GW hit the nail on the head.
This is my hubs to a “T.” I had been after him for YEARS to get a sleep study done because of the insane snoring and I would hear him stop breathing during the night. It got to the point that he would wake me from a dead sleep and so I started sleeping in the spare room. Pissed him off royally but damn..I couldn’t get any sleep. And then on the nights I did sleep with him and was woken by the snoring, I would lay there and listen to him stop breathing.
Finally I told him he had two choices get the sleep study done or he could sleep alone and he better increase the insurance policy to five mil because if I was going to end up a widow, I want to be a rich widow.
He had the sleep study done. His apnea was so extreme that he stopped breathing every 30 seconds. He didn’t even make it to fifteen minutes into the study before the tech woke him and made him wear a mask.
Like GW, he sleeps with it any time he is going to sleep. The difference it has made is amazing. Before he got the machine he was ALWAYS tired and would take three to four mini-naps a day. And let’s not forget moody, bitchy, grumpy, and all around miserable old fart.
The only down side is the poor guy gets smacked in the mask every so often while sleeping. There are holes in the front of it for the air to escape; when we face one another sleeping it blows in my face and I don’t like anything blowing in my face so my reflex is to smack whatever is bothering me…makes for a very rude awakening for the hubs.
In summation…Get the sleep study done. It is worth it!
Vrail, for YEARS, told me something was wrong with my breathing. Same thing, stopped breathing, for long periods, come roaring back to life, gasping. I passed it off as being a life long snorer.
Well, I was visiting a friend and sleeping on his couch. I woke up and he was sitting there, on a kitchen chair, right next to me, observing me, like I was a lab experiment. I came to, wondered what the eff evil he was up to, shaving cream, writing on my face with some vile substance, whatever, and he just said "Gide, you're ####ed up." and that was IT.
So, I get home and his brother shows up at his house, he's an MD, and he calls me. This is days later. And he says "Larry, you have sleep apnea. Go to your doctor, tell them you need sleep study, they will diagnose you and set you up with a machine."
He went on to explain what was happening, why, how apnea depletes your blood oxygen level and how the length of day time is NOT enough to replenish it, that it is an accumulative harm that affects every cell in your body that needs oxygen (all of them).
Then, he said, "don't waste time. If you don't get this addressed soon, it WILL kill you. Not in 20 years. Soon."
Vrail was pissed at me because he got me to go when she couldn't. I told her she filled the baskets, planted the seed, prepared me for this and this simply was the last straw.
Cautionary tale. Obstructive sleep apnea leads to premature death of a lot more people than we commonly hold and no doubt it leads to decreased quality of life a lot earlier in those that it doesn't kill real early.
Died in his sleep.
