Every 30 seconds
The doctor burst into the room, a concerned look on his face.
“You’re on CPAP, right?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re on CPAP?” he repeated.
“Um yes, for many years. I went through the sleep study just to get a new baseline.”
“Good. Let me just go check a few notes in my office.”
I knew it wasn’t going to be good. The night of the sleep study was just miserable for me, because I can no longer sleep without a CPAP. My sleep was fractured, and it felt like I hadn’t slept at all.
I was right.
“Congratulations, you’re #1″, he told me as I was leaving.
“#1?”
“The worst we’ve ever seen,” he said, pointing at the number “126″, indicating the number of sleep interruptions I experienced per hour during my sleep study.
Every 30 seconds.
“A dubious honor”, was all I could think to say.
If your doctor is recommending a sleep study, do it. Among the other figures he pointed out to me was that my blood oxygen dropped to 82% without CPAP, and that was after just a few hours. Who knows how low it could go over the course of a night. The stress on the heart and brain would be tremendous.
I honestly believe that if I hadn’t met my wife, who insisted I do something about my snoring and the way I stop breathing at night eight years ago, I’d be dead by now. Suffocated in my sleep, maybe, or a heart attack from the strain of living without deep sleep. Or a fiery car accident when I fell asleep at the wheel, maybe with my wife and kids in the car with me.
Something to think about.
OMG! Good thing you listened to Stacey.
Holy sheets! You ARE lucky to be alive! Do you know if you have any residual heart or cardiovascular problems as a result of your sleep apnea?
Anyway, glad you got the help you need and hope you stay well.
CPAP is the way to go for severe snoring. Its a great thing you listened to your wife, the way you described your problem, its pretty severe.
All the best.
It has been a while now – how is your sleep breathing now?
It is good that you took the right treatment at the right time.Sleep apnea leads to many different health disorders,but people are generally unaware that they have such a problem.It is nice that your wife helped you to find it.
It is good that you took the right treatment at the right time.Sleep apnea leads to many different health disorders,but people are generally unaware that they have such a problem.It is nice that your wife helped you to find it.
Weight loss is the good solution. I know that takes time. You have sleep apnea because of all the weight. There isn’t much sense in wasting money on a doctor if you know the root reason of your problem. This nice solution, so you try it.
This a good post to warn people. I try to inform about sleep apnea and the use of a cpap device as much as I can. I'm glad you finally got that squared away.
That was scary. Thank goodness you made it through.