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Sleep Apnea: CPAP mask vs Surgery

#21
Tasty, I am unsure if you're mocking me with the "THEEE" thing.

I am speaking from a point of experience, and going on the information presented to me from both Doctors, Surgeons and Sleep Study Technicians alike. And I don't recall engaging you negatively in this conversation. What gives?

There's a difference between assumption and fact is what i was going for.

I have been suffering from this condition apparently from my late teens. When i was a teen I was 179 pounds. Woke up with the same pounding headaches (not all the time, but often...) that i awake with now at 265 and 22 years later. I didn't always have health insurance, so there were long spells where I didn't get checkups, or they were elective and weren't covered, so I couldn't afford them. I've been for dozens of sleep tests. I've had CAT screens. I also have clinical migraines and the merriment that comes with it, so some studies were inconclusive for various reasons. It's getting progressively worse. It's only in the last 5 years that I've tried and failed with 3 different CPAP machines and over 15 masks. Sorry if my real-life condition and views on it annoyed you. Just call me fat because it's easier.
 
#22
I sleep on my side with my CPAP with little or no problem. The feeling of suffocating or walking into a 50mph wind comes from consciously or unconsciously fighting the CPAP. You will learn to breathe with it if you try.

If you are convinced that you hate it and you will never be comfortable with it, you will prove yourself right.

If you convince yourself that you can get along with it and relax and let your body and mind "figure out" how to work with it, you will be right. You create your own CPAP reality.

I absolutely love mine, it has increased the quality of my life immesurably.
 
#23
Smokin' Toaster said:
I absolutely love mine, it has increased the quality of my life immesurably.
Click to expand...

Same here. From the first night I wore it, it was a life changing difference. During my time as a drywall finisher, I would wear a respirator a couple times a week, sometimes for eight hours or more at a time. Putting on the CPAP mask was no big thing for me.

-Mike
 
#24
hover said:
Tasty, I am unsure if you're mocking me with the "THEEE" thing.

I am speaking from a point of experience, and going on the information presented to me from both Doctors, Surgeons and Sleep Study Technicians alike. And I don't recall engaging you negatively in this conversation. What gives?

There's a difference between assumption and fact is what i was going for.

I have been suffering from this condition apparently from my late teens. When i was a teen I was 179 pounds. Woke up with the same pounding headaches (not all the time, but often...) that i awake with now at 265 and 22 years later. I didn't always have health insurance, so there were long spells where I didn't get checkups, or they were elective and weren't covered, so I couldn't afford them. I've been for dozens of sleep tests. I've had CAT screens. I also have clinical migraines and the merriment that comes with it, so some studies were inconclusive for various reasons. It's getting progressively worse. It's only in the last 5 years that I've tried and failed with 3 different CPAP machines and over 15 masks. Sorry if my real-life condition and views on it annoyed you. Just call me fat because it's easier.
Click to expand...

Of course I didn't mean to upset you. I said THEEE only as emphasis, as if you are not specific in internet postings, your true meaning tends to get lost.

Anyway, sorry man. It's just that my dad and step father are both very heavy and both have it. I was putting 2 and 2 together. I know it is not the ONLY reason one can have sleep apnea, but was curious as to how many people who have it are. (I'd like to see it in a larger, clinical study actually.)

I hope you find the right solution and relief you need.
 
#25
hover said:
Let's put this to rest right now. Well, until the next thread.

Yes, that is A factor, but it's not THE factor.

If you have a narrow airway, you could suffer from it.

An excess of soft tissue in a general area...could have it.

Not all fat people have sleep apnea, and not all sleep apnea sufferers are fat.
Click to expand...

Correct.

...but about 70% of folks with OSA are overweight, and studies have shown that ~80% of folks with mild OSA are "cured" by losing weight.
 
#30
CPAP.
My wife is on CPAP and it pretty much saved her life. Definitely saved her ability to function in the world.
I highly recommend it, based on her experience.
Stopping the apneas also cut down immensely on the chronic pain she was experiencing. Which makes sense - your body responds to the apneas (loss of oxygen) as a physical emergency, like someone is trying to strangle you. So you product lots of adrenaline and other stress hormones, which (in large, chronic quantities) are directly related to chronic pain.
Feel free to PM me for more info.
 
#33
So what symptoms do you sleep apnea people suffer from? My doctor wanted me to go in for a sleep study but at a cost of $2700 and the fact you probably have to have a second one I have resisted. I'm not overweight, sleep on my stomach, and don't snore (I've recorded myself at night).
 
#38
Husband is not the least bit overweight. Had tonsils, adenoids and uvula out at 30. Horrible recovery. Still snores loud enough to wake the dead (son in bedroom farthest from ours used to have nightmares about bears till we figured out what he was hearing) but doesn't rattle the windows anymore, so it helped slightly. Still has horrible sleep apnea, too. Wakes me up repeatedly. Refuses to see about treatment. Only thing that seems to help is no beer after 7:00pm. Direct correlation there.
 
#39
I hate to wave my ignorance like a flag, but here I go:

I've never been diagnosed with sleep apnea, but I have found a *very* direct correlation between snoring and... how thick my pillow is. When I have a too-soft or too-flat pillow, I snore like a mothertrucker. I also have that "jerk yourself awake" reaction because (I think) I stop breathing. I've taken to stuffing two pillows into a single pillowcase, and the missus says I don't snore at all, and I don't have the... well, the jerks.

I don't mean to trivialize sleep apnea, and this might be meaningless to the OP, but if you've got a snoring problem, you *might* consider a very thick pillow setup before you do something more drastic like surgery. Or divorce.

-jb
 
#40
I use one on 14. I fought it for about 6 months. After researching and finding the right mask I don't even notice it. When I strap it on it's "nighty nite" time. Two weeks ago, lightning popped my machine and I was without one for several days. It was a reminder of how bad I felt for a very long time.
 

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