You don’t have to be fat to have apnea. It makes it worse, of course, but there are plenty of people with normal body types that have it as well.
He was saying fat implies apnea, not apnea implies fat.
I’ve had the sleep test, and it sucked, but it turned out I don’t have apnea, so I’m no help to you. When I did the test, they said that if you showed signs of apnea they’d wake you up halfway through the night and fit you for the mask right away, so you wouldn’t have to go back.
I just don’t want thin people getting the impression that it’s a “fat person’s health problem” because it isn’t. :\
I’ve had apnea since I was thin. It’s gotten worse as I’ve gotten fatter. Take that however you want.
CPAP is a lifesaver. I can tell the difference when I sleep without it; I just don’t feel rested.
They told me that too. Then they wired me up a like a goddamn frankensteinian expirement and put me in an uncomfortable hospital bed in a too-warm room full of strange machinery that would light up as I dozed off and told me to go to sleep.
5 hours later they had pity and gave me a few sleeping pills but until that time, which was circa 2am, I got basically no sleep and thus they didn’t get much in the way of actual study done. So yeah, I gotta go back for more.
The next time I’m going to be one strung out sleep deprived dude when I go in so that I will collapse into sleep even if Michael J Fox is standing next to the bed trying to learn to play Guitar Hero 3. On Expert. With the TV cranked.
I’ve been considering the testing and the CPAP. My dad wears one, which I only discovered after my daughter had her adenoids removed for similar issues. Don’t know if the machine would have been a better option or not in the long run, but despite my feeling uncomfortable with the surgical option it has turned out very well.
To clarify the whole “fat guy” thing… thanks for covering my back, AndrewM. Of course, apnea is not exclusive to the obese. But, similar to heart disease, diabetes and other nasty medical conditions, the corpulent are more likely to suffer from apnea. Simply, if you’re fat, your neck is fat, so your throat is fat, so the fatty bits have a better chance of hanging down and blocking your fat airway when you sleep.
I have found that as I’ve gained weight in the past year or so, the pressure setting on my machine isn’t quite doing the trick for me.
I need to drop some poundage.
Hey, anything for a good night’s sleep.
Tonsils, adenoids, uvula and a bunch of skin that was just hanging around getting in the way. tonsils shouldnt be that bad.
One coworker ended up losing 80lbs and was able to stop using the machine which was surprising to me because I then realized that all CPAP users at my workplace had the same body type. I didn’t correlate size and CPAP. Instead was correlating age and CPAP.
That’s a long term hope of mine as well. Glad to hear it does work for some poeple.
Uvula…? Don’t you need that…for somethiing…?
I’m wondering if, without a uvula, she still qualifies as a girl.
annnnnnd… just like that, I post on how you’ll have to replace your mask every 6 months or so, and mine breaks last night.
Curse you, Red Baron!
I had my first sleep study done last night and I am exhausted today. About halfway through I started panicking that I couldn’t sleep at all, and that I’d have to come back many more times than scheduled until I finally managed to sleep. When they finally hooked up all the wires, and stuck the things in my nose, I just started laughing hysterically which caused every single electrode site to itch.
Those things suck.
I’m pretty sure I need a sleep study and pretty sure I need a forced air apparatus. I’ve gained weight the last few years and I’m suffering from all the symptoms, tired during the day, bad headaches, can’t focus on things I’m working on, etc.
The problem is I keep telling myself I’ll lose wight but I never start, so instead of getting help with probable Apnea, I procrastinate. The things we guys do to avoid doctor visits.
Don’t self-diagnose. Let the pro’s do it :)
Are you going to need a second sleep study? The second study goes a lot easier, because you’ll know to be drop-dead tired the second time. My first time was miserable but the second one went fairly smoothly.
Also, this is the wrong time of year to do sleep studies because your pulmonologist won’t review the results and prescribe a CPAP until after xmas so you’ll blow all your medical insurance deductible on the sleep study and then face a fresh unused deductible needing to be met in early January when you actually need to go buy the hellishly expensive CPAP machine.
Yeah, they have me coming back in for a second study, this time with a mask. Yay! I had thought I was pretty tired last night, but next time I’m not going to sleep for three days beforehand, I swear.
I have a POS plan with no deductible, so it doesn’t really matter when I have the studies done.
I am also on a CPAP machine, have been for roughly 3 years. And I will add another vote to how great they are.
The doctors told me that a large percentage of people quit using them after a few days or so, and they take some getting used to. I had to try 3 different mask types before I found one that I liked (it isn’t actually a mask at all now, it is a nose-plug thing), but the difference in energy using the machine is amazing. I can’t imagine NOT using it now, I feel so different and so much better. Please, if you need it, do try it and use it.