Continuing the education series, lets look at the risks of untreated sleep apnea.  I might be relatively young at age 27, but I know I have had the symptoms for a long time.  (Any of my old college roommates can vouch for that one!)

Part 2 of 5 - Sleep Apnea Education series

What will happen to me if I don’t do anything to treat my sleep apnea?  Will I get sick? Could I die?

This was another good question from the forums.  Mayo Clinic has an article on this:

Cardiovascular problems. Sudden drops in blood oxygen levels that occur during sleep apnea increase blood pressure and strain the cardiovascular system. Almost half of all people with sleep apnea develop high blood pressure (hypertension), which raises the risk of heart failure and stroke. If there’s underlying heart disease, these repeated multiple episodes of low blood oxygen (hypoxia or hypoxemia) can lead to sudden death from a cardiac event

Daytime fatigue. People with sleep apnea often experience severe daytime drowsiness, fatigue and irritability. They may have difficulty concentrating and find themselves falling asleep at work, while watching TV or even when driving. People with obstructive sleep apnea are three to five times more likely to have car accidents.

Complications with medications and surgery. People with sleep apnea may be more likely to experience complications following major surgery because they’re prone to breathing problems, especially when sedated and lying on their backs. Before you have surgery, inform your doctor that you have sleep apnea.

Sleep-deprived partners. Loud snoring can keep those around you from getting good rest and eventually disrupt your relationships. It’s not uncommon for a partner to go to another room, or even on another floor of the house, to be able to sleep. Many bed partners of people who snore are sleep deprived as well.

If you are wondering if you might have sleep apnea – take the Snore Score Quiz!

See other Education articles on Hosehead Life.  (Including all 5 parts of this Sleep Apnea Education series.)

Well still adjusting to everything.  I turned down the humidity and that seemed to help me sleep at a longer stretch at a time.

I did the weekly cleaning of everything yesterday morning, so hopefully will be able to make that a habit.  Last night was a little tougher as I seemed to get stuffed up and a nasal mask seemed to make that a bit more difficult.  That will be something I ask about this next week to see if there is something I am supposed to do about that, adjust, etc.

Also still snoring slightly, but way way better than I was.  So we will see how this next week goes.  I don’t travel for work till the middle of April – which leaves me plenty of time to adjust to the CPAP here before hitting the road.

Another mixed results sort of night.  Though I am aware that both my body *and* my mind are still adjusting to being on a CPAP.  I really haven’t had a bad night, but the first night has been the best so far.  Perhaps I was just that worn out too.

It is a little annoying that I am still waking up in the middle of the night, but hasn’t been for too long.  I think it is the little bit of moisture sitting on my upper lip that is doing it, so might try turning down the humidity tonight.  I noticed I mentioned it on yesterday’s post as well, but I think I have been worried about changing settings before I am even really used to it.  Not really rain-out, but enough to wake me up.

No matter what, haven’t fallen asleep watching tv on the couch all week.  That is a new one and a positive sign.

As part of blogging about my Obstructive Sleep Apnea treatment, I am doing to do an education series on this blog.

Part 1 of 5 - Sleep Apnea Education series

Today, lets look at what sleep apnea is from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.

What Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.

Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They often occur 5 to30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.

Sleep apnea usually is a chronic (ongoing) condition that disrupts your sleep 3 or more nights each week. You often move out of deep sleep and into light sleep when your breathing pauses or becomes shallow.

This results in poor sleep quality that makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is one of the leading causes of excessive daytime sleepiness.

The rest of the article covers a bit more in depth description including a short video.

Untreated sleep apnea can:

*high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, obesity, and diabetes
*Increase the risk for or worsen heart failure
*Make irregular heartbeats more likely
*Increase the chance of having work-related or driving accidents

Lifestyle changes, mouthpieces, surgery, and/or breathing devices can successfully treat sleep apnea in many people.

See other Education articles on Hosehead Life.  (Including all 5 parts of this Sleep Apnea Education series.)

Well the third night on CPAP is down.  Still making some adjustment to it.

Woke up around 2am and was going to get something to drink, took off the mask, and fell back asleep for a hour before realizing it.  So missed a hour of use.  Probably not the end of the world, but something I should probably avoid.

Either way, still waking up in the middle of the night.  Might be the slight moisture waking me up, so I could turn down the humidity.  Though while the tendency to tweak everything is there, I feel I haven’t used it long enough to really worry about tweaking settings.  The mask seems to fit well enough without discomfort.  So I am planning on getting a full 7 day stats so help figure out if any changes need to be made.  Then I believe at the 1 month mark is when the doc will review the data and see if any changes need to be made to the prescription.

Testing Hosehead Life integration with facebook… nothing else here.

I doubt I will continue to do the daily updates as hopefully things will settle out as I continue CPAP treatment.

I found the second night had some interesting results as well.  The first night, I slept about 4 hours and woke up, managed to get back to sleep and slept about 4 more hours.  Last night I made it a little over 6 hours before waking up and then got back to sleep for a couple of more hours.

Prior to CPAP treatment I usually got around 6 hours of fairly non-restorative sleep and rarely woke up in the middle of the night.  (Of course it was also fairly common for me to fall asleep on the couch after dinner while watching TV.) However, as I am retraining myself to sleep, I think I will eventually be able to get back to a whole nights sleep.  Also having two days averaging around 8 hours of sleep is pretty good.  This morning though, I am feeling quite well rested.  My wife reported that my snoring decreased from last night.

So indications are that treatment is going well.  Still having a little issue with the nasal mask in that I keep thinking it is leaking, but is probably working fine.  I think that is part of the reason it takes me a little bit to get back to sleep in the middle of the night.

Well the first night on a CPAP was interesting.  I had a little of the laying there wondering if the mask was leaking, but got to sleep pretty quickly.

Interesting part was I woke at 2am feeling like it was time to get up and go to work. (ie as well rested as I normally am).  It took me a bit to get back to sleep, but then slept till shortly before my alarm normally goes off. Far more rested than usual.  So no matter what, I would say that is pointing in a darn good direction.

My wife did mention when I asked that I was still slightly snoring, though at a much reduced volume. Not quite sure yet if that is a normal part of the adjustment process or if that means the pressure will be adjusted later.  It was just night #1, so not really concerned since I suspect there will be a bit of up and down adjusting to it.

Posted my results on the forums and it sounds like that is actually a very good result overall.  A lot of people have difficulty adjusting to wearing a CPAP.

Well Meritcare Healthcare Accessories here in Jamestown was actually very helpful and great to work with.  A number of forum posts seemed to indicate that it was going to be hit or miss, but they managed to go a very good job here.

I did my homework reading up on the major CPAP brands and scoured the boards reading folks opinions.  They varied widely, but the 2 main US brands both had new models out that were full data capable (meaning a SD card can be pulled and review how treatment is going) though it was possible that a local place might not yet have those in.  Reporting is my job, plus being a geek, being able to pull information from this very expensive gadget was quite important to me.

I was pleasantly surprised when the gal came in with a Respironics PR System One REMstar Pro C-Flex+ with humidifier, which was one of the 2 top recommendations I gathered over the weekend.  While there I was finally able to get a copy of my sleep results.  Finally was able to put a number with the prescription.  Apparently I have an AHI of 23.9, putting me smack in the moderate obstructive sleep apnea category.

So it should be interesting to see how the first night of CPAP therapy goes.

Finally met with the doctor and got the diagnosis. Officially diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). (Hence the new blog, thought it might be helpful to both myself and others to blog about this.)

This diagnosis probably will not come as a shock to anyone who has (or tried to) sleep in the same vicinity as me. As a result I have spent the last few days trying to learn as much as possible about OSA, what CPAP machines do, etc. The Sleep Apnea Support forums have actually been a lot of help on this one, along with many people on there asking questions.

One of the things I learned this weekend – I never asked for specifics on the results of my sleep study.  I have no idea what my numbers came back as.  Since I am going in to the clinic to get set up with a CPAP, I did call and confirm I will be able to get a copy of my results (and prescription) from them.

So there is a lot to learn.  Should be interesting keeping track of it here.  I decided to start a new blog instead of folding it in on my personal site as it is a very specific topic and might be of help to someone else.