posted
As a last resort a couple years ago, after multiple tests, including the regular lyme test from Quest, my gp suggested I get tested for sleep apnea. Well, I'm doing fine on that, but I'm still not getting restorative sleep. I have never snored, and I'm beginning to wonder if lyme or a co-infection could have rotted my brain-stem enough to have caused sleep apnea. Is this possible, or is it something that just got diagnosed earlier than it might have in most SA patients because I've been all over the medical map looking for reasons why I feel so crummy?
Posts: 37 | From Athens, GA | Registered: Jun 2009
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jackie51
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14233
posted
I tested "positive" for sleep apnea. This was well before I tested positive for ehrlichia. Once I was treated for Ehr., the sleep apnea mysteriously went away. The machine never helped me and I gave it 6 months and a few different masks.
You may have a co-infection such as ehrlichia, babesia, or bartonella. I'll never know which one I had or which treatment, though I think it was the doxy, that got rid of the sleep apnea.
Posts: 1374 | From Crazy Town | Registered: Dec 2007
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posted
My cpap machine has been working well. It's gotten the point where I don't dare sleep without it, but it's no longer a remedy for the worsening hacking cough, the pain, brain fog and continual head ache.
It should have been enough if the problem were sleep apnea alone.
Posts: 37 | From Athens, GA | Registered: Jun 2009
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seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
Isn't sleep apnea a 'clinical Dx'? lol. I too have it mildly and use a BiPAP machine. I have for a year. Useless IMO for solving my fatigue with Lyme.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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Lymeorsomething
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16359
posted
I had one LLMD suggest a sleep study. Regardless of apnea, sleep studies may help to see if you are entering deep sleep, which is essential for proper healing and also for release of GH....
I'm very skeptical if sleep is an issue for me as I have no outward symptoms such as snoring, gasping etc. but it's just something else to cross off the list...
I wouldn't be surprised if lyme upset sleep cycles though because it seems do almost everything else...
-------------------- "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." Posts: 2062 | From CT | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
Since fatigue is always my main symptom, I have been tested for sleep apnea twice. The tests were 3 years apart.
I don't have sleep apnea, but something is keeping me from getting Stage 3/4 sleep. Which is the restorative sleep.
I always tell the doctors, I go to sleep right away and I don't wake up much during the night. And the study confirmed that. I went to sleep in 12 minutes, and then 15 minutes.
But, still the studies show no deep sleep. I am a very basic person, so I believe that the bugs are awake at night and keep us up and they mess up our "arcadian" clock.
However, I do have Ehrlichia as apljack.
Shalome
Posts: 893 | From Florida | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
I've been concerned that I'm not getting stage 3 and 4 sleep. I feel like I'm half awake all night long and always have been, even with sleep therapy. It boggles my mind that they don't give patients a take-home method for checking sleep stages, much less 02 saturation levels.
Most patients never reach stages 3 and 4 in the sleep lab, ostensibly because we're in 'unfamiliar surroundings'. There needs to be a study of sleep stages for sleep apnea patients in what amounts to 'familiar surroundings' because I suspect a lot of us aren't getting stage 3 or 4 - the most important stages for restorative, healing sleep.
It might be interesting to see how many Lyme patients get stage 3 and 4 sleep too considering the pain involved in just trying to find a comfortable position to sleep.
It's kind of crummy that nobody knows one way or another, and that nobody has the impetus to study it because nobody can monetize the 'cure'.
Pretty cynical, I know.
Posts: 37 | From Athens, GA | Registered: Jun 2009
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bettyg
Unregistered
posted
i do NOT get delta 4 sleep and my 2 nights of sleep study proved that!!
zero DELTA 4 !! I know it's been like this for 30-35 yrs; always said so, and the paper copy showed me that too.
i use my cpap w;/soft nose cushioned pillows since 1-09; has shown me great improvement in my breathing, but last 1.5 wks. .. it's been tough; back to being plugged up all night long.
so anyway, get out a copy of your sleep study and look for the area of delta 4; it will show if you got it in either of the 2 nights there.
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quote:Originally posted by bettyg: i do NOT get delta 4 sleep and my 2 nights of sleep study proved that!!
zero DELTA 4 !! I know it's been like this for 30-35 yrs; always said so, and the paper copy showed me that too.
i use my cpap w;/soft nose cushioned pillows since 1-09; has shown me great improvement in my breathing, but last 1.5 wks. .. it's been tough; back to being plugged up all night long.
so anyway, get out a copy of your sleep study and look for the area of delta 4; it will show if you got it in either of the 2 nights there.
Bettyg,
I hear you. Mine too. No stage 3 or 4 on either.
Some sleep labs don't just give out the whole report to the patient unless you ask for it. I didn't find that out until the second sleep lab. Ask for a "Full scored data summary report with condensed graphs and all doctors notes." The page count of what you'll get may jump from one or two to about 7 or 13.
Plugged nose: turn down the heat on your humidity almost to zero or just use it cold if you can deal with it. You'll likely find your nose will clear up brilliantly. Change the filter on the back of your cpap if you haven't recently too.
Posts: 37 | From Athens, GA | Registered: Jun 2009
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seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
My last sleep study showed I got 17% Stage 3/4 sleep (normal is 20%). I did well. However, i am exhausted all the time anyways. What's the point?
Betty, I hope you know sleep labs DO NOT report Stage IV sleep anymore!!!!!!! It's lumped in with Stage III. You may be misinterpeting your results. My neuro sleep doc informed me of this as the two closely resemble each other. If you truly didn't get any Stsge III or IV over time, you'd be dead.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by seekhelp: Betty, I hope you know sleep labs DO NOT report Stage IV sleep anymore!!!!!!! It's lumped in with Stage III. You may be misinterpeting your results. My neuro sleep doc informed me of this as the two closely resemble each other. If you truly didn't get any Stsge III or IV over time, you'd be dead.
Then my sleep doc must be behind the times because my last PST with MSLT was in November 2008, and the PST clearly had both stages 3 and 4 as separate graph rungs. Bummer. I started getting them impression they were becoming more of a sleep lab mill anyway. I probably won't go back there.
Posts: 37 | From Athens, GA | Registered: Jun 2009
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posted
I don't know about y'all, but I try to get my stage 3 and 4 while I'm driving long distances or from my corn flakes. (Yeah, I know -- whacky response, weird day. You have to have fun somewhere. )
Posts: 37 | From Athens, GA | Registered: Jun 2009
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You may be misinterpeting your results. My neuro sleep doc informed me of this as the two closely resemble each other. If you truly didn't get any Stsge III or IV over time, you'd be dead.
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