Did you ever at one time just feel like crap and notice that it pretty much lasted for a long time. I don't mean like an ill feeling or something such as constant pain but more like along the lines of never having any energy. Sometimes you notice things that your "really don't notice" as in really keep track of as much as something that happens suddenly like the flu for example.
But come to think of it I have always struggled with daytime sleepiness since sometime out of high school. Since there's usually no one around me much when I sleep I never had any way of knowing that I was a person who snored, no way! I mean it's something you think only grandpa does right?
Well during the summer my mom stayed here for a bit and slept in the other room outside of where I slept and she said I snored really bad, gasped for air, and many times stopped breathing in my sleep. (Yeah you know where this is going right?) Well it never dawned on me that I might have that thing millions of Americans have but don't do anything about called Sleep Apnea. After losing a particular job almost 2 years ago with it I lost my health insurance and since getting it back last November of 2011 I decided that as soon as I got that I was going to look into this whole sleep apnea thing.
Well I found a doctor thanks to my regular physician as a referral and she said based on my explanation that I had an apnea of some kind so she set me up for a sleep study (which mind you was a little awkward knowing that a night vision camera was going to be watching you) on January 5th 2012. So after getting all set up and having a shit ton of wires hanging off of me I hopped into the bed and struggled to get to sleep so they could see what the hell was going on with me.
Well it became official later that day that's why I've probably felt like crap, depressed, tired, and pretty much not motivated to really do anything in life for a while. They confirmed that I stopped breathing many times and even struggled a bit here and there without the CPAP mask and that they would give me the results soon
A couple days later I get a call stating that I would have to go on one of those dreaded CPAP machines which mine is actually an AUTO PAP because they don't yet know what pressure I'm suite for so the machine is set to change depending what I need to sleep. I have a co-worker who has one bet rarely uses it because it bugs the hell out of him after a few minutes of wearing the mask.
I have another co-worker who has a friend that won’t wear the damn thing period even though she could literally one day die in her sleep because I didn't mention folks that even I was at risk for this you really can one day not wake up at all if you do nothing with this not so silent killer. But I've always been the flexible type; I can stop smoking in heart beat and not want to kill someone, I can sleep on just about anything (within reason), and give up soda as much as I like it in favor of a better alternative. I don't have an addictive personality and never really did.
So I got my machine last Friday as of this writing and tried it out. I've ready many articles stating it can take up to 90 days to get used to wearing a mask when you sleep. Shit I was used to it the first night and let me tell you something guys when you work with something it works for you. Now I'll admit strangely I felt worse after starting treatment but perhaps that was my well rested body getting used to the treatment and finally showing my ass just how tired I really was and it was just a way of me finally catching up.
As of tonight I'm happy to say I think it’s finally starting to work but I'm still not at the full benefit of quality sleep as I get used to wearing a mask when I sleep but I finally see what I've been missing for a number of years maybe finally this year I will be able to lose some weight which I hear is easier with this treatment because your bodies metabolism struggles as a result of this during sleep. The doctor even said losing 20-30 pounds may reduce my symptoms. Well since I'm starting to feel better I think I'll finally be able to get my damn life back.
I'll report an update in the coming months or when (or if) this treatment really starts to show me the benefit. I'm also going to start writing a bit more. I think it's time I start back up with the funny shit I like to talk about.
