"VERY SEVERE" Sleep Apnea

Test (paper test) was done last Thursday.

Then I took a unit home so I could hook myself up Thursday night to Friday.

Results came back today, and the person calling me stayed overtime in order to catch me.

'"Very Urgent" that we start this tonight.' Meaning the sleep mask. They want to tell me at the end of the day Tuesday, and Tuesday night send someone out to set up the stuff for ogygen tank and mask.

Cripes. I didn't realize they would work that quickly but the nurse on the phone acted like it was a real emergency it was so bad. She was short of breath and made it truly sound like a medical emergency.

Can Sleep Apnea be that much of a medical emergency that they rush out at night to set it up without actually testing me or training me on it or anything? I mean, I've never been in to sleep and be hooked up for them (just took a unit home one night). So, she then sets me up to have a 'partial night, split sleep study' done as soon as 2 sleeping sections are available.

Anyone with sleep apnea shed light on the big emergency this nurse believes is going on?

Any help would be appreciated.

(Sorry, only posted here because there were other such posts. I couldn't find an area to post in.)

I don't have it myself, but my g-ma does. Sleep apnea means that you stop breathing several times a night. Sometimes it's just for a couple seconds, sometimes it's for a couple of minutes. If the brain goes 3 minutes or longer consecutively without oxygen, there is a possibility of irreversible damage. It is not terribly common for someone's sleep apnea to be that severe, but that may be what's happening with you. My g-ma was going 45 sec to 1:15 without breathing & it was quite concerning to the doctors. She is also obese & not in great health, so that compounded the issue. I do know that her apnea got worse when she was on oxycontin, so perhaps it might be worthwhile for you to discuss the issue with your PM to see if your meds might be contributing at all to the problem. Sometimes they can make a simple switch & the apnea can go from severe to moderate or moderate to mild.

My dad sometimes goes even longer than that without breathing due to his sleep apnea, but he is a healthy weight & in good health, so it was not so concerning to the doctors. Plus, most of the times when he stops breathing it is only for several seconds.

Then again, it's always possible that the nurse is just not very educated & that you are only slightly abnormal. I can relate to that b/c I've been losing a lot of my hair & went to see the dermatologist. She called me up with my blood test results & said I needed to get in to see an endocrinologist immediately b/c my TSH levels were "very high". Come to find out I only scored a 6. I've had my TSH in the past come back with 17, 28 & 25, so a 6 seems pretty darn good to me. Yes, it's a bit outside of the healthy range, but her insistence that I get into a specialist within a week to 10 days was overly-dramatic.

Hope everything's okay with you. From what I've seen, those machines are not pleasant. Sometimes they will let you rent them for a while before buying the unit. A friend of mine did that & then went to her dentist to have one of those special retainer things made. She says it's much more comfortable than sleeping with a mask.

good luck with everything,
frances

Tony

First off Welcome to the CPAP adventure, and on becoming a Hose Head! Yes Sleep Apnea can be extremely dangerous, note "can be" lets compare it to somebody putting a plastic bag over your head and holding it there untill you start to panic and struggle and start gasping for air, and then the person takes it off of you, lets you take a few breaths and then does all over again, and lets say the person does this to you a minimun of 30 times an hour (note I said MINIMUM! of 30 times and hour, because severe sleep apnea is considered having an apnea a minimum of 30 times and hour) and having that done to you every hour, all night long! That is what your body is experiencing with severe sleep apnea! And if that bag is held over your head long enough your Oxygen saturations in your blood may drop, and if it drops to low, and or for to long a time it can kill off brain cells and it can cause you to have Heart Attack and or a Stroke in your sleep! Are you getting the picture? Not Good Huh? Some of us with Sleep Apnea besides having a XPAP machine (either CPAP, BiPAP, or and ASV machine) along with amask also have to have supplemental Oxygen, I have an Oxygen Concentrator which is set to give me 3 Liters per minute of O2 along with my VPAP Adapt SV machine!

So they are setting you up with a Split sleep study? With a split study, the first half of the night will be a normal sleep study, to find out how bad your sleep apnea really is and what type of sleep apnea your having, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) the most common where your throat collapses on its self and blocks the oxygen from getting to the lungs ( think of the throat as being a fire hose and when there is no pressure it collapses flat) , Central Sleep Apneas (CSA) for what ever reason your brain periodicly quits telling you to breath)( pain meds can often cause Central apneas, as well as Cervical Spinal Cord Injuries and Congestive Heart Failure to name a few) Or Complex Sleep Apnea or Mixed Sleep Apnea (MA) a combination of OSA and CSA.

 Anyway after they get enough information they will come in and put a mask on you and hook you up to a machine, and tell you to go back to sleep! This is the Titration study to find out what they need to do to get rid of the Apneas! Then through their controls, as you sleep they will adjust the pressure until they reduce or eliminate the sleep apneas that your having! If they can not get enough data the first half of the study, they might just do it all night and have you come back for the titration study. Actually that is the better way of doing it because they have more time to get a more accurate picture of your sleep! And then on the second study (titration study) they have more time to get your pressure adjusted just right! You might even want to ask them about doing a two night study, as they can be more accurate and better for you, especially if you have a difficult time getting to sleep. During both studies You will be wired up,  think of EKG and EEG all in one! They will put wires (electrodes) on your head (EEG) wires, electrodes on your chest and legs(EKG)
and a sensor in or under your nose and a strap sensor around your chest.all the wires are hooked up in a harnass, and then when you go to bed they will connect up the harnass and then they willl  watch you with a night video camera, and they can also hear you and you will be monitored all night long as you sleep! ( I have had 6 of these done in 18 months I have severe Complex sleep apnea)

If I can help you in anyway just E-mail me! Oh yea if you get any advance notice of when your sleep study is, then try and make sure you are extra tired ( no naps during the day) Also these studies can detect other sleep problems PLMD periodic linb movement disorder akin to Restless lLeg Syndrome, and a host of other sleep problems!
Good Luck to You
White Beard

PALady
For some it is difficult and some times some people can't sleep, and they will have to come back and their Doctor will give them something to help them sleep, or to relax. Some people have an even harder time with the titration study, sleeping with a mask on and with the air blowing in their face. Some even have panic attacks because of it and their doctors have to give them meds so they can calm down and tolerate having the mask. That is why it is important to be extra tired for the study.

Tony I would also recommend bringing your own favorite pillow anything to make you more comfortable during the night!

Over on the Sleep Apnea Support Forum I have a picture posted of me with my mask on that I modified. I had problems with the nasal pillows leaking so I made a modification to the mask and posted it for others. I am White Beard over there too!

White Beard

I'm starting to think that the rig I got last night was an emergency rental kinda situation.

It is about 2 feet tall, 18" wide and 12" deep. Sounds like a jet aircraft readying for takeoff; my wife wants to know if there is a central tower or do they use individual local towers...

Anyway, this has to be a temporary unit. And it must be that I'll be contacted for training and a marketing gig on purchasing my very own oxygenizing unit (the rental on this one is $345/mo) and mask.

Thanks, once again, for the info. I am constantly amazed at the community building that is just a way of life to the people who attend here. If we had just a slight percentage of what goes on here spread throughout our once great country it would soon be great again. It is, truly, the building blocks of our nation, this small sense of community that starts in small pockets like this that made us #1 in the world - without question.

Right you are, White Beard! And I did send you an e-mail last night, but no response yet.

I got a call today, and things were clarified greatly.

That call, and the ensuing machine/etc, were indeed based on a short-term situation.

Tonight I go for the 'Split-Night' test.

I am being 'short-listed' so that I can get in without waiting a month for a planned appointment. My oxygen levels only got down to 73%, but that was 'up to' 88 times an hour.

So, rather than make me wait for an appointment time later, they 'found' times to get me in right away.

I'm all set and 'pre-registered', and so is my pillow!

Tony,
I think I'll hook myself up to my TENS unit electrodes and leads when I go to bed in your honor!

Seriously, I hope it goes well tonight, and your doctors get all the information they need!

Sweet Dreams!

PaLady

C o o l !
A T E N S P A R T Y !

Is that where we do the NaNu~NaNu with Cousin Marty?

A TENS party! ROFL!

White Beard I've never tried them on my head. Makes me wonder, though!

Mostly they end up on my butt!!!

PaLady

Skeye
They gave me a tens unit back in the late 90's 97 or 98 and I was working on a med surge unit in the hospital, and if I had the electrodes on my back, and every time I walked by the a patients room that had heart telemetery on and if the patient was throwing PVC's it it would jolt the tens unit and the surge would actually make me jump! Honest it was crazy one of the other nurses didn't believe me, so she tried it and sure enough, it would really give a shock! So I had to quit wearing it at work, also we had a bag phone the precursor to the cell phone it was big and bulky and was about the size of a very large book, anyway if somebody called you and the phone rang and it was close to you the tens would shock the daylights out of you I mean if your foot was on the gas you would be going a hundred mile an hour in nothing flat. It would just jolt the heck out of you! The tens unit has been on the shelve in the closet every since! I can't even begin to imagine having it on one head your right skeye that could be quite an experience!!

White Beard

PALady which aaaa TENS where?

Hi Tony, I saw that you have severe sleep Apnea.  I did too, turns out it was related to a pain med I was on.  the initial study in the hospital showed breathing stoppage of 256 times in 6 hours.  I was on a CpAP the next day.  I hated it !  I finally went to my pain doctor, he took me off Metadone and the sleep apnea resolved.  Perhaps, just from my experience you could ask your doc if your sleep apnea is med related?  Hope it helps.  Scary stuff to stop breathing in your sleep.  I was terrified .  thoughts are with you. God Bless, Sue

Hi, Sue.

Without Methadone, I become a screaming, whimpering ragdoll of wasted cells.

Without Methadone, since there are no substitutes for *me* for the pain, I would have force 10 pains 24/7.

Unless the pain doctor comes up with another substitute for Methadone. He hasn't found one so far. And while I cannot guarantee he has looked real well, I can guarantee that he has poked and prodded me as if he has looked.

PAlady,

I suspect you are right about more than one thing affecting sleep apnea. No doubter lots, and people, unfortunately, have no clue what's happening with their bodies.