Sleep apnea is apparently a pretty common condition, and I know writing about it here is going to get my blog hit by about a thousand spam comments. I know this, because I’ve been tweeting about it and doing research and whenever I tweet something I get new followers and they’re almost all bots who want me to check out their web site for CPAP supplies. For those of you who are unfamiliar, sleep apnea is a condition in which the air ways in the throat can close up during the night and deprive the brain of oxygen just enough that you barely wake up (you may not even notice) and start breathing again. This can happen many times a night, and can lead to serious medical conditions if unchecked.
Recently, I underwent a sleep study because I had symptoms of sleep apnea. After the study, I found out I was literally waking up 65 times an hour when I slept on my back, and 25 times an hour on my side! I didn’t even know I was waking up. Sleep apnea is serious and needs to be treated. You can have all sorts of complications as a result of leaving it unchecked. The treatment is to wear a mask to sleep every night that covers either your nose or both your nose and mouth, which is attached to a hose and then to a machine that forces air at a steady pressure through your airway. The machine is called a CPAP, and it’s very expensive.
As a matter of fact, my mom and her new husband Chris had both gotten the gastric bypass surgery in the last year or so and no longer needed their equipment, so I got ahold of Chris’ machine and a new mask he hadn’t used. I went back to the doctor who measured and found the mask was too big for my face, so they loaned me a smaller one until I can buy my own.
The technology has apparently advanced since they started making these CPAP machines, and the one I have is like one generation behind the latest model. It’s got a humidifier attached to it, which helps relieve the dryness that can come from using the CPAP. Mine does not, however, have the data card that you can take in from time to time and have your machine modified, so I have to bring my whole machine in to get it adjusted.
There are some great communities out there for people with sleep anpea, and you can get all sorts of real opinions on which mask is best, how to deal with discomforts, and encouragement to keep wearing the mask every night (believe me, I’m a week or so into it and it takes some getting used to, for sure). The internet is great for finding people going through the same things you are, so you can both learn and benefit from other people’s experiences.