Sleep Apnea

[lndshrk]

You still have the sleep study to look forward to. They hook you up to about 40 wire sensors connected to your head (scalp) and body, then watch you sleep on an infared camera and neasure how many times you either stop breathing or hold your breath. If you have it, sometimes, your body goes into "fight or flight" mode from the lack of oxygen and you can find yourself waking up on a soaked pillow. If you meet the criteria, the technician will wake you up in the middle of the night and hook you up to the CPAP machine, which feels sort of like a dog hanging his head outside of a window in a moving car to get wind shooting up your nose to keep your airway open, might feel like.

Also, once you get your machine, besides dealing with what type of water to use in it (I have always just used tap water without a problem, local city water GOOD) you must clean the machine, recommended at least twice a week (I do it every two months) in a process using vinegar that takes about an hour.

Believe it or not, with all this aggravation, I still use it religiously and recommend it's use to those who would benefit.

Again, good luck!

[ima45dv8]

Thanks, Larry. That's a pretty good run down of the process.

Fact is, I had a sleep study done about 11-12 years ago but they said it showed I did not have apnea. I felt the test was flawed (long story - I'll spare you) and just sort of (stupidly) went about the process of living with it. I bought one of those Select Comfort sleep-number beds to make sure that I would at least rest well, when I could sleep.

[Quick drift - I can't recommend one of the SC beds strongly enough. Like the commercials say, I quit having lower back pain as soon as I started sleeping on one. If you wake up with that particular misery in the morning, get one. They ain't necessarily inexpensive, but still less than an Open gun in most cases.]

I just hope when I have this study done that I sleep normally enough to show the symptoms. Who knows, I may stay up all night the night before (desperate, huh?).

...Mark

[diehli]

The kit I use is from NeilMed Pharmaceuticals (www.neilmed.com). I got it at Shopko for like $12. It isn't a prescription thing. Living in dry country I find that I have a lot less problems with dry and cracked nasal tissues too.

They say to use boiled and cooled water but that is a huge hassle so I use bottled water. You don't want to use straight tap water as it might give you something you don't want like some weird bacterial infection.

I nuke it just long enough to bring it up to slightly warmer than body temp (probably about 110 degrees). They make the salt up in little pre-measured packets which seems like a big waste of time. Then I sat down one night with the reloading scale and weighed out a few and realized that the little pre-measured packets are a LOT easier to deal with.

FWIW...two of my friends who are members of the "hose nose club" as they call it are prime physical specimens. One is a tri-athlete the other is a physical trainer. Neither is even slightly overweight. So it isn't all about weight...but that is a major component for many of us.

A former prof of mine in college almost died from apnea. Luckily his wife was a former nurse and was able to revive him. He became a member of the hose nose club very quickly.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

"Hose Nose Club". Sounds obscene.

I use the one from http://www.nasalcare.com

Get yourself some non-iodized salt and you're ready to go.