My 200th Post!
This is what I’m going to be greeted with each night when I go to bed. Lovely huh?
Chris was diagnosed with severe Sleep apnea in June or perhaps early July. Shortly after his diagnosis the company that supplies the machine and mask called and asked that Chris come in to get his machine and be shown how to use the equipment. We didn’t know how much it was going to cost us so we delayed a bit. It turns out that our government actually pays for the machine ($750 or so) but Chris has to pay for the special nose mask and I believe the tubing. I haven’t checked yet but I think I can submit that bill to our medical insurance company and perhaps get some of that money back. I hope so ’cause it cost us over $400.
I still don’t really know what it sounds like other than the light purr of the machine beside the bed. You see, Chris was told to slowly work his way into using the mask all night. Which means he’s only using it for about an hour or two at a time and then taking it off. I’ve been having a very bad week with my pain so I’ve been on the main floor in the living room working on the computer when he’s been trying out this mask.
He’s had the machine for a week or so but hasn’t used it every night. However, on the nights that he does use it for a short while he seems to snore less. Hopefully by the time he works up to wearing it all night we’ll both end up getting better sleep!
I was pretty sure that Chris has sleep apnea for oh, pretty much the whole time we’ve been together (yikes 17 years!). When my doctor was sending me for sleep studies to try to figure out why I can’t sleep after working night shifts (even though I haven’t been working at all lately) I mentioned Chris’ snoring to her and told her that I thought he had sleep apnea, mainly because he snores, snores, then doesn’t seem to breath for a whole minute or so, then the snoring starts up again. As usual I was right.
I’m happy that we’re finally addressing the problem. It’s quite common for people with sleep apnea to end up having heart problems. We’ve already been through a heart scare with Chris. Two years ago he kept passing out at work and he had changes on his electrocardiogram that looked like a very rare cardiac arrhythmia called Brugada. He ended up staying in one of the best hospitals in Toronto for cardiac problems and had many tests, but they couldn’t reproduce the arrhythmia. That’s good, ’cause he would have ended up with a built in defibrillator if they had diagnosed his problem. He has permanent changes to his ECG but the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with his heart. We know something happened but we don’t know what. So far so good though, he’s been feeling pretty good for most of the last year.
I’m hoping that now that we are taking care of the apnea perhaps he’ll do even better, or that at least treating the apnea might prevent further trouble from developing.
Does anyone else have a spouse with apnea? One who uses the breathing machine? Does it make much noise? I hope it doesn’t end up that I feel like I’m sleeping with Darth Vader or something!
God! With my abdominal troubles and Chris questionable heart problems and now sleep apnea it sounds like we’re getting old. We aren’t! Look at that pic of Chris we’re both still relatively young, but I guess we have a few more problems going on then others. Oh well.
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I’d like to thank my two landlords this week:
Neurotic Mom – we’re plotting against the famous Mr. Fab Muhhhaaaah!
And ITTM – Does it mean they like my site that they picked me, or just that I was first to bid? Hmmm
I know several people who use the machine while they sleep and it has made a HUGE difference! Yeah, you may look silly using it, but who watches you while you’re asleep anyway. My best friend’s husband uses it-she said it took a little while for her to get used to hearing the machine at night, but she said it was a heck of a lot better than his snoring! Good luck with it!
I sure hope this helps him cope with sleep apnea. But of course, he does look like the son of Darth Vader. LOL!
Happy weekend!
I don’t know anything about sleep apnea but i know my husband sounds like a constipated bear with hemmeroids. Many nights i’ve considered shoving things up his nose and taping his mouth shut hahaha
Unless you “suffer” from sleep apnea, you will never know the value of the CPAP unit.
I got mine about 11 years ago after a proper diagnosis in a sleep clinic. I told my doctor that when I got up in the morning, usually I was more tired than when I went to bed. I had to hound him for more than three years to send me to that place, stubborn old bugger.
Anyway, I find out that I stopped breathing more than 90 , yes that is 90, times per hour.
The normal process in the sleep clinic is to test you the first night to see where you stand. The second night they try you on a machine if necessary to see if it will help.
On my first night, and within two hours of going to sleep, the girl that was on duty had the crap scared out of her because my oxygen level had dropped to 65%. They immediately put me on a machine. That was the first GOOD nights sleep I could remember.
My CPAP cost over $2000 as it is heated and humidified., That prevents your throat from drying out.
My life was actually given back to me by this machine, and yes, it seems noisy but I lived with a lot more noise after having three kids. I dread any time that the power may go off because it will be a night with no sleep.
If you have any questions, by all means, hit me up with an email at ultimateevil666@gmail.com. I’d be happy to help.
Thoughts
Blogmad hit! 🙂
Oh dear God. That apparatus is disturbing.
Yikes! That sure is sexy. Kidding, but I do hope it helps him.
I really hope it helps him.
Jake doesn’t have sleep apnea, but he does sound like the son of darth vader, or maybe a freight train when he snores…
I want to thank you so much for your thoughts, and kind words of encouragement. I appreciate how quickly other bloggers really lift up one another in times of need. It’s just so amazing to me.
My hubby has a CPAP machine. He used to use it, but he gave up on that. Frankly, he has terrible, terrible, terrible insomnia, so going to sleep is a problem for him. The machine is no use if he can’t go to sleep. It’s funny, when he used to wear it he sounded like Vader. I hated it, couldn’t sleep, and I would lay awake at night devising new ways to hurt him. lol. Hope you have better luck with it than I did.
On the other hand, when he used it, it helped him breathe and get better sleep and that was worth all the torture. 🙂
Kristyn
Yowsa. Reminds me more of Hannibal Lecter than Darth! You better not serve any chianti for dinner.
It will be a cold day in hell before some neurotic and a Canadian can take me down…
LOL! I have one of those! I don’t actually use it anymore though … for every ten pounds you lose you have to go back and get your numbers readjusted. (well, you’re supposed to…) But I’ve lost 50 pounds now and my hubby says I don’t quit breathing anymore (and I don’t snore either) so I decided not to go back again! BUT… when I got mine, I slept the whole night with it right from the first night — and I LOVED it! I had been sO sleep deprived for so long — and I didn’t even realize it! I thought I HAD been sleeping — but I wasn’t getting good sleep! That machine is a blessing to be sure! I bet your hubby loves it once he gets used to it!
Neurotic is canadian too, how’s that for a double whammy? hahahaha
i were falling a sleep every where even nodding off at traffic lights then i was prescribed the cpap machine about 6 months back it really help me a lot my settings on the machine was set to 19 which was quite severe i did get use to it thore,but it did feel like a force 10 gale in my face at first.i have found out since that there is alternatives to the cpap that can help you for instance if like me if your a little on the large size then losing a good few pounds will work wonders.