Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

[RudyB]

howdy all. it's happening again. my throat feels like it's closing and i'm having all kinds of weird feelings as my body relaxes into sleep. i'm not panicking, but there's some fear, and i'm sure that's contributing to the tight feeling in my throat at the moment, while wide awake and wondering. i really need to sleep. but my groans and breathing stopping are jolting me awake again and again.

thanks, of course, to all who have helped me so much so far ~ ne, murph, moglor, for example; not exhaustive ~ but please, others chime in if you've had similar experiences. anything i can do?

should i take my final dose of bac (30 mg of my 110 mg/day)? it's about time to do that, but i don't want to exacerbate the situation.

i have the nose thing on, but it's not helping. it really feels like it's in my throat. could i have something w my tonsils? could it be tension cause it's my second night w/out al? should i take benadryl?

input, please. soon. i'm more afraid of losing my mind from lack of sleep than from dying, this time.

xo rudy

[RudyB]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

btw murphy, the spelling 'apnoea' is a shout-out to you. i see it spelled both ways, seems both are correct.

i'm off to research...

[RudyB]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

i keep erasing my friggin post. how do you undo last action? on a pc. i'm too tired for this. and clearly keyboard AND computer illiterate.

update: self-diagnosis. i have obstructive sleep apnea w a little central sleep ap for good measure. bac has relaxed my whole throat and upper resp system scene. pathway is getting too small to breathe. might also have an infection, causing swelling tonsils (and they do feel swelled!). i'm going to the emergency room tomorrow to have my tonsils removed. in fact, i'm going now. i need some friggin z's.

i'd go to my pcp (doc, for you overseasers who mightn't know), but he doesn't know i'm on bac, yet, and i don't want him to tell me to stop it until i'm good and sober and can defend myself. so, i'm off to the knife w a plea of 'insanity imminent'.

any better ideas?
guess i'll take my bac. fuggit. couldn't get worse.

[RudyB]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

think i'll go have a cigarette. just kidding. really. a small miracle. see, these health problems can be beneficial.

[ignominious]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

Hi Rudy, please take your last dose. Maybe tomorrow you can take it earlier so the strongest effect isn't affecting you as you go to sleep.

For a brief period I had a similar feeling as I was titrating. I was so relaxed and taking smaller and smaller breaths that I thought I was going to stop breathing and would jolt awake. Basically you are not going to allow yourself to suffocate, you will always jolt awake if you are not getting enough oxygen. Its not like being so impaired so that you can choke on your own vomit.

For about a week I was consciously breathing when I went to bed!. Quite alarming but so are some of the other SEs and it's all good now. Hope this helps.

[RudyB]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

thanks so much ig! really.

i feel like a bit of a baby here, and i was only half-joking about getting my tonsils out. my throat feels really tight! after your words though (and others', too, but i needed a reminder just now), i have hope that this will subside. consciously breathing, yep. shallow breaths, yep. emergency room, nope. okay. now i go nite nite, sitting up. that seemed to help last night.

maybe this will help a lurker now or down the road. it's disconcerting.

[moglor]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

I had a really hard time sleeping my first few days AF, throat issues aside. Your body gets soooo used to alcohol as a sleep aid that it forgets how to sleep without it. It does sound like you have some congestion or something. Allergies, maybe? No booze and no cigarettes is great though! You'll get through this thing!

[RudyB]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

thanks, mog. you make a good point there. about al as sleep affector, and maybe allergies. prob too the extra smoking that you mentioned earlier. friggin yeah. there have been extra smokes lately, but not so much today: i had seven, which is plenty, but i didn't smoke in the panicked rush to cope with a feeling kinda way. by no means am i free of that beast (though stopping will surely help the apnea to stop). i had seven cigarettes today. throat though is screaming NO MORE!!! nose is free and clear.

i'm reaallly off to sleep in a sec, might even dream a little. but first, without the alcohol, i feel like i can afford a few nights without sleep. how cocky of me, huh? but i really do feel like a new person already. that chingOn (roughly: chicken shit; horrible stuff) alcohol really had me under its spell.

okay, rem, here i come...

[jennyneric]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

Ok sleep apnea, you will have to go to your PCP and he-she will look at your tonsils and see if they are swollen, if they are they will send you to and ENT who can schedule surgery. You can also have a sleep study and they can put you on a machine called a CPAP. If need be the ENT can also do an "extended" tonsillectomy called a UPPP (uvulopalitopharangoplasty) that is for extreme cases. If you google all that you can read about sleep apnea for a week!

[CS04]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

I have not thru all of this thread in detail, but my husband has sleep apnea. He was a respiratory therapist for many years and fought getting tested. He has the CPAP machine and it works wonders... when he uses it. If he sleeps with it, I can sleep in the same bed and life is good. If not, then one of ends up on the couch (usually me) -- not so comfy.
It takes adjustment but GET the CPAP and let me know if you have questions.

[redhead77]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

God DAMMIT!! I can't post here tonight for the life of me. My internet keeps crashing. Okay, deep breaths, and back to you Rudy. I can't give you help on this side effect. I've never experienced it. What I can do is give you support. I'm in your corner. No ER for you. They don't take out tonsils emergently (as I'm sure you know ). Plus, you'll have to divulge your bac dose to the anesthesiologist before surgery. Your PCP will find out! Just keep talking. You do a good job of it. We've seen many others with this side effect, and while it scares the shit out of them, it doesn't kill them. At least as far as I know. I'm not minimizing what you're experiencing either, ftr. I can only imagine how bad this is for you. :l:

[beatle]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

RudyB;1124246 wrote: btw murphy, the spelling 'apnoea' is a shout-out to you. i see it spelled both ways, seems both are correct.

i'm off to research...

(Yes, both are correct and I believe the spelling Murphy used is more usual for Brits. Since I have now officially gone over to British spelling (see my thread), I will use 'apnoea' from now on. But I can't see as it really matters. As long as we all know what we are talking about. And we do.)

Rudy, I'm sorry I can't help you with that particular SE, as it is one of the few I haven't suffered (despite reading about it extensively:H).

But I have experienced waking apnoea. I think it is exactly the opposite. Or mirror image. And it is very disturbing. Also def a bac SE -- but maybe not as frightening as the sleep version?

I've also had a weird inability to swallow (for about a week). It made me feel desperate, much akin to my claustrophobia (which is debilitating). In fact, in some ways it was worse than claustrophobia... at least physically. I really felt like I couldn't breath and I was dying. (Bleep also described something similar on his thread.) But I don't think it is the same as what you are experiencing. So perhaps I shouldn't have brought it up... unless it might share similarities.

Good for you for putting it out there. Hopefully more people will respond. And it will have been worth throwing it out there.

[redhead77]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

It's called apnea in this country. I've never seen it spelled another way. I read apnea all the time. I'm open to however you people want to spell it. I'm just sayin. Here, this is what we call it, plain and simple.

[beatle]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

The U.S. is not the only country in the world. "Here" doesn't apply to a good portion of the members on this website. Just sayin. Many countries in Europe go by the British way of spelling. Some countries in Asia, as well. I don't like confrontation on the threads, but I do feel a compulsion to point out ethnocentricity.

from Wiki:

Sleep apnea (or sleep apnoea in British English; English pronunciation: /?pˈniːə/) is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep.

[beatle]

Sleep Apnoea ~ HELP!

redhead77;1124312 wrote: It's called apnea in this country. I've never seen it spelled another way. I read apnea all the time. I'm open to however you people want to spell it. I'm just sayin. Here, this is what we call it, plain and simple.

The U.S. is not the only country in the world. "Here" doesn't apply to a good portion of the members on this website. Just sayin. Many countries in Europe go by the British way of spelling. Some countries in Asia, as well. I don't like confrontation on the threads, but I do feel a compulsion to point out ethnocentricity.

from Wiki:

Sleep apnea (or sleep apnoea in British English; English pronunciation: /?pˈniːə/) is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep.

EDIT: Red, sorry about the aggressive tone of this post. I know you didn't mean it that way. I just reacted to your wording... which seemed to reflect an attitude prevalent among Americans. I'm sure you don't feel that way.