Got appointment at doctors next week

[kibbster]

I've always suffered from a form of sleep apnea for years but I used to get an attack about once a year.
I start to fall asleep and then just "forget" to breathe until I wake up and take a huge gasp and hammering heart and it repeats every time I start to doze off.

Since I had a stinking cold about a month ago which has all cleared up now I have it every night.

I'm exhausted because of a lack of sleep and almost scared to go to bed to sleep because I know what's coming.
I've even on occasions stopped breathing when awake now on a few occasions until I make myself breathe and I'm also panting alot now as well as restless a lot of the time when awake.

An "attack" is generally preceded by a general state of agitation and restlessness as well as feeling itchy all over my body, now I feel like that a lot and it's causing me concentration problems.

Not going to blame vaping because I was fine for six months and it's only since this cold went away that it's got really bad.
To me it feels psychological and always has.



Anyway, to the point of the post.
Will be interesting to see if the doctor tries to blame vaping or if he thinks vaping is a good thing, either way I'll be doing my bit to defend vaping and educate

Not that the doctor will do anything, I suspect he'll tell me to take a paracetamol and go to bed early... (thanks Doc lol)

[siffy]

Good luck and I really hope you get a good nights sleep soon, exhaustion is no fun.

[kibbster]

I guess I'm just practising exhaustion and rubbish nights sleep for Oct when my second little one is due hehe


I guess if I can get the doctor to rule out anything physical then that would a start.

[chuck]

Hi Kibbster, sorry your having a hard time.
Have you had a sleep study done? I have sleep apnea an use a cpap machine every night, this has really made a differance to how I feel during the day.
I wouldn't mention vaping to the doc, just give him your symptoms.
Vaping has not effected my sleep apnea in a negative way whatsoever.
Good luck.

[kibbster]

Jul 5, 2013 8:24:19 GMT chuck said:

Hi Kibbster, sorry your having a hard time.
Have you had a sleep study done? I have sleep apnea an use a cpap machine every night, this has really made a differance to how I feel during the day.
I wouldn't mention vaping to the doc, just give him your symptoms.
Vaping has not effected my sleep apnea in a negative way whatsoever.
Good luck.

I haven't had a sleep study done, never even seen a doctor about it till now because it didn't happen very often till recently.
One of my friends has sleep apnea (due to his weight - not the case with me) and he uses one of those machines.

Are they noisy?

With a hormonal heavily pregnant wife and in a couple of months a newborn baby in the room I could do without something that makes noise

[chuck]

If you think you have sleep apnea, you should ask for a sleep study.
You don't have to be overweight, I'm 6'2" and weighed in at 13 stone when I was diagnosed, I was stopped breathing as much as 30 times an hour.
The machine isn't noisy, you get used to it very quickly, the positives of using cpap far out way the negatives, believe me.

[kibbster]

Jul 5, 2013 8:35:41 GMT chuck said:

If you think you have sleep apnea, you should ask for a sleep study.
You don't have to be overweight, I'm 6'2" and weighed in at 13 stone when I was diagnosed, I was stopped breathing as much as 30 times an hour.
The machine isn't noisy, you get used to it very quickly, the positives of using cpap far out way the negatives, believe me.

Thank you, that helps put my mind at ease

[siffy]

Jul 5, 2013 8:21:33 GMT kibbster said:

I guess I'm just practising exhaustion and rubbish nights sleep for Oct when my second little one is due hehe


I guess if I can get the doctor to rule out anything physical then that would a start.

Aww how lovely, I used this to help prevent exhaustion during my twins early years, worked a treat!

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Contented-Little-Baby-Book/dp/0091912695/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373014416&sr=1-1

Exciting times ahead, congratulations.

[Jen]

An ex-boyfriend's father used a CPAP - it's not the sexiest looking machine in the world, bit like a gas mask (they may have updated this by now!), but it made a world of difference to his quality of sleep and therefore life. I think there are many long-established causes of sleep apnea and I would have thought the doc would address those first. Wishing you much luck!

[GunJack]

Just to echo what chuck's already said, I've been on a CPAP for best part of 10 years now, and can quite easily function well on average of 5 hrs of "mask-sleep" a night, it really does make a major difference to your overall well-being. Ask to be referred to your local sleep clinic for a study and diagnosis. Newer CPAPs are much quieter than my original one, and they just work. If offered one grab it with both hands, and go for a full-face mask rather than the nose-only jobs. Vaping hasn't made a negative difference to me, in fact it's made a slight positive one after seeing my last 6-month's stats at last checkup (the CPAP machine monitors relevant data and it's graphed when uploaded to the sw on a pc).

If you want any more info or to chat about it, drop me a pm

[GunJack]

www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_apnea.htm

good link for general info

OMG !!! this is my 666th post..... beastly

[lobeydosser]

I say + 10 to everything GunJack says.

I have been using a CPAP for the past 3 years.

Fantastic bit of kit.

[genguskhan]

Hope you get it sorted out kibbster

[kibbster]

Thanks all for helping put my mind at ease
I'll go and hope my doctor isn't useless (you can probably tell I have little faith in doctors hehe)

I'll let people know what is said but it isn't for a week yet... If I can manage to stay awake for a week

[GunJack]

Do insist on the referral to a sleep clinic - if it is sleep apnoea you have to get treatment and inform DVLA (along with letter/statement from the consultant) in order to continue driving or you may risk your insurance being invalid, and once diagnosed you have to declare on insurance quotes.