my husband has a breathing machine for sleep apnea and our dog keeps on chewing on his mask. does any one know why she could be doing this or has had this happened??? this has become a very expensive chew toy for her!!!! HELP!!!!!!
she only chews the head gear that goes around his head and not the part that goes over his nose and mouth
we keep the bedroom door closed when we are not at home and keep the mask in a trash can that we got for keeping it up off the floor
when she did it this time I was in bed next to where she was doing this (my husband had already left for work)

i have a neice that has sleep apnea and she doesn’t want to use the cpap machine. what can we do.

Actually, I know the standard answers. Get a good routine going, go to bed at same hour and up at same hour every day, good diet, exercise, relaxation, blah blah blah. The trouble is I am now 73 and this has gone on for 11 years since my wife died. I live alone and have none of the good habits because I am always in the same rut and unable to change or, if I do change, it is for about two or three days and then I stay up to 3 AM and sleep to noon. Today, I am so mad. I stayed up ALL night and now it is sunny and 9:30 AM. I am not sleepy after being up for 22 hours, but know I need some sleep. I am afraid this is another lost day. I’ve been to the "sleep specialists" taken numerous sleep tests, got machine for sleep apnea, meds for sleeping and anxiety and depression. So why am I still up all night? Worst of all I don’t do anything productive in those night hours when I am awake. My best working times are, like most people, during the day.

i’ve just been diagnosed with sleep apnea and have used the c-pap machine for 2nights. i think it’s going to help, but i have a rash on the bridge of my nose and on my face where the mask sits. anyone else have this problem? any suggestions? i have washed the mask in mild soap and rinsed it well.
my mask fits over my nose only

One of my co-workers heard about a new device on the radio one day, but could not remember what it was called. I have tried the CPAP machine and the oral appliance. I found out I have a deviated septum and plan to get that fixed, but thought I’d check out what is new in treating sleep apnea.

My husband is 27 years old and always tired. Here’s alittle background info:
He has sleep apnea, he is on Paxil 40mg daily for anxiety, he is also on 40mg of Priolsec daily. He uses his sleep apnea machine on and off and if he does use it normally its only for a few hours. My husband works from 5pm-10 pm, then goes to his second job from 10.30pm-3.30am. He gets in bed around 4/4.30am every day. He wakes up at 11.30am.,so about 7 hours of sleep. Heres the problem, he’s constantly tired and falling asleep, especially while watching TV on the couch. This past Sunday he slept through the night (his day off), woke up at 6.30 am with our 10 month old, and went back to bed at 9am until noon, then woke up. Then later that night he went to bed a 6 pm and I woke him up at 10pm to go to his night job. Is his schedule making any sense? :) It drives me CRAZY that he is always so tired. WHat do you think is causing this? He doesnt help around the house very much so thats no causing excessive tiredness… help!:)

I have always had trouble sleeping and continually waking up. Even if I sleep a full 8 hours on weekends I still wake up feeling groggy and with a headache. I feel tired and sluggish throughout the day, and usually feel too tired to work out or engage in much physical activity. This has been going on my whole life. I had a sleep study done and I have obstructive sleep apnea, so my body never gets into the very deep stages of restorative sleep. I tried a bipap machine and I can’t sleep with it on. Now I have a tonsillectomy and uvulectomy scheduled in a few months. Assuming that the surgery is successful and I can sleep well and deeply afterwards, how much will it effect my qualirty of life. Will I feel 100% better like a whole new person or will there likely just be moderate improvement? Can someone who has had this surgery let me know?

need help this is killing me

its not comfertable and i have not been using it for a while i remember going to this place where they have you spend the night and they hook up lots of stuff anf moniter your sleeping and i think they said i stop breathing in my sleep like about 14 times a min but i could be wrong but yeah have not be usieing my machine and im not getting real sleep and if you wanna know more just email me oh and what can happen to me if i dont use it like im doing now
OK THANKS I GUESS I CAN START USING IT

i know i have severe sleep apnea because i had a mono which gave me a bad case of tonsillitis and i was trying to figure out why i couldn’t sleep for the past month, so can i call my regualr doctor as an emergency to get a cpap machine or do i have to wait until i schedule a sleep study?

A female friend of mine has Sleep Apnea, about two years now. Shes short, 5′ 2" and is 35 lbs overweight. She lost her health insurance due to a work related accident and can no longer work. Right now she has no income. She did the sleep study test when she had insurance and now has the breathing machine, but the mask has been broken for about 16 months and cannot afford a new one. 0. People die from this right? She’s preparing for the worse. She’s only 56.

I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea in October 2003. I have been using a CPAP machine ever since. I started out at an air pressure of 9, but over time ended up at a pressure of 14. Back in January of this year (2007), I began following a steady exercise program and lost fifteen pounds. My doctor had me re-evaluated through another sleep study, and my pressure was reduced to the original pressure of 9. I am sleeping better and feeling better. I view my sleep apnea as being a result of my overweight body, and because I was able to lower my pressure through exercise and weight loss, is it possible to "cure" my sleep apnea if I keep on exercising and losing weight?
I didn’t think about it before, but there a probably people reading my question who don’t know what sleep apnea is, much less what a CPAP is. Here are a couple a links: http://www.sleepdisorderchannel.com/osa/

http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/snoring/cpap.cfm

Yes, I still have my tonsils. The doctor I see for my sleep apnea has not mentioned my tonsils as being part of the problem. He mostly centers on weight loss and is happy whenever I report any amount of loss. He’s very encouraging.

I have a cipap machine for my sleep apnea and I also had a nasal mask for it. When I got it I forgot to mention that I had allergies and its causing me to breathe out of my mouth. What should I do about this? There a cheaper way of fixing this, because a full face mask would cost me 300 dollers.
I tried using it the other day and I couldn’t because it was hard to breathe and was losing lot of the pressure, because I couldn’t breathe out from my nose.
The other thing I noticed was my cipap machine has a humidifier and when its activiated its even harder to breathe cause it does trigger my allergies and makes my nose very congested. What do I do about that?

I have the machine and have used it now for about 5 days. However, I have been waking up with a horrible headache about 4am the last 3 days. I have the humidifier on the machine and was wondering if maybe I need to move it up a notch?? Since this is all so new to me I have no idea what is causing the headaches. Its sooo bad I cant go back to sleep with the mask on.

How many of you use, or know someone who uses a CPAP machine at night to help them breathe and not to snore?

I am very curious about this, since CPAPs save lives all over the world. I think we all need more education on CPAP machines, and we need to spread the word that if people snore or stop breathing at night, they should have a sleep study done.

Sleep Apnea causes high blood pressure, can cause strokes and heart attacks. It sometimes makes people have heartburn at night, and makes them sleepy during the day. People can become forgetful or irritated. This is just a short list of all the damage that having untreated sleep apnea can cause.

I have moderate obstructive and central sleep apnea. My blood oxygen levels according to sleep study dropped down to 60. I tried the CPAP machine for a couple of months and finally gave up. And I can’t sleep with that dental appliance either. BTW I am tall and very thin, medically I would be considerated underweight.

I am looking to buy a pulse oxyimeter with alarm that would wake me when my oxygen gets too low, like below 80. Do you think this would work? Where is a good place to buy one?
Thanks.

me and my husband are flying to hawaii to move there for the army and having to use continental and it’s our first time. i know we get 2 checked bags and one carry on and a personal item such as a purse. does a cpapa or sleep apnea machine count b/c it’s a medical machine and supply needed for health and if checked they will just toss it around.

I know I have sleep apnea. I snore so loud and I have excessive fatigue to the point that I have to sleep more than 12 hours a day. It also runs in my family. I just got a CPAP machine from someone. How dangerous would it be for me to use it? Educated responses only.
Monica- I asked for educated responses only. I am also in the health profession and that doesn’t mean I know everything about everything. CPAP machines are not by prescription only, otherwise you could not buy them anywhere. And If you aren’t even aware that they are for sleep apnea, I am not quite sure how you managed to become a nurse.
Davisk- pneumothorax is not a "hole in the lungs". I have studied cardiorespiratory care. I am also well aware that too much O2 can be dangerous. Also, there are no H2O levels on this machine. Are you meaning O2 levels? And finally, it is not gross. Obviously I am not stupid enough to use another person’s mask! lol.

How many of you out there in Yahooland have sleep apnea? Do you use a CPAP machine? If so, which kind of mask do you prefer? Did you have an adjustment period in getting used to the machine? Does it help you ??? If so, in what way?

I am only 25 yrs old and have sleep apnea, the obstructive form. I completed two sleep studies that have confirmed this but, medicaid will not pay for the c-pap machine b/c the score for my study reflect that it is not "severe" enough for them to pay. Now, I am using provigil as a "band-aid" its okay, but the side effects are causing me headaches and I take seasonique birth control pills, I was told there was a 5% chance of impregnation, which is low, but I still worry a little. My doctor’s office was suppose to put me on a list to get a "loaner" and/or "free" c-pap machine, but I was told yesterday that this will only be considered after I start regularly seeing the doctor while I am on the provigil and still maybe not until January, if then. I am suppose to graduate form college in may, I need this sleeping disoreder corrected asap, it is effecting my life horribly and my education. Thanks serious responses only.

Okay, so last year I miscarried at 6 weeks – but I didn’t even find out I was pregnant for sure until I was in the middle of misscarrying (took tests religiously everday for weeks, never registered positive until 1 day into the miscarriage) – if you read back on my questions about a year ago, I had about 10 x-rays to my stomach around implantation, and 3 weeks later began to bleed heavily. I blamed the x-rays all this past year, up until the other day when I got to thinking about SLEEP APNEA and pregnancy…..there is a chance I am pregnant right now, but this had NEVER crossed my mind until recently. It would make sense right?? A woman quits breathing 59 times an hour while she’s sleeping – that’s a part of EVERY minute, every hour….so it’s cutting off oxygen to the placenta…..anyone ever stopped and thought about this before??….Now I’m almost 100 percent sure it caused my miscarriage last year, and am terrified this time around. If I am pregnant I would be 4 1/2 – 5 weeks and I don’t go back for my cpap (breathing maching) fitting until this friday, and then it will take another 10 days after that before I can get my machine from the Medical Supply store…that’s IF sleep apnea caused the miscarriage a year ago….what do you think?

I am 43 year old male, and am feeling overall poorly. I am strong and all that, but I just feel weak and tired, and I have difficulty getting good sleep. I recently was diagnosed with sleep apnea and am using the CPAP machine, but I still wake up tired and cant maintain my sleep through the night. I still drag through the day with tiredness, weakness, and depression. A friend suggested a series of tests his naturepathic doctor took him through including hormone levels check, hair, and spittle test…but he didnt know what the other tests available to determine chemistry and nutritional deficiencys might be. Wondering if anyone could advise me on what tests to have my doctor adminster.