Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for asking AMG.

Good. The machine is very quiet. The mask is reasonably comfortable.

I'm positive about it all.

Cheers,
Mark.

Gomez

I thought the same thing when I read Taka's post! He said CPAP wasn't the only way to go then seemingly offered up imminent death as an alternative!! A very funny guy, our Taka... :D :D :D

Glad the blower is working okay Hymee, and allow me to second sco's "motion" that we don't get to hear about the exhaust upgrade!

Gomez.

takahashi

Hymee found the CPAP quiet... hehe :D

MazdaManiac said it is not an obese man's disease. Yes it is a big tongue disease

Funny Hymee is getting forced induction while he is inactive. You would bring your CPAP to your gym class and excel there! :D

Just a thought

BVD

Great post Hymee.

Thanks for sharing your experience, and I hope it all goes well.

I have a mate who has the same thing. He very quickly got used to the mask and finds it very helpful.

Was the business of stopping breathing detectable by simply listening to your sleeping breathing pattern or did it need some kind of recording device? I've been suffering for a while with similar tiredness symptoms but my doc hasn't even mentioned sleep apnoea as a possible cause. We been (unsuccessfully) following another line of thought for the past few months. Mind you, he never seems to pick anything else either, so that's not all that surprising! If Mrs BVD had a listen to my snufflings at night would pauses be detectable to the untrained ear?

I seem to remember my mate's wife being able to hear him go quiet and then restart with a certain amount of noise. I must ask them again.

AMG

lapses in breathing can be detected audibly, your wife would be listening for a quite moment followed by a catch up gasp. Snoring can also mask sleep apnoea.

Respiratory physicians however use more sophisticated measuring devices to detect even the subtle moments of cessation of inhalation, amongst other things.

takahashi

BVD.... Can I answer that Hymee?

Sleep study usually records in video, respiratory pattern, pulse and oxygen saturation. When a person into apnoea phase, that is stop breathing, they usually stop snoring for a few seconds and then momentarily wake up when the brain senses hypoxia (low oxygen). So the typical is snore and a big snore with moments of silence and toss and turn. Your partner will be able to see that. When that happens too many times. Obstructive sleep aponea become a diagnoses.

Tireness is one of the symptoms of Sleep apnoea. And there are many many other causes of tireness, like anemia, homonal imbalance (both thyroid and testosterone are common), and infection (mostly viral).... usually pick sleep apnoea when there is no other apparent cause. Mind you when you have a flu sleep aponea get worse!

Hope it helps....

PS. what tip the GP over to seek for sleep study for a diagnosis is when a fatty came though the door with his Mrs. complainting his snoring and he is dosing off while you are talking to him!

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Taka - My fatty came while the Mrs is riding it

DDB - My GP didn't suggest sleep apnea when I originally saw him about my tiredness, lethargy. He sent me for all this blood tests to rule out something clinical - like thyroid function, colesterol blahdeblah. Then I saw him after the "incident". He asked a few questions and seemed to ponder things for a bit. When he asked if I snored the penny dropped.

He could have sent me straight to a sleep study center that bulk bills. I had a slight reservation about this based on a freinds experience. I opted to see a specialist first. It costs more that way, but the specialist doesn't care if I buy equipment or not - he gats paid the same. I felt it was more independant that way.

The specialist (visit http://www.sarcoidosis.com.au/html/home.htm) seemed very helpful. Apparently sleep apnea can cause depression and high blood pressure. He booked me in for a sleep study at one of the hospitals sleep study labs. You get wired up and sleep for the night, and the review the results (like I posted) to make the diagnosis.

The only thing my wife knew was I snored a lot. I guess she sort of got used to it in the 15 years we have been married.

Mate - get it checked out. I'm hoping to raise awarness. Hopefully others might be able accpet if better if more of use tough blokey males talk about it. I know the proportion of accidents/fatalities from tiredness is quite high.

Cheers,
Hymee.

AMG

hymee you PM box is full, need to empty it!

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Yeah - I do that on purpose so people get a chance to increase their post count

Cheers,
Hymee.

BVD

AMG, Taka & Hymee,

Thanks very much for the helpful replies. I'll get some further checks done.

I definitely do snore (so I'm told! ) and I've also had some moments lately of thinking "jeez, I'm about to nod off" when driving. On a 5k journey to the shops, so not a long distance effort. I wound the window down and on one occasion pulled over for a few moments. I tend to drive with the window open now anyway.

I'm not obese, or even what you'd call fat, but I am slightly pear shaped in the usual fashion of middle aged men. A little more time on the mountain bike can't hurt though. My street looks like a mini version of Alpe d'Huez, so maybe a few more laps are in order....

I've already had the anemia and thyroid things checked, and also testosterone. The latter was low (athough I had no problems with the sexual side of things, just the tiredness business). We tried injections for a few months but they made no difference to the tiredness and the hormone levels didn't go up either. Then we tried an implanted pellet which stayed in for 6 or 7 weeks and then got rejected - literally pushed out of the body again! That didn't seem to make that much difference either.

I know that reading about medical issues is a sure way to convince yourself that you have the problem - usually wrongly - but it certainly can't hurt to get the apnoea thing checked anyway. Thanks guys.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Don't you hate it when doctors ask you how your sex drive is and you think it should be the other half having the tests!!!

Gomez

What......you mean you spend half your life having sex????!!!

No bloody wonder you're nodding off all the time :D

BVD

Lol Gomez. :D

I've heard a rumour that Hymee's sex drive is so rapid that his doctor installed a multi-nova in the bedroom. Apparently he's only got one point left before his sexual licence is suspended!

Of course I could be getting mixed up with Timbo and the rest of those Canberra sex fiends....

No falling off in performance with age here I might add - still regularly once a decade - whether we feel like it or not. And if you think I look unusually cheerful on that regime, it's because tonight's the night.... :p

sco

BVD,

Good to see you living the old man's creed:
Never pass a toilet
Never waste an erection
Never trust a fart.

Gomez

HahahaROFL......pay that one sco :D

Wildcard

Perhaps our trusty Moderator needs to take some long service leave from all his 'moderating'. I can't help but wonder Hymee if your sleep apnea might co-incide with your discovery of the LS1 forum all those years ago? Damn internet!

jax8

CPAP option: does Wildcard still have his RE intake for sale? If so I could deliver it to your bedside Hymee. (I'm going to Sydney tomorrow, then Noosa next week.)

Maybe I should have Mrs jax snoring checked out too.

jack

rex

iTrader: (2)

Here's another sleep apnea story. I went through several sleep studies because of persistent tiredness and was diagnosed with a mild case of sleep apnea. I tried CPAP but I felt like I was suffocating and gave it up after 3 nights. It turns out that I'd developed a dust allergy so the CPAP machine was actually exacerbating my nasal congestion, hence the feeling of suffocation. I was amazed that my sleep specialist didn't start with an allergy test to at least rule out that as a potential exacerbating factor. I'm not saying that I don't have sleep apnea, I won't know until I get my allergies under control. I do know that I have a lot more energy and sleep better when I'm traveling to other parts of the U.S (dust mites require a certain level of humidity), so I'm figuring there is some kind of relationship between allergic reactions and sleep quality.

So, now I've traded interrupted sleep for allergy meds that keep me wide awake all night!

So, take my advice if you have any allergy symptoms get those sorted first then run the sleep study.

Lock & Load

[QUOTE=jax8]


Maybe I should have Mrs jax snoring checked out too.

JACK

A well positioned clothes peg would stop her snoring HE HE HE ,just make sure her life insurance policy is adequate and current . :D

Cant help but wonder if Mrs Hymette has thought of the above option .

cheers
michael

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Now you have me worried.

I've also noticed that all of my fatigue goes away within one or two nights when I travel - especially to dry climates.

I've never been tested before because I didn't think I had any allergies (though cats irritate my eyes).

I don't think my insurance will cover allergy testing. Is it expensive?

rex

iTrader: (2)

MazdaManiac,

I didn't think I had allergies either. My image was someone with itchy, irritated eyes, sneezing all the time but allergies can have multiple symptoms and degrees of severity.

If you have dust allergies caused by dust mites, they require a climate with at least 50% relative humidity, so it makes sense that in drier climates they'd be less abundant and so your allergies would be less severe. I didn't know that I had dust allergies, I just knew that I got congested at night and was fatigued because I wasn't sleeping well as a result. The test is simple, they ***** your skin with a set of different allegens in liquid form, wait a while and see which allergens cause a skin reaction. I can't imagine that the test would be very expensive since it probably takes at most 20 minutes total and you know the results immediately. My insurance did cover it, but you know how insurance companies are. Treatment is another issue, there's basically two physical reactions to allergen exposure and two different medications that can alleviate these symptoms. As with all medications there are side-effects though, so the ultimate solution is to try allergen desensitization treatment where they expose you to the allergen in small doses over a period of time until you're no longer sensitive to it. I'm starting this process next week. I'm betting that this is expensive because the allergen mix is specific to your condition (how do I know this? because my dog got a bad skin reaction as a result of a grass allergy and we had to have custom allergy injections mixed).

Now that I've found out my allergy profile I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Wouldn't you want to know what you're allergic to so that you can avoid it? My only regret is that I didn't have the food allergy testing as well.

If your symptoms do go away when you travel to drier climates or just travel away from home I bet you have some sort of environmental allergy. Let's just hope it's not your RX-8!

Good luck!

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Thanks for that, Rex!

Its definitely not the RX-8! I always feel wide-awake when I'm zooming.
It seems to be just my house.
Time to call the doctor.

rex

iTrader: (2)

Glad it's not the RX-8!

Here's a useful get-right to-the-point allergy site that you might find useful.

Lock & Load

Guys may i suggest you try the ancient Tao salt nasal douche , its simple cost effective and certainly works for me .

Most nights before i go to bed i have a nasal douche , this involves a luke warm glass of water with salt up your nasal passages it clears out your nasal passages keeps you germ free allows you to breathe easier , it takes a bit of practice but once you have mastered the art its great .

Hope this helps with your allergies .
cheers
michael

takahashi

Allegy test is a waste of time if it is not affecting your live and there is no suggestion of what the allergen is. We cannot test a million thing on your arm as there may be cross reaction. It is helpful in severe asthma in kids though, it is the only time I have seen clinical practice put allergic profile to use. Otherwise sounds like a waste of money.

MManiac, do you find you have running nose in cold weather? tell me more about the symptom particular time of occurance and I tell you what I think. I suspect it is nothing serious --- esp you name sneezing when travelling I am pretty much thinking a common condition that 1/2 the population has.