -- I was prepared for the wires and that wasn't the challenge. It was attempting to get comfortable wearing the mask. There was no way position my my head and neck, and breathing was difficult/
Chuck -- This might be fun if I were into BDSM and restraints. Not for me.
John -- I'm lucky I have a mild form of sleep apnea. There's no surgical option for those with more severe cases.
MS -- It's the lack of sleep that makes me irritable during the day, and I lack energy to get the exercise I need to stay healthy. Thanks for the support.
Mary T -- Thanks the kind words and info about your son. I'm hoping the surgery will work.
iamsurly -- Let's just say I would be VERY surly if I had to resort to this every night.
Tia -- Thanks your are so kind
L&P -- Here's hoping this can improve the apnea.
Miss Rogers -- The sleep center needed 120 minutes of sleep to get valid results. Sounds like this experience didn't work out for you. I hope you're still not sleep deprived.
Tink -- If this does work I may have to get a job like yours.
Deborah -- Based on my apnea score, this could be effective. The doc went out of his way to explain IT HURTS LIKE HELL and there's no guarantee. Thanks for the words of caution.
Scoub -- Interesting. Maybe the vivid dreams could help my writing.
Anything could!
psychomama -- My isn't life threatening, but my quality of life sucks as a result.
LifeisGood -- For some reason I was expecting this mask to provide more relief.
Susanne -- He sounds like an cool guy doing that for you.
Denese -- The procedure itself isn't difficult. Just the recovery that's painful.
Janie -- I don't think you need any excuses to poke the Scotsman...seriously this is about productivity at work and quality of life.
Lea -- Thanks for the support
Roger -- That stat that was most helpful for me was that the surgery would reduce the apnea score by 15-20 points. My apnea score was 18, so it's logical to try this. The fact I had my tonsils out previously also was a favorable factor.
Eva T. -- Thanks
fab -- thanks for the support
O'Really -- uluva is almost anagram of vulva which would really be terrifying.
The Wanderer -- I tried that one one and it was more confining than the tubes.
I am lucky, though, that I'm a nose breather and always have been. My dad uses a mask similar to the one I think I'm getting, and likes it. I just hope I don't need massive headgear!
Good luck with the surgery. I've heard it's like a 40% shot at fixing the problem, and with my family history I'm not a candidate - here's hoping you're one of the 40% that it fixes!
lsuwoodsman -- Sorry I'm late to respond. I am have been a mouth breather all my life due to a high palate and deviated septum. Using the machine I could not get comfortable breathing and spend most of the night trying to fall asleep. I woke up feeling worse than I normal due and found the experience to be unpleasant and unsuccessful.
Sleeping on my back is extremely difficult. I may regret going under the knife, but I don't think I could get used to the machine and unlearn 50+ years of mouth breathing. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Steve -- I always put doctor humor in because most need to be humbled.
I am a registered sleep technologist. If you had come to my lab, you would have found out that the night at the sleep lab will probably NOT be the best night sleep, even if you are successfully titrated on CPAP. You may only get one hour of sleep without apnea events, snoring, or arousals. This doesn't mean that CPAP didn't work for you. It means it may have taken all night to get you to the pressure you needed. At the lower pressures you may sleep WORSE than usual as the arousals usually caused by the apnea events are longer due to not being used to the mask. Your pressure can not be raised faster because it can actually cause a non-obstructive apnea called a central apnea.
The number one reason for non-compliance in CPAP patients is mask discomfort. There are literally hundreds of different masks to try although most labs have fewer than that available for sleep studies. There is no reason why a patient should have to live with an uncomfortable mask, but the patient must be diligent in finding one that fits his face and is comfortable.
The humidity in the CPAP machine is completely adjustable. In fact, you can have no humidity whatsoever if you wish! No need to feel like the air is too warm or moist. If anyone goes for a sleep study and finds something uncomfortable please inform the tech! That's what they are there for.
We do everything we can to make the sleep lab as comfortable for the patient as possible, but the patient must tell us BEFORE their scheduled study if they have an unusual sleep time or any special preferences. Every sleep lab I know is willing to do shift workers during the day or accomodate a patient with early or late bedtimes. We ask patients to sleep on their backs because that is when patients have the worst apneas, and that is what we want to see. Most people flip onto their backs at some point during the night unless there is an issue with back or leg pain, and again, if the techs know about it the patient will be accomodated. A patient with CPAP at home does not have to sleep on his back.
CPAP is like anything else that we try in life. Some of us will be good at it right away, and some of us need to practice. If CPAP is prescribed to you it is because you have sleep apnea. You are depriving your body of oxygen over and over during the night. You are having multiple arousals that may be keeping you from entering deep or REM sleep. If you don't at least try CPAP, you are doing your body a disservice. CPAP is NOT so your partner sleeps better.
The surgery you describe has a low incidence of actually curing sleep apnea. Usually the obstruction in your airway is happening farther down than your soft palate. So even after surgery you still may need CPAP anyway. It does sometimes make the CPAP work better at a lower pressure, sometimes it just doesn't make any difference at all.
I sincerely hope that all the complaints written above were voiced to the sleep labs performing the studies, but usually they are not. We are not mind readers folks. If you don't tell us what is bothering you, we have no idea of knowing! Every lab I know and most of the techs try to make this test as comfortable as possible, but we are also trying to gather as much information as we can so we can help you make the best decisions about your healthcare. To imply that we are out to torture the patients with unnecessary rules and so many wires and every other complaint is really an insult. Believe it or not, we are trying to help you.