Hi!  I just joined this group and am hoping for some advice.  I am a 35-year-old female.  In 2002, I started with episodes of "choking" while I was sleeping.  It usually would happen if I would doze off on the couch, in the beginning it never happened during deep sleep.  When I have one of these episodes and wake up choking for air, I always have this chain of thoughts that runs through my head while the episode is happening.  The first thing I think is that I have somehow swallowed my retainer...the weird thing about that is that I have never worn a retainer in my life.  Then I think I have swallowed the tab to a soda can.  I have to say to myself that I would never put that in my mouth in the first place.  Then, the final thought is that I have fallen asleep with gum in my mouth.  All of thoughts occur in a matter of 2-3 seconds, and by that time I have usually caught my breath, although I still sometimes cough and clear my throat, because it feels like there is something there.  In the beginning, the episodes were not at all frequent, so I didn't think much of it.  Kind of chalked it up to needing to drink more water (my mouth and throat are usually VERY dry when waking to one of these episodes.)

Over the past few years, the episodes have gotten increasingly frequent.  Sometimes several times a week...sometimes even more than once or twice a night.  They are also happening during deep sleep now.  Also, in October, I started experiencing some heart palpitations.  At the time, I was pregnant, and chalked that symptom up to hormones.  Unfortunately, I had a miscarriage, but that symptom remains, and is getting worse.  I sometimes walk to the top of my stairs and will have to sit on the bed for a minute or so to recover.  I am not obese, but have had a significant weight gain...35 pounds in the last 4 years.  I also chalked that up to getting older and a change in occupation.

I had the scariest episode one afternoon last week.  I had woken up on the couch gasping for air, and it felt like my entire body was paralyzed.  It felt like an eternity, but was probably only 5-10 seconds before I caught my breath, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack.  My heart was beating so hard and fast, I thought it would come out of my chest.  After about 5 minutes, my heart was pretty much back to normal, but then I broke down and cried because it was so scary.  My husband works nights, so I am home alone every night.  This is another problem, because he has only witnessed what I am describing once or twice.

I went to my family doctor in December for a full check up and explained my symptoms to her.  She recommended that I go for a sleep study, which I did last night.  Because the choking episodes do not happen every night, I was concerned it would not happen while I was there.  I voiced my concern to the technician and he assured me that even if I do not have a full-blown episode, if I have sleep apnea, he will see it on the monitors.  He said if you have sleep apnea, the episodes off stop-breathing occur every night, whether you are aware of them or not.

I slept pretty lightly last night.  I remember waking 3-4 times.  Once or twice, it felt like my throat was irritated and like there was something stuck in it, but I did not have the all-out choking and gasping.  When the tech woke me this morning, he told me he didn't see any "significant changes in my breathing pattern".  He did say I had many episodes of spontaneous awakening, meaning I woke for no apparent reason.  He recorded some light snoring.  He also said that I did a lot of moaning and groaning like I was in pain, but only when I was half-asleep, not in REM sleep, like he would expect to see.  He said I did cough many times during the night, but nothing major.  He said I did have 4 REM cycles...I was surprised by this because I HARDLY EVER remember dreaming, and did not remember dreaming last night.

He said he didn't see any apnea episodes and he didn't think I had sleep apnea, but I would get all the details of the test when I had my follow up next week.  I am relieved in a way, but on the other hand, disturbed.  I KNOW there is something wrong.  Plus, since I have been researching this, just about every symptom that I have read about seems to fit.  Extreme daytime fatigue (I usually take a 2+ hour nap every afternoon and then sleep about 7 hours at night), memory problems, concentration problems, headaches, irritibility, etc.  


I certainly don't want to have something wrong with me, but if there is, I want to treat it ASAP, because it is getting really scary.  

Has anyone had similar episodes/study results/etc.?

If you have gotten all the way to the bottom (lol) thanks for reading and I look forward to your replies.

Dawn

Aurora, hi and welcome!!

Don't worry about what the technician said, people have posted that their tech. said they didn't have it while their doc said they did (which is why the doc is the doc).   Even if you don't have apnea, then there are many other parameters that are tested in a sleep study and your doc (especially if she/he is accreditied in sleep medicine www.absm.org) will have an idea of a direction for you to follow.

Keep us posted!!

Vicki


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That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Vicki's right... wait until you hear from the sleep doc.  My technician told me that I was averaging 35 apneas an hour during my sleep study (good enough for a split-study), but once I got the report from sleep doc, he set my AHI at 122/hr!

I don't blame the tech.  Apparently there are some things that can only be seen by trained professionals.

Good luck with your results.


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...the danger must be growing
for the rowers keep on rowing...