My doctor had me get hooked up to some machine last week in order to monitor my blood oxygen level at night. Apparently the results were such that they now want me to go to a sleep study overnight to monitor my sleep pattern. Has anybody here gone through this? They also said the next step would be for me to wear some kind of oxygen mask at night. Has anybody used these and what are your thoughts?

I just turned 50 last week. I didn't expect to be falling apart so soon.

Rodger,
Is the mask a special one for sleep apnia? (SP?)
I went on a business trip with a guy who had to wear one of those. Looked really uncomfortable but he said he got used to it quick.

Good luck,

Shaun

Aww, no sweat. A sleep study is just where you spend the night in the hospital all hooked up to wires and sensors and you just sleep. They look for Apnia, where you stop breathing for a period of time. A lot of things happen when we sleep, and it's a good, quick, painless way to check stuff out.

No sweat.

Cuhail

I had a sleep study done at home about a year and a half ago. The tech comes out during the day to hook you up with the sensors. You wear a canula to monitor your nasal breathing and have a few other sensors similar to those for an electrocardiogram. In the morning, you disconnect yourself and the stuff gets returned. This is probably better than a hospital since you're in your own bed, can keep your regular pattern and is a more realistic look at your sleep/breathing pattern. It really wasn't bad.

The machine being discussed is called a C-Pap. It helps regulate your O2 intake if you have sleep apnea. ( a prefix for "no" pnea Greek root for breath or air, as in pneumatic) This is not one of those aging things but could be the various chronic conditions.

Thanks folks. Al, they want me to do it at the clinic because they are going to wake me up half way through, then have me use the C-Pap the rest of the night to compare how well it will help me. Did you have to go to the C-Pap? I've looked this stuff online but I was hoping to get the inside low down from somebody who had gone through it.

No C-Pap. I just snore a lot. Which then causes my wife :-)8 to want to me! :-)

Yep, my Dad has it and 2 other people I work with have it (sleep apnea). They wear the mask...

Hmm, Is the mask worth keeping for paint fumes?... Just a thought... :-)

It's hell getting old, ain't it?! I'm 51 and have a slew of medicines on the counter for cholesterol, high blood pressure and acid reflux. Plus I have back problems that keep me on muscle relaxants and pain pills. But hey, I'm still as ornery as ever, have a great family, go to work every day and get to come here in the evening. Life is good!

Rodger,

I PMd you with my sleep study experience, which, for me, turned out to be a negative experience. It's all good now though, and I'm not using one of those C-pap machines...thank God!!!

SNAP - if you find a cure AJ, then let me know! I even underwent surgery to remove growths from my sinuses before last Christmas to help me breath more easily. Don't get so many colds & infections but I still snore like a steam engine at full speed. If we had a spare room one of us would be sleeping in it!!!

Sleep study... Nop, never had that.
Wonder how you can sleep (or sleep normally) with all that stuff on your face...


My wife always tells me I'm snoring. It keeps her from sleeping. I don't agree with her; I'm just breating.
But last week I woke up from my own snoring; and she was sleeping!!
So... I woke her up to tell her she was right, but she didn't like that either...