Sleep Apnea, Sleep Schmapnea...

This is usually me.  The one trying to file asleep while listening to the hubster snore away.  Yep, in fact I wear ear plugs every night. 

Sleep Apnea, Sleep Schmapnea!

That's how I felt..NO WAY do I have it.  If anyone has it, it's my husband.  I was sooooo wrong.  And when I found out, I was devastated.  This is more of that emotional self-discovery stuff that happens on this journey.

On my first appointment at the clinic, one of the rotations was the sleep specialist.  She walked me through how to wear the machine.  She asked me a few questions.  And even she said, you probably don't have it.

Fast forward to the night of sleep from hell!  How do they even get accurate results when I couldn't fall asleep for the first 2 hours?  I don't get it.  Anyone want to know what happens at night if you have sleep apnea...Here is the low down.

And here are some of the symptoms you may or may not have if you do in deed have sleep apnea. 

 So when they called me back to actually confirm my appointment instead of cancel it.  I knew.  Then I went away for the weekend with my mother.  Early mothers day present.  I told her about the potential surgery, the sleep apnea and being pre-diabetic.  I thought she might flip out and become her worried, sleepless night self, but she was incredibly supportive and trusting of my judgement.  But out of everything I told her, she was most concerned about the latter two issues.  She proceeded to talk about my father.  How he had sleep apnea and that he hated his c-pap machine, it made his mouth so dry that he couldn't talk.  She told me that the doctor had told her that it was the worst case of sleep apnea he had ever scene.  Because of the sores in his mouth, my father stopped wearing his machine.  He passed 3 months later. 

There are many reasons why this is hard for me to come to terms with.  One being the above.  If you have severe apnea, best to never stop wearing the machine.  I also love to travel, and I travel a lot for personal and for work.  Flashback to baby days, anyone ever travel with a breast pump? It sucks, but you do it for you and because it's best for your baby.  It would suck even more to have to travel with your CPAP machine for the REST of your life.  The things we do to live.

 Also THIS is not sexy...

But it is sexy to be alive.
So in the end, best to do what the docs say.  This is how I became okay with it and prepared to "hook it up" every night, lol!

I have mild to moderate sleep apnea.  In a 6 hour span I had 82 episodes ranging from 19.8 to 58 seconds long.  I stopped breathing for 58 seconds, no way!  Apparently everyone has a little apnea.  Anything less than an average of 5 is normal.

People think that only overweight people have apnea, not true. Yes, weight does play a factor, but it's just one of 5 reasons.  Here are some of the causes of sleep apnea:

• Your throat muscles and tongue relax more than normal.
• Your tongue and tonsils (tissue masses in the back of your mouth) are large compared with the opening into your windpipe.
• You're overweight. The extra soft fat tissue can thicken the wall of the windpipe. This narrows the inside of the windpipe, which makes it harder to keep open.
• The shape of your head and neck (bony structure) may cause a smaller airway size in the mouth and throat area.
• The aging process limits your brain signals' ability to keep your throat muscles stiff during sleep. Thus, your airway is more likely to narrow or collapse.

So I also can't assume that if I do get the surgery, the apnea will go away.  Bummer!  I am looking to do another test and look into some other treatments.  But I am more open and emotionally healthier about the results.  It's just fixing something that isn't quite right.  Like wearing contacts to correct your vision or braces to straighten your teeth.

And after all said and done, it would be nice to feel more rested, so I can keep up with my life and two kiddos. Life is just plain exhausting!

Sleep Well,
CB