Sleep Apnea
patrickredeyes
Posts: 8,834
My father has this and at times it is the most disturbing thing to watch and listen too. Today we had to head to the ER due to my father falling out of bed this morning. He has a hair line crack in his shoulder and is bruised up pretty bad. While at the ER myself and mother and my sister watched as my father slept in the bed. I just hate seeing him thrash around and talk in his sleep. As usual I worry about it. We found out due to his condition and with all the other meds hes on there is nothing we can do about it. Even after loosing 60, 70 lbs he still has it. So who also has it and has it ever made you thrash so much that you have fallen out of bed?
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Thanks so much.
I'd like to think he is getting better but I have come to realize that in a very slow way his health is just getting worse and worse. He actually fell three times in about 36 hrs this weekend. Once Saturday morning thank god nothing went wrong. Then Sunday afternoon he was outside and decided to come in when the rain started. He lost his balance and fell backwords. Scary part was he was inches away from hitting his head on a huge computer monitor I had just put out on the deck to be thrown out. If that would have happened I would have never forgiven myself. He was shaken up but ok and then this morning happened. Also I am now at bad terms with my one sister. She said some really bad stuff that I would have rather had a complete stranger say to me then my own sister. She is just always had issues with my other sister and her family. Well she went off on me. So when we went to the ER we didn't call and tell her until we were home. I'm venting but these last few days were really bad. Leaving for Denver is on my mind now. But I have to go cause I need to and just to get well inside and out. But it's just fucking hard to deal with.
all you can do is just care for your dad and yourself. the healthier you are, the better equipped you'll be to be there for him too. take care!
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
I'll send all my good vibes to your father, you, and your family!
Needless to say I don't get much sleep either.
I feel like I should talk to him about it because he really needs to start taking care of himself, but its kinda an awkward thing to bring up. But it sounds like even if you do knock off the weight, you could still be suffering from sleep apnea.
i have this, and although i'm trying to take steps to loose the weight i need, i am also getting the surgery to loose the tonsils and correct the septum. been a long time coming. i'm hoping the snoring subsides. i don't thrash around like your father does, in fact i'm quite the opposite. nonetheless, good luck with it.
Also would a sleep aid like Ambien help him sleep better or would that just cause more problems?
I hope you guys can figure something out soon :(
Well I just found out 5 mins ago they are admitting him to the hospital again. They are gonna do a CAT/MRI scan of his brain and do a sleep test. One thing that was brought up today was maybe he didn't loose his balance when he fell but maybe he fell asleep. Just fucking scary shit.
Mindi my dad is on about a dozen different meds so I don't know about the sleep aid. We had thought about it but now at least were gonna see and hope find out what is going wrong. He had been home for 6 weeks now and for the past 2 or 3 weeks his sleep apnea has got worse. To the point where you can be talking to him and he falls asleep on you. Myself and mother and sister are just at a loss of words now.
Really sorry to the OP. I hope you and your family find some relief, and soon.
Sleep aids don't help much because they don't address the airway closing off - which is what leads to stopping breathing, and thus never getting into a normal sleep cycle.
I was diagnosed with a mild form of it a few months ago. I also did the sleep test with the mask another poster referred to. God bless anyone who can sleep with that thing on. I felt like I was tied down to my bed. Pretty much my options were: 1. The mask (CPAP). 2. Surgery - my ENT wants it as a very last resort. 3. This retainer type thing that pushes your jaw forward to keep the airway open - costs thousands, little covered by insurance. 4. Weight loss. This is the way I've gone so far. I rejoined the gym and am there at least 5 days a week. But even losing weight is tough because I take an incredibly weight-gaining medication. It's probably added 40lbs to my normal weight over the last 5 years. Said medication also can cause nightmares/vivid dreams - which is my main sleep symptom (aside from exhaustion). But I've also been stable on it for awhile. So my other doctor and I are trying to get off the medication. I'm really hoping I can do that, but it's hard to say.
The one thing I've found that helps: laying down and resting (awake) for a couple hours before or after sleep. Unfortunately, I have this work thing that gets in the way a lot.
I hope your dad is able to come home soon, and that they figure out what is wrong. Will be keeping your family in my thoughts.
very sorry to hear about your father. i hope things start getting better for him
did this 2 months ago. not fun. wires glued to me everywhere, and they woke me up in the middle of the night to put on the mask and hook me up to the aforementioned machine.
my choice was to sleep with this machine for the rest of my life to prevent the apnea, or try surgery....i chose the knife.
Also today my older sister and I became Power of Attorney with our father's health care decisions if he is incapacitated later on down the road. Our mother will have imput of course but we have the final say. My other sister can also have imput but that's all. I'm sure once she finds out she will be pist. But it was our mother's choice and IMO the right decision. Were not on the best of terms with out other sister and feel she would only cause more stress like she always does.
Scary stuff and i never heard of the mouth piece working. Glad it works for you and your sleeping better.
My dad had his sleep test last nite and has a total of 900 pages of data from it.
hey man i know we haven't crossed paths on here much, but as a fellow pj fan, head's up on the initial meeting with the doctor. for as bad as the sleep test was, the initial meeting was just as uncomfortable. it wasn't painful, but i had to have some stuff shoved up my nose for 15 minutes. they were checking the septum area. like i said...no pain in this, just feels weird. good luck and hope all goes well...
Thanks for freaking me out even more Steve
Maybe I'll shoot blood out of my nose all over the doctor or something cool like that.
Blood, snots...i like the revenge tactics!!!
But I got my results back today.
I wake up about 72 times per hour. My oxygen level is at 82% This = Severe Sleep Apnea.
CPAP machine here I come!
My father has worn this for about 6 years now and it has done wonders. He sleeps great now.
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Well actually for a little while now he hasn't been thrashing anymore. He sleeps threw the nite now but he also has the mask.
Good to hear. I wish I could tolerate the thing. I dropped about 35lbs, as they said weight loss would help, but it hasn't. Don't know what to do anymore. Been a year since I've had a normal night's sleep, and nothing on the horizon - hence posting at 7:51am on a Saturday.
I'm happy to hear he's doing better. I was going to ask about the CPAP as both my mom and older brother have Sleep Apnea. My brother has it worse and he has to sleep with this sock thing with tennis balls on his back to keep him from rolling on his back. He stops breathing when he's on his back. Seems to be a lot better...and dunno if he still wears the sock thing.
My mom has mild case...but asshole doc almost took her drivers license and forced the CPAP on her cause she was on the borderline for medium. She redid the test and scored lower so it didn't happen fortunately...and she has since lost a lot of weight so she's doing better too.
This is what I'm hoping for also. I pick up my machine in October and it will be interesting to see how much energy I get back. My energy level didn't really get too bad until the last few years. I'm pretty sure I've had Apnea all my life.