lately i feel like ive been ran through the wash with sleep doctors. i have very interupted sleep and never feel restored after a long nights sleep. ive had 2 overnight sleep studies and they both showed somewhat different results. one study showed a late sleep onset with 230 arousals, 1 apnea and 1 hypoapnea. sleep structure was aprox 25% stage one, 50% stage two, NO 3 or 4, and 25% REM. the second study showed a very early sleep onset of 6 min, 35 arousals all of apnea, normal stage one, increased stage two, 9% stage 3, and NO stage 4. titration was not done either time. the first doctor suggested a CPAP which made sense to me because i KNOW i stop breathing in my sleep. i have seen an ENT doctor that said that there is no obstruction that would be causing that and sent for the second study with a different doctor. the second doctor is suggesting narcolepsy and wants to take a multiple sleep latency test. i understand his reasons, but what bothers me is the fact that i know the test results were different, i know i stop breathing when i sleep , and i know that i dont easily fall asleep during the day. i cant really afford a third oppinion because i just ended my enlistment with the military and cant afford insurance. i can also say that from what ive seen, that narcolepsy is treated with stimulants. i refuse to treat the symptoms and not the underlying problem. i live in savannah, GA. does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Hi Brian,

Sorry about everything you are going through.  First, your intuition is usually correct in these cases.  Do you have Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) symtoms?  Take the snore score test in the links to the left of the forum titles.

First, there are people on this forum better at interpreting sleep study results than I, but I find it telling that a CPAP was suggested after the first study, which showed lots of arousals but few apneas, while they seem to kind of miss the significant number of apneas and go for narcolepsy after the second study.  Post your results under the Sleep Study topic.  I go for OSA.

Secondly, don't ever, ever see that ENT again.  What he meant was that there wasn't anything for him to cut on.  Surgery is almost never indicated for sleep apnea and when it is, it has a very low success rate.  There is no way a doctor can see what is causing OSA when you are awake, even if you are laying down.  The physiology of you throat tissues and the laxity of your muscles change when you are asleep.  That is why it is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea   .  Urggggg, what incompetence.

Finally, (and don't forget to repost under the Sleep Study Topic) you have to see a sleep doc. who is a diplomate of the ABSM, see my post under Interesting Links what this means and how you find one.  I know you can't afford yet another opinion, but use this forum as a resource and go at it again.  You really can not afford not to.

Keep us posted!!

Vicki


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

Hi Brian!
We'd need the whole results from both studies to do a an accurate comparison.
If we're looking for narcolepsy, ONE of the things we look for is REM onset or latency.  We'll need to know if you're on any medications that could affect that, too.

Here's a thread about narcolepsy and a good FAQ:

Narcolepsy

So we're looking for the "Big Four". but you don't need all 4.

Not all the drugs for narcolepsy are bad, but knowing that you have narcolepsy is important, enough, because there are some precautions you need to take.

Or on the other hand, wouldn't it be nice to know that you DIDN'T have narcolepsy if that were the case?

Stay in touch.
sleepydave

Several people I know have had the surgery and it did not help them, BTW...

I am going to post more information on this.  Last night I dreamt I was drowning and I could not breathe...I woke up FLAT ON MY BACK AGAIN, which is how I am sleeping when sleep apnea kicks in.  

BTW, I am a healthy 45 year old woman who plays a LOT of tennis, I am not overweight and I have had sleep apnea since my children were born.  I have not seen a specialist about this, but I never ever sleep on my back now (because I often stop breathing when I do).  Now we are finding out how bad this is for you and for a good nights rest.

I often worry that it is bad for my spine to sleep on my side all night long, and when I was pregnant I longed to sleep flat on my back (but they said it was bad for the baby, so I didn't)...anyhow, I wanted to add my two cents, since this is what the articles are saying now about apnea.

"This is not something where you're going to die tomorrow, but it puts such a strain on the system, it can give you high blood pressure and heart trouble because your body has to compensate. It's dangerous to have sleep apnea long-term. You're probably more likely to die earlier if you don't treat it," said Lee. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthology/story?id=1164366