EEK! It's been awhile

It's been awhile since my last post. Man I'm getting bad at this. About the only thing to report is my wonderful husband does in fact have sleep apnea. I've suspected it for quite awhile. I had him scheduled for a sleep study a couple of years ago, but he backed out. I finally convinced him to go through with it. I handled all the details. It was definitely a stretch from his comfort zone. It wasn't nearly as scary as he thought it would be. I drove him there, and stayed while they hooked him up. I think there were probably about 20 wires connected to him. I laid in bed with him and watched tv for about an hour. Then I drove home and spent the first full night in our bed, in at least 6 months! I normally start in our bed, and then sometime during the night, the snoring gets to me, so Lady and I head to the other side of the house. The night of his sleep study, I spent the whole night in our bed, but still woke up several times. Can't sleep with him, can't sleep without him.

For those of you wondering just what sleep apnea is, here's the short version: Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where the soft tissue in the throat relaxes enough to collapse, either partially or completely closing off the airway. The body continues trying to breathe, but as the oxygen level decreases, the brain sends signal to wake up the body enough to open the airway again. This means sleep is not restful. The body does not have time to recuperate as it was created to do. The stress that this puts on the body can lead to a host of terrible things, heart conditions, stroke, etc. Not to mention the stuff that comes from just being tired; irritability, falling asleep at inappropriate times or inappropriate places, work accidents, etc.

The standard definition of any apneic event includes a minimum 10 second interval between breaths, with either a neurological arousal (a 3-second or greater shift in EEG frequency, measured at C3, C4, O1, or O2), a blood oxygen desaturation of 3-4% or greater, or both arousal and desaturation. Sleep apnea is diagnosed with an overnight sleep test called a polysomnogram. Clinically significant levels of sleep apnea are defined as five or more episodes per hour of any type of apnea (from the polysomnogram).

The night of his sleep study, he went to bed at about 11:00 and woke at about 5:30. This is fairly normal for him. During this time frame, he had partial to total airway obstruction an average of 41.4 times per hour. He had full obstruction 221 times throughout the night. A healthy oxygen level is around 90% - His got down to 75%.

This is freaky stuff! I knew he probably had it. But I was thinking he had stopped breathing once in awhile. I've heard him gasp and sputter from time to time. I had no idea it was this bad.

So they give us this information, and then tell us we have to wait 5 weeks for an opening for another sleep study so they can fix the problem! That's nuts I tell ya. I asked that they put us on a waiting list for any cancellation appointments. She explained to me that he's been sleeping like this for years. It's just to protect his future health.

Luckily there was a cancellation, and he's been moved up another 2 weeks. So he will have another sleep study called a titration. This is where he will be sleeping with a CPAP machine (Constant Positive Airway Pressure). They will set the pressure of the machine so that it's enough to keep his airway open. He currently has a practice machine to get used to breathing with it. It's an adjustment. I put it on for a few minutes myself. It feels like the wind is blowing in your face. He's just supposed to wear it for 15-20 minutes each day to get himself used to it. The last couple of nights he's been ready for bed, so I've let him sleep for a little bit with it (even though we don't have instructions to do so). I figure I'm here next to him, so I can see if there is a problem. He's sleeping so peacefully right now, and sooooo quietly! Still snoring a bit, but nothing like the normal chainsaw!

I really hope getting on a CPAP machine will allow him to get truly restful sleep in the near future!