My Life and Sleep Apnea

I have dealt with sleep apnea for the past 10 years. If you have read my blog (and I hope that you have) you will know that I have been to several doctors and I have tried both the cpap and the bipap without much luck. This past year has been rough for me because I am still trying to get my meniere’s disease under control. I have had some success; this year has been a lot better than last year. So that’s good. But in the back of my mind I always think of how much sleep apnea has held me back. But this feeling isn’t anything new. I knew that I had a problem with my sleeping because my wife had mentioned how strange my snoring was and I also was extremely tired each morning. In 1999, I started on my quest to finding the solution to my sleep apnea problems and that first attempt was definitely a failure. The cpap experience was bad. Looking back I probably could have tried harder but that mask just wasn’t going to work. I then ignored the problem as best I could for another 2 years til...

On Friday I had an appointment to see a new doctor about my sleep apnea. I felt pretty good about going because he was in the same group as the doctor who treats my meniere’s disease. So I knew where to go and it was a comfortable setting. Anyway the visit didn’t take long at all, as I expected. I brought with me my sleep study from last year. I don’t think that it helped much since I had only slept for about an hour or so. The new doctor didn’t waste anytime and began by looking into my mouth. He saw how big my tongue was. He also remarked that since my head and face were so big that combined with my enlarged tongue made me a candidate for surgery. He then described the surgery and it didn’t sound very good. There would be an incision under my chin and somehow my tongue would be pulled forward. After the tongue was pulled forward 3 little screws (they would have to be little, I presume!) would be inserted under my chin holding everything together. To top that off I would have the...

As I have mentioned before I have tried both the cpap and the bipap  with very little success. Recently I was looking at a sleep forum and there was a mention of an APAP machine. An APAP , Automatic Positive Airway Pressure, titrates the pressure that is given to the sleep apnea patient on a breath to breath basis, this is a big improvement over the cpap that blows air continuously regardless of whether you need it or not. The bipap provides 2 levels of pressure in the hose, one coming in and the other coming out. When I tried the bipap there didn’t seem to be much difference between it and the cpap . So the apap makes adjustments on the fly. This would be great because you don’t feel the same level of being tired every night. If you were sick or worked longer hours or you were stressed out, you might be more tired than usual. With a cpap machine the air is going to blow in the hose the same as it does every night (unless you adjust it every night). But with an apap, the ...

I turned fifty-one in January and I felt like I was a lot older than that. Not only do I have the problems with sleep apnea, I also have Meniere’s disease . I also blog about my Meniere’s disease; which I started at the same time as the sleep apnea blog. Right now my meniere’s is getting better; at least it seems that it is getting better. I haven’t had any attacks lately, so that’s good. And I am finding myself under the same stress as millions of Americans in that my job may be ending soon. So even without sleep apnea I probably wouldn’t get much rest. I think that I am at a turning point where I have to do something about not getting enough rest. I have been able to get by without a lot of sleep for many years. It’s been difficult with the illnesses and that fact that I am a father of a seven year old son. But now I am starting to worry about my heart and whether it can last at least for another 15 years so I can see my son graduate from college. My own father died when I was 19,...

You don’t have to have sleep apnea to snore. If you don’t have sleep apnea then you might be able to control your snoring. With sleep apnea the cause of snoring is the blockage of the throat by soft tissue in the palate or it might be an enlarged tongue or even tonsils. You can correct these issues by using a cpap or bipap . If it’s really bad then surgery might be what you need. But if you don’t have sleep apnea, then why are you snoring? It could be a lot of things. Heredity could play a part. You might have inherited a narrow throat or other physical characteristics that contribute to snoring. If this is the case then you might want to check with a doctor to see if you do have sleep apnea. Also as we age our muscle tone usually decreases and that includes the muscles in your throat. Exercise is great for many reasons; it might also help with this issue. Your snoring can also increase when you have a cold or the flu. Once again, it causes blockage in the back of the throat...

Not all cases of sleep apnea require surgery. There are many treatment procedures for sleep apnea to help control sleep apnea and snoring. cpap machines are often recommended for sleep apnea patients. Air is forced through a hose into a face mask making sure that the patient receives continous oxygen. When you go to a sleep center over night evaluation you might be fitted with a cpap the last half of the evening so a setting on the machine can be determined. As I have stated in a previous post I am no fan of cpap machines. It just didn't work for me. But from what I have read there are many that have found relief with them after an adjustment period. bipap machine is similiar to the cpap but the air moving through the hose to the mask is adjusted for your breathing. Unlike the constant air pressure of a cpap a bipap changes air pressure as you inhale and exhale. Once again I have tried the bipap with no success. Oral appliances is something that I haven't tried. The mouth p...