Worse than your dust collector

[jmk89]

When SWMBO described my snoring that way, I decided to have it looked at. The GP sent me off to the Sleep and Respiratory guy at Royal North Shore who said you need a sleep investigation. So I did that and I have "really severe" Sleep Apnoea. On the test night I stopped breathing 78 times and hour!:o

Now I have to get fitted for a mask and do another sleep test so they can adjust the machine. Then I will need to get a CPAP machine (I can rent one and then buy but it will cost $1500 or so and the health fund only refunds $500).

I know some other members have SA and use CPAP machines. Is CPAP effective? Will I really begin to feel human again? Do you get used to the mask? Should I take the money and buy a quieter dust collector instead?:D

[Charleville]

I did such a sleep test early last year and the results were that I only had five minutes of deep sleep in my 193 minutes of sleep on the night and stopped breathing 350 times for periods of up to 70 seconds during that sleep.

Likewise, after that test, the medicos wanted me to sleep with what I regarded as the equivalent of an aqualung mask on my face. I considered that to be an absurd solution as it was treating the symptom and not the cause.

So I decided to address what I reckoned would be the cause and therefore decided to lose some weight. I lost 30 kg in about six months and that solved the sleep apnoea problem.


Keeping the weight off is proving to be a problem but at least I know that losing a bunch of weight was a better solution for me than trying to sleep with a face mask and air pump.


Losing the weight also reduced my blood cholesterol figures and blood sugar levels into megastar categories.


Do you need to consider losing some weight first before you resort to a mask?


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[Ironwood]

My neighour has one of those machines, it does wonders for his wife.

[jmk89]

I wish it were a weight problem but at 85kg I'm not really overweight and the docs said that was unlikely to be the cause. Likewise I don't smoke. So it looks like the squid over the face is the required treatment.

[Charleville]

I wish it were a weight problem but at 85kg I'm not really overweight and the docs said that was unlikely to be the cause. Likewise I don't smoke. So it looks like the squid over the face is the required treatment.



I would love to be your weight but I would be damn disappointed if it did not cure the sleep apnoea.


Before I lost the weight, my doctor was quite concerned because apparently a lot of people do die in their sleep. When he told me that, I quoted the Kenny Rogers's song, "The Gambler" which has the line that "the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep." My doc's retort was that that is ok when you are in your eighties or older but not in your fifties or younger.

He is a clever fellow like that with his responses. I think that we can all get blase about health at times with well worn lines like, "Well ya gotta die somehow." He once said to me that the issue is often not whether you die or not but whether you half die. ie whether you get an illness that incapacitates you and destroys your quality of life. That really hit home to me as my Dad had a stroke at age 74 and was paralysed down one side for many months until he finally passed away. It is not the dying to worry about, it is half-dying.


I have known blokes who have benefited greatly from the elevated air pressure face mask - even one bloke who travelled a lot in his job and took the gear in his luggage with him.


After paying a heap for the sleep test, the added cost of the face mask thing is a lot of moolah that you could use for more fun things but I reckon that you would sleep better at night in more ways than one if you had one.

BTW, I have also known blokes who have tried one and not persisted with it but I cannot comment on their reasons.


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[rsser]

I'd say it's likely that you'll feel like a new man once you start to get the sleep you need.

[dai sensei]

Been there done that. I have the latest Resmed mashine and I am slowy getting used to it. I am a very light sleeper, and as this model increases and reduces the pressure as you breath in and out, it amplyfies the sound of my own breathing and drives me nuts. I use ear plugs whilst I am developing my own sound proof box for the thing.

Can't say I've notices an improvement in my feeling tired after 6 weeks of use, but my brother and three other workmates swear by the dam things, so I am percisting.

I never used to snore, but I have a brain tumor that apparently often causes sleep apnoea, or so the specialists say. My tumor has heaps of other impacts, and I have many medications to control it, that also have side effects that I then take additional medications for :doh:. At the end of the day I often don't know if it is my tumor causing problems, or the medications, or being overweight, or ......... etc

Good luck with yours.