sleep apnea, or snoring in general

[trying2007]

Well I snore, and pretty bad. Im 30 years old, in good shape, but still snore. My doctor has told me i have a misshapped throat that makes it difficult for me to breathe without snoring at night when my muscles relax. I had a sleep test done last week, but it was so much crap on me that i didnt actuall sleep but 30 minutes and that was terrible. So i have a second appt set for tomorrow night and this time i going in with sleep medicine. I wanted to know any advice for sleep apnea, i want the surgery, but heard its painfull, which im not afraid of pain, if it means that i can sleep in same room as my wife. Anyone have the surgery, on health insurance, or off? cost?

 

i dont need to lose weight, im under 15 % body fat and under 200lbs and im in good cardio shape so dctr says thats not it. I cant see myself not having sleep apnea and i notice that my memory isnt as good as it was and i dont feel rested all the time. Any of you have this issue or any advice for future?

 

Thanks

[ghost69]

i'm in the same boat as you. great shape and snore more of the time. i'm about the same build as you probably. 210 6'3 ripped. so i'm wondering what is wrong with me. i was told it's probably adnoids (spelling). the are in the back of the throat about where the nasal cavity goes to the throat. i have yet to go, but that is what my doc suggested. i read up on it and it does sound like what my problem is. it's a quick procedure to get that tissue removed too.

[JadedStar]

A lot of people with sleep apnea do well with a mouth guard that they wear while they sleep. I guess it positions the mouth in a better way to allow you to breathe while sleeping without the constant interruptions (basically what is happening with you having sleep apnea is when you snore you are constantly disturbing REM and that makes for feeling crappy in the morning from being "startled" all night long. Even tho you go right back to sleep it still breaks REM and we need a good amount of REM stage everynight to feel refreshed. A friend of mine was fitted with one of those recently and he said it was tough to get used to at first but he is starting to see improvement in the quality of his sleep.

 

This might be an alternative to surgery for now.

[ghost69]

if you are camping it scares off bears. if you are outdoorsy, don't get it fixed. lol

[trying2007]

lol

 

yeah ill keep that in mind.

 

as far as the anoids (whatever) i got ths checked, easy camera up the nose and they were fine. The top of my mouth is constructed weird. If you go look in the mirror and open your mouth so you can see your uvula (the little hangy thing) you can see a space between that and your tongue, most of the time its an inch or so, mine almost hits my tongue, or looks that way anyway, so i have less space between my mouth and the back of my throat when i sleep, im going to ask for the device for my mouth, but i think surgery is more effective. My insurance tho wont cover it without having sleep anpea, so im going in tomorrow night for another sleep test and hoping the tech tells me i have it.

[ghost69]

hope you get diagnosed properly and your insurance pay for anything you need done.

[trying2007]

ME TOO!!!

 

Thanks

 

I hope there is an easy fix also, im not afraid of surgery, but i woudl rather not be in pain

[tiredofvampires]

Wow, how odd that you put up this thread just when I am considering putting up a very similar one. My ex had a GIANT case of sleep apnea. The sleep study he had (before we even got together) placed him as "moderate" I believe, but it was so loud, I could hear it through the wall. Right next to me, it was like a lawnmower. It pretty much destroyed our relationship (he blamed me for being a light sleeper and said he didn't want to live a married life with someone who couldn't sleep next to him), and that's another thread about my situation (I hope you stay here on ENA so you can give me input on my thread when I post it, lol), but I know the problem inside out and did a TON of research.

 

I am not sure which procedure is the most effective, but I've read very mixed reports. How much research did you do? I read many blogs of snorers, and it seemed that several operations might be necessary, and even then, after time, the problem might return or be incompletely fixed. The pain is excruciating from what I read, also, and lasts a long time (weeks.) It's very invasive (one reason I didn't want to demand this of my ex, I didn't want him to go through the pain!). There is a less invasive procedure calle "pillar implants" which get put underneath the skin in the soft palette, which are almost like "splints" that stiffen the area, so it won't sag. That sounds more promising and less drastic. Also, as surgical procedures go, there is another type of procedure that scars the tissue rather than cutting it out/off, which I think is probably easier to recover from.

 

But before you even TOUCH surgery, have you tried the CPAP machine? That is the FIRST line of treatment for apnea. I understand it makes noise (at least my ex's did, and I never heard it because he didn't want to wear it -- he said he felt claustrophobic with the mask on), but technology is fast-advancing with the CPAP. I hear that now, the air that is used can be adjusted to your normal rate of breathing. And I think they are getting quieter and quieter, and less bulky. I have a friend who uses CPAP and while it did take getting some used to, he says he feels so rested and alert now, it's the best thing since sliced bread. So that solved his problem, and that's really a great way to go.

 

This IS a serious problem that needs to be addressed one way or the other, becauase your brain is at risk for oxygen deficit over time. Your risk for stroke is higher. But so long as you are getting air at regular intervals, that is all you need. The CPAP does that.

 

The custom mouth guard as JS suggests should be fitted specially by a dentist who is familiar with the device. That was going to be my next step with my ex, but we didn't last long enough for that. I think it might have helped hold the airway open considerably. He was a slight-built man, but had a very thick neck, proportionally, so I imagine that was part of it.

[trying2007]

tiredofvampires

thanks for all that info, yeah Ive done som research, and i know about the Cpap machine, but im 30, and dont want to have to live with that at night for the rest of my life. I am also very finiky about things touching me while i sleep and that would drive me crazy. I went in for a sleep test and didnt actually sleep because all the crap that was on me. I go back tonight, but ill be armed with a prescribed sleep aid!!

 

As far as the mouth piece, i would try that, and maybe it will work, but not sure, its the shape of my mouth that is the problem, my throat and top of my mouth are so close to eachother to begin with, it only takes a little relaxing to do it. Although i have slept with my wife the past couple nights (we just moved back in together after some separation, other threads here) and we want to be close, and she says that she has slept, not sure if she is being truthful or not.

 

as far as the surgery, the one surgery that the doctors have said is about 70-80% effective is the one where they remove whatever part of the top of the mouth they can and then scar the rest so it is much more firm and doesnt relax as much. I heard it is painful as hell, and one person my wife talked to said he got morphine pills,,,,,,wow..... but im ok with pain, i have always been that way, i sat through 19 hours of a tattoo on my left arm (4 hours each session or so) with a straight face and i have had mouth surgery before so im not afraid, i would rather not, but im not opposed to it if it will fix it for the rest of my life.

 

I will certainly look at your thread you post and give you any feedback i can, but i will tell you this, my wife is all for me getting whatever done and that shows me she cares, but for me, its embarrassing and makes me feel like crap that i cant sleep next to her at night, most times. Maybe your ex felt the same and just couldnt bring himself to say it, so he transferred that to anger toward you rather than himself.

 

well I go in tonight for another test so i hope to have some new news tomorrow.

[tiredofvampires]

Well, good luck with the 2nd sleep test. Keep us posted on what they say, and certainly, I'd like to know if/when you get the procedure, how that turned out. I don't know whether that 70-80% statistic is that it makes 70-80% of the snoring disappear, or if it works in 70-80% of people?

 

You sound like a good candidate, but I've also heard that after a few years, the procedure either has to be re-done or the results don't quite hold out. Did they tell you anything about that?

 

I have a medical condition that makes it hard for me to stay asleep, or in a deep sleep, without the aid of prescription medications. I've had this for years. It's like a chronic light-sleep situation, where the brain just doesn't go into deeper levels of sleep. But with medication, quiet and no disturbances, I can usually sleep. I am the same way as you about not liking things touching me either, so I understand why the CPAP would be really a problem. (I can't go to sleep with someone's arm around me, are you that way?) For all these reasons, my doctor never ordered a sleep test, but just went on my symptoms to prescribe. We both knew I would lose a whole night of sleep in a lab, and without my medication to see how light my sleep was, I wouldn't even sleep at all, probably.

 

So my need for quiet and my ex's snoring were like oil and vinegar. But I have friends who are also light sleepers, and I know that no one who sleeps normally would be able to get through that without waking up, unless they were drugged into being comatose. Which was what he wanted me to do: take even more sedating drugs. I told him I'd already found the type of medication that worked well for me without giving me a hangover or other intolerable side effects, but he was adamant that I try other drugs. I really didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I KNEW that taking more drugs would simple put me in a stupor, not keep me sleeping through the intensely loud snoring. I think you may be right, but I don't know how other women in his past dealt with it. He said he never had to sleep in a different room with others. I just can't believe they were sleeping through that. I spent my entire time with him researching snoring products and ways around this because I cared and in the end, told him that I would leave it up to him, I didn't want to push him (he was a singer, so I didn't want to worry about his beautiful voice being ruined somehow), I said I'd live with him all our lives sleeping in a different room if I had to, I even said I'D be the one to get up after snuggling. I just wanted to be with him, and he said that was not his idea of intimacy. Well, shoots, I'm really hijacking your thread, sorry. This has been on my mind a lot.

 

It's really good to see a guy who doesn't make it out to be his spouse's problem to deal with and just lose sleep.

[trying2007]

No problem in hijacking my thread, thats why i posted it, to see whom else had issues and what was helpfull or not. Well I did do my second sleep test last night, it went better, but it was still difficult. I got 5 hours or so of sleep, or so it felt like it. I think it was so much on my mind that i was dreaming about being awake laying there, weird huh. BUt at the end of the night-or morning, i was sitting there thinking to myself that i was awake and wanted the night to be over, and i decided to try and sleep on my side, and when i rolled over, the lady woke me up. She said i was dreaming and that she wasnt going to wake me in dream state. but once i rolled over, she woke me. so i was sleeping, dreaming that I was awake laying there in agony, so either way it was crap!

 

But she did go over my previous sleep test with me, she said i got 120 minutes of sleep, versus the 30 the guy thought i did (she said he was new) and that i had 30 episodes, that was where i stopped breathing, and my longest stoppage was for 45 seconds...WOW that cant be good for overall sleep.

[ghost69]

wow. so did they recommend anything or they have to go over your data some more?

[trying2007]

I have to make an appt with my nose doctor and have him go over the results of both tests before they can "diagnose" me. From there i guess we will go forward with some solutions.

[tiredofvampires]

Wow, I can just picture that happening to me! I can't imagine having to sleep with all those hook-ups on me and so forth. The same thing would probably happen to me!

 

120 minutes of sleep the whole night?? That's only 2 hours of sleep!

 

And if my math is right, that is about every 4 minutes that your breathing has ceased. This is not only pretty bad for overall sleep, but your brain. 45 seconds is a VERY long time for the brain to be deprived of oxygen, and this is happening multiple times.

 

I am really interested to hear how your ENT diagnoses exactly where the problem is stemming from. Is there a way they determine that in the office? In my research, it appeared ENTs have a way of isolating the problem. ?

 

Just curious too -- did you try the over-the-counter nose sprays and strips, throat sprays and all to try to stop snoring?

 

Also, how long have you had this problem, and were you and your wife able to sleep together in the past?