This post comes with some pretty pictures of my straw flower and a little fly. Enjoy!
Yesterday, I did a sleep apnea test at home.
I’ve suspected for a while that my sleep isn’t really restful. I wake up tired, foggy and exhausted, even after sleeping for hours.
Then I started looking more closely at my overnight oxygen readings.
At one point, my oxygen saturation dropped all the way down to 76%.
Tonight, I’m in bed with a sleep apnea machine that records my results and sends them to my doctor, so she can see what’s happening and adjust the treatment if needed.
So, it turns out there may actually be a reason I’ve been feeling so exhausted all this time.
And honestly… it’s a little scary, but also strangely reassuring to finally have an explanation.
Ilze
P.S. Send me some encouragement! Apparently, in my case, it’s serious enough that the government will provide me with a sleep apnea machine. So here’s hoping this is the beginning of finally getting some proper sleep.
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You seem to have quite a serious problem with it, and I’m certainly no doctor. I did have problems breathing at night myself because of narrowed nasal passages and polyps. What helped me were Airmax nasal inserts, which I alternate with Breathe Right strips from time to time. Both have made a world of difference for me – but that’s purely my personal experience, so take it with the usual caveat.
So glad you are finally getting some answers. Sending prayers for healing, rest and peace. 💚
Oh my gosh Ilze!! I am so glad that you caught this problem! You must wear that mask every night going forward. I have been wearing a CPAP mask every night since 2011 and my sleep is great. The machine tells me that I have about two events each night, sometimes less. I hope you start feeling much better very soon! 🙏🏻☺️
Hoping very soon you have answers for you feeling tired all the time. Hugs
It would be good for you to know for how long your oxygen level dropped. At least you’re aware and can research what to do about the situation.
I hope you get the help you need quickly!
Sending love to you, Ilze. Getting answers sets you on the road to feeling better. Love to you.
Oh please take care best to follow the advice of doc !
Hope you get some help with the issue and get good sleep as a result.
Am glad that is one thing you have found out – yes, it does make a huge difference over the whole situation and 76% IS far too low. My daytime saturation has tendency to drop to 89% and I get ‘lectures’ all the time to do sessions of deep breathing every hour > I can get it up to the necessary 95% in about 2-3 minutes . . . methinks will ask to have the night-time test also . . . . anyways, best for the next step, you may have taken quite a big one at the moment 🙂 !
It sounds like you are on the right track, Ilze. Prayers for complete healing and peaceful, restful sleep.
Novelu to labako un lai visi sapni butu saldi.
I’m glad you were able to get the sleep test done.
When my husband had his done, home sleep tests were not available. He knew there was a serious problem when he woke up one morning and realized he was at a traffic light and had no memory of his commute to the city. At work, he was falling asleep at his keyboard.
He went into a sleep research lap in the city (which does not exist anymore). They had him fully wired up and monitored with techs observing him through a glass window and video recordings being made. In the end, they only tested him for 4 hours. His blood oxygen dropped to 10%. He would stop breathing for up to 30 seconds at a time, and stopped so often, he spent less time breathing in an hour than not. (Which I was sleeping next to for over a year. I would wake up because of the lack of sound and had to shake him to get him breathing again.) It scared them so much, they woke him and put him on a CPAP for the rest of the night. During the follow up appointment with the head sleep researcher in the lab, who was also a university professor, we were shown some of the video taken of my husband sleeping. At first, he seemed to be sleeping peacefully, then suddenly his entire body jerked as he gasped for air. The doctor had never seen such a severe case, and requested permission to use my husband’s test results and recordings in his classes as an example of how bad sleep apnea could get.
Afterwards, when he got his first CPAP, it was a problem because the pressure he needed was so high, it would leak through his mask, no matter how tightly it was strapped on. They tried him with every style of mask they had. Finally, a new style came out with nasal prongs instead of a mask, and that finally worked. Since then, he’s gone through several variations of nasal prongs, and old designs got discontinued and new ones developed. The machines themselves have improved a lot, too.
We’d heard of sleep apnea before, of course. He’d even been checked for it while he was still in the military, and it was rejected as a diagnosis. He did get a device to wear over his teeth that pulled his lower jaw forward to open things up and reduce his snoring. That worked but, over time, it made his teeth feel loose and became painful. So when problems started again, we didn’t even think of sleep apnea, and thought his fatigue was related to other health problems he had at the time.
It’s amazing how quality of live improved with proper treatment. Once he had a CPAP mask that worked, he lost about 100 pounds within 6 months, and his “diabetes” disappeared.
It may take getting used to, but having a CPAP or BiPAP can make a HUGE difference!