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Re: Apnea/Allergies: Update

Posted by permagrin on February 14, 2003 at 06:41:54:

In Reply to: Re: Apnea/Allergies: Update posted by rae on February 13, 2003 at 18:00:55:

A sleep doctor explained to me how it is that anxiety causes fragmented sleep, so thought I'd share. Initially, I thought that this was an issue that would resolve with needed sleep, since OSA can also *cause* anxiety. He explained to me that anxiety increases alpha waves in the brain. Alpha waves intrude in your sleep when you should be having delta waves, and disturbs your sleep. He recommended pamelar because it is one of the best anxiolytics for reducing alpha waves. FWIW.

If your allergies can't be resolved with meds, perhaps it is because you have something going on that an ENT needs to look at. Even with Flonase, we learned yesterday that Mike has a lot of swelling in one of his nasal passages. This interferes with his comfort when using CPAP and is one of the things the ENT will look into (no pun intended) when we see him. Perhaps you have something going on like that.

I'm rereading your post as I write and am throwing out ideas as they occur to me. Have you done much reading at the insomnia forum? There may be some ideas there. You don't say exactly what is causing the fragmented sleep - is it insomnia or is it the apnea?

Your exhaustion sounds a lot like what Mike experiences daily. He also experiences what he calls 'head rushes' in which he feels dizzy, has momentary crushing pain in his head that is similar to sinus pain, but isn't, and almost feels as if he is going to black out. This seems to be related to changes in posture. His legs are weak, tremble and sometimes collapse out from under him. All of this improves (it has yet to completely resolve) when he is compliant with his CPAP. He's also an allergy sufferer. This has been going on with him, in varying degrees, for almost five years.

You ask if anyone has ever been as low as you feel, and at the risk of sounding as if I'm trying to "one-up" you, which I'm not, I think Mike has been and still is, even lower. He's lost his job, his home, his marriage, his friends, and everything that ever defined his life, except his family. He's weak, emotional, pretty fragile, but still struggling to keep going and trying to get well.

Don't you give up! Keep trying. There *is* an answer somewhere for you.

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