How severe is this??
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How severe is this??

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Posted by Michael_needs_sleep on March 10, 2008 at 09:38:34:


Hello - I've been reading as much of this and other forums as I can to get more info. I'm now strongly considering MMA as my only/best option. But I'd like to hear from y'all (considering you're intimately familiar with this) what you think.


I've known that I've had SA for about 8 years now. I had a study done at the Mayo Clinic done in 2003 and was told it was severe - but don't recall the exact information. I was 26 or 27 at the time and we all know how much young guys pay attention to their health

I did truly give the CPAP machine they sent me home with a good shot. I tried it for 6 mos, even went to get fitted/re-fitted with different masks. So it wasn't that.... but I never felt better at all. So I stopped. Then over the years (I kept it) I'd get a bug to try it again for a month or so. Each time getting new masks and getting fitted correctly. No help so I gave up.

Anyway, my physical and mental health has deteriorated ever since of course. And over the last year or so, my mental health has been so poor that I'm barely functional. And I do mean barely. I was successful by most definitions, smart and driven. Lately I've been someone I don't even recognize and someone who I'm ashamed to have become. I can't concentrate at all, horrible memory (and that used to be one of my strengths - unusually good memory), NO drive, no ambitions. I can barely even get out of bed in the morning. I'd say it's not an exageration to say my effective brain power has been reduced by 90%.

Emotionally this has ruined me. Especially since I've just had a beautiful baby boy. Depression has become severe to say the least, compounded heavily because of the new baby - since I'm ashamed of myself and how I feel emotionally/mentally. I've had zero hope for improvement thinking this is all happening because I'm going insane , and of course that just continued the spiral.

Physically my energy levels have gone down to almost nothing. About 12 years or so ago (at 22) I started becoming 'tired' all the time. And that's gotten progressively worse over the years. Now I don't even want to leave the house. I can barely stay awake during the day and crash hard at about 3PM.
I'm not overweight with the possible exception of 10lbs or so that I could stand to lose - but losing that would show my abs (for sake of illstrating my physical condition).


Recently I've been reading more on SA and learned that it *might* be at least a contributing factor to what I've just described. i've read how depression and the types of feelings/actions and physical symptoms could well be caused by this. SO...

I went and had another tritation(?) sleep study done.

At about 45 mins (or less) after I fell asleep they came rushing in with the CPAP machine. Turns out my O2 was dropping off dramatically. Not a good sign.

The specifics:

02 - 79% (after only :45)
Total events per hour: 90+
Central apneas: 54
OSA's: 36

There was no change when using the CPAP. The BiPAP did help, but only slightly. Now one of the things I wonder is how low would my O2's have dropped had they not come in at the :45 mark? And since they only based the above #'s on :45 or so, I'm guessing it's reasonable to assume that the actual number of events would be higher.

My question I suppose is just how serious is this? I mean, the Dr's of course say it's VERY serious and severe. And add that I'm at risk of dying in my sleep with #'s like this. That said, I didn't take that too serious - Dr's tend to say things like that I figured.

My second question is about my story. Has any other man here had similar feelings/symptoms emotionally and physically as a result of SA?? If so, how bad were you being affected?

The ENT that I saw recommended surgery due to the severity and also that the PAP machines weren't effective. The surgery he recommended included UPPP, Septum, tonsil removal and some kind of stitch that ties some bones in my throat together (didn't quite see what he meant on his diagram). I didn't care for that ENT much so I decided to research. I've found that most of the time these surgeries are not only an excersize in futility, they have the potential of making it worse. And the side effects blow too.

Anyway, I thought I'd post here to get some feedback on exactly where I stand with this and hear from the knowlegable folks here.

Thanks in advance,

Michael

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