Hey, my husband has sleep apnea. Has had it for years. Well, everybody is different, but we found something that works for him. You know how the old warm milk with sugar can help kids sleep. With my hubby, it's a Carmel Frappuchino (cold)from Starbucks. He thinks it's the caffeine in it. But, normal coffee doesn't help him sleep as well as this drink does. We have tried everything!! I've bought melatonin herbs, herbal mask, fiber optic flying saucer, even thought about a fish tank.

These drinks can be quite expensive everynight, but whatever works.

 

My snorking flapper only closes when I sleep on my back or fall aseep in the recliner. I will snork so loud it wakes me up. I don't seem to have any trouble when I sleep on my side, but I still can't get more than 3 or 4 hours sleep without being awake. If I stay in bed I just thrash around and finally doze off in a few hours just before time to go to work. If I get up and read or go on the computer for and hour or so then I can lay back down and get a nap. This has been my routine for over 2 years and I have a major sleep deficit. I get drowsy while driving a lot and have to take measures. I can usually take a snooze just about any where and frequntly do. It is just staying asleep all night that is a problem.

 

Yep, thats what I have being doing for over two years now, and just thought it was the getting older thing, making me not feel rested, and napping all the time. Not telling you what to do, but myself, and a lot of people, accepted sleep depravation as a way of life, but it doesnt have to be that way. After, my first 3 days on the c-pap, I got up feeling like a new person. My wife said my disposition was back to the way I used to be, cheerful and not irritable all the time. In my case , it is sleep apnea, which I wasnt sleeping over 4 hours a night because I was waking myself up choking for air , but not realizing why I was waking up. I would come in after work , sit in my recliner to catch the news, be asleep and snoring in 3 minutes. I was fighting dozing off , while driving home from work daily. I asked my docs (gen md and sleepy doc) and they both recommended the c-pap first. What my surgery would be they told me, is they would roto root out my nasal passages, remove my tonsils, cut out my gag reflex thing hanging down in the back of my throat, and take out the some of the meaty part in my lower throat. They said for older people the healing process is really tougher, and they do not guarantee a 100% cure rate. So am going to give this scuba outfit my best try, I dont take well to the knife. I awoke with a sore throat every day for the last two years just from hard snoring, so I must have whimpy throat anyway, good luck

 

Doesn't sound like you tried medical advice at a sleep disorder center. Sleep apnea can kill, don't take matters into your own hands, call a specialist.

 

I was part of the discussion on sleep apnea, a couple of weeks ago. It is a serious condition. I opted for laser surgery.
Now that you are "supercharged" you will need a boost controller.
Remember too much boost will blow head gaskets.
zanny

 

Its better than stalling out.

 

Hmm ... This is a subject right up (or down ) my alley since guys like you are how I make my living.

Many people have extra tissue in the back of their throat near that thing, called a uvula, that you can see in the back of your throat. When you are awake, musculature holds the extra tissue out of your airway. When you relax, the muscles also relax, allowing that extra tissue to fall down, like a flapper valve, over the top of your trachea. You can feel your trachea by massaging the front your of your neck. It leads down into your lungs.

When you take in a breath, the diaphragm, under your ribcage, actually pulls your lungs down, stretching them and creating a relative vacuum. The pressure inside your chest is less than outside and air rushes in. A breath. This process happens each time you take a breath, whether that flapper in the top is open or shut.

If the flap is open, no sweat. If it is closed, the diapraghm is capable of exerting an unbelievable amount of force. Remember, this force is negative pressure. All your blood flows through this cavity. With the negative pressure, the blood pools in your chest, actually in the lungs, because the heart is not set up to pump against it. Basic physics, not really relevant. The blood vessels in the lung leak with the negative pressure, think of old hoses in your cooling sytem, the only thing that keeps the fluid inside is the closeness of molecules , the space too small for water droplets to squeeze through. When you increase the difference in pressure between outside and inside your radiator cap holds the pressure. The old hoses don't stretch enough to hold all the pressure and the hose begins to "weep". Under your hood, the water drips on the ground. In your lungs, the water is absorbed by surrounding tissue. This is congestive heart failure (CHF) in a matchbox. Your heart can't pump all the blood it should.

Knowing this, the rest of your organs also don't get all the blood they need. Guys with obstructive (the flap) sleep apnea(absence of breathing), or OSA, get nasty headaches and become stupid (in the medical sense) because they have inadequate blood flow to the brain.

Earlier I said that the flap is held out of the way when you are awake. Guess what? When the flap closes and you can't breathe, you wake up a little to open that flap. This is known as an "event". Average people have a few events every night- two or three in an eight hour period. Severe OSA may have well over a hundred PER HOUR. They never get to sleep. OSA is believed to exist in 30%!!!!! of the population and is to blame for up to 90% of auto accidents! This, boys, is not funny.

Treatment available is CPAP, more in a minute, surgery to remove excess tissue, or some oral appliances to pull the jaw forward. CPAP, usually applied through the nose via a mask actually blows the soft tisue out of the way so it does not plug the trachea. This is called "pneumatic splinting, and is effective by itself in about 90% of cases. The masks were, and still are uncomfortable, but new designs are coming out almost weekly. Some of them are ingenious and make CPAP pretty painless. Sleep centers are up to speed on this stuff. Surgery is effective by itself about 3% of the time. Most people still have to use a CPAP machine, but perhaps at a lower setting. Now, imagine your very worst sore throat, triple the pain, you have some idea of what it feels like. And you still have to use the CPAP, which most likely worked well before. The appliances work some of the time, but are often uncomfortable because they realign your jaw.

If you snore ferequently, see your doctor
If your often fall asleep at times you don't want to, see your doctor.
If you have morning headaches, see your doctor.
If you have persistent morning chest pain which is made worse by taking a deep breath, see your doctor.
If your spouse complains of your snoring, see your doctor.
If you have persistent bad dreams where you wake up breathless, see your doctor.

Diagnosis is simple, you spend a night sleeping in a strange bed (you can bring your own teddy bear), with some sensors on your body. The technicians may try a device on you after a little nap. You go home the next morning knowing why you fall asleep and run over ricers in your big truck and don't remember it.

CPAP machines are quiet, frequently available used, last about ten years, often will run off your battery for camping, and are totally portable. If ya' got it, we can fix it. It ain't cheap upfront, but it is over the long run, and you will feel better.

Kenny

 

Wow Kenny !! Youve explained more to me, with out a doubt, in just one post on sleep apnea, than my general m.d. and sleep disorder doc both , even attempted to. Thanks dude!!!

 

You are quite welcome. Thank you for paying your taxes those many years ago to send me to school.
I forgot to mention, some people with delicate (none of us) throats note a sore throat when using CPAP. This is often the result of the dry air from the machine. Good news! There are humidifiers, some of which are startlingly effective, that go in-line with your machine. If you use a humidifier, make sure the reservoir is lower than your head. If you don't, you will get the occasional cold water douche to your schnozz. It won't injure you, but will certainly mess up your dreams for a few minutes.
Kenny

 

I had the same reaction to a mask. The guy that fitted me showed me a unit that fits to the top of my head and has an "arm" that comes down and holds a couple of "pillows" (that's what they call them) in my nostrils. A dab of KY for lube and I do real well; mustache, beard and all.

http://www.cpapplus.com/cgi-bin/ez-c...y.cgi?9X326714

 

i have been using one for a couple of years and feel much better.....there are two types of masks...i use the "nose pillows" because i have a moustache...my brother in law had the other type, a mask that fits over your nose i guess, and he hated it.....go with the pillows....don't feel bad about sleeping plugged into a machine....your domestic harmony level will go up, you will feel better.....insurance should pick up most of it.....the rental company is supposed to give you new masks/filters/hoses, etc. every three months or so...it seems to make a difference...the headgear in the hospitals are better than the home versions...adjustments are important to minimize leakage and for comfort.....

 

Good tip, I called the home health guy, he is bringing the snout pillows tommorrow. This is my second machine now, we keep adjusting input , output pressures, humidifier, but for some reason I keep tearing off the mask during the night, and never waking. I think I must be choking, and its just a "saving my keester" reflex. I can see where this could be a long adventure. If I could get just 4 more nights of 6 hour sleep sessions, I would probaly be better equipped mentally to handle all this apnea business. Between the chest pains, tiredness, and irritability, I dont know which I may lose first , if I dont get some relief from it, my wife or my life, both are equal in importance to me. thanks for the info,

 

if you smoke, stop....if you thrash around, perhaps your doctor could prescribe a sleeping pill....i have a scrip for Ambien...10mg...i don't take them every night, but only when i am too wound up....a lot of times i break them in half....not something you want to take every night by any means, but very helpful for me....also no coffee after lunch.....if you drink in the evening, at some point a few hours later you are apt to wake up as the alcohol reaches a certian point of metabolization....i fpound that i could do without the humidifier...some people need it...that saves me the hassle of filling it.....also, the first tech to set it up for me took the 2 velcro straps, and instead up looping them through the slots in the front of the headgear he fastened them to each other....makes it more comfortable.....if you don't get the whole thing to fit just right it can drive you bonkers.....if you can afford it, you may want to consider getting a professional style, the ones they use in the clinics...instead of a sliding track, they have ***** you turn....more precise.....hang inthere with your schnozzalator

 

That is my biggest problem. When I do use the machine, sometime during the day I will it off of my head. I have had both the mask and pillows. Pillows are better; but my nostrils tend to be sore in the morning. While using the mask a cyst would form at the top of my nose from the skin oils being pressed into the area. I can't say that I give my machine a fair chance maybe I will try again.

 

might be too tight...again, not that i have done it, upgrading the head gear might be worth the cost.....maybe some sort of ointment on your nostrils might help.....i do sometimes wake up at 4 AM with a very sore nose.....