Sleep Stories -- people sharing their experiences with sleep disorders

Victoria Bowen

Looking back now in hind sight I think the first clue I should have had to my sleep apnea was falling asleep at the wheel.. No matter how short the trip once behind the wheel after even a short as trip as 50-100 miles I was nodding off at the wheel.. This coincided with the increase in my weight over the years, also the snoring increased, and my children and husband always made fun of me even to the point of taping my snoring to play back at me while poking fun. I can remember one particular vacation trip at Turner Falls where the cabins were designed in the duplex configuration. My husband woke me up tell me the neighbors were pounding on the walls about my "Snoring or Gasping" in my sleep. Talk about ultimate embarrassment, I waited until they had checked out the next day before I would leave our cabin.

I always wondered how I could be MORE tired when getting up in the morning than I did when I went to bed. Or why the Sleepiness or sudden sleep attacks would hit me through out the day and night. I always had an excellent memory now it seemed I was now loosing that with episodes of confusion like forgetting where I parked at Wal-Mart, those type of things.. I attributed this to my age, BUT, heck I wasn't even 50 yet how could that be, I though to myself may times. I found it harder and harder to work a full 8-10 hour day, as I had in the past. By early afternoon I was done in and ready to go home and collapse.

At this point, I was at my heaviest weight. I had ballooned up to 367 pounds, I had to take a medical leave from work, because of the congestive heart failure and my over all deterioration of my medical condition. Because of all that was happening to me, I became very depressed, irritability, and mood swings were becoming my normal attitude causing many problems in my marriage as well as with my family members.

It was not un-normal for me to wake with a morning headache and with the fitted sheets pulled loose from the bed, my sleep, what little I did have, was very restless, thrashing about constantly changing positions. I bought a new bed, and mattress set, thinking that was the problem. To no avail this continued..

The final straw came with the hypertension and congestive heart failure. I was still embarrassed to tell my doctors about the snoring and sleeplessness but on one occasion my husband came into the examine room and blurted it out to the doctor. Gawd, I was so embarrassed and even tried to explain it off on saying oh my dad snored guess I inherited that too. After my heart doctor questioned me some on my sleeping habits he suggested I be tested for sleep apnea.

I was on an HMO at the time so had to take this information back to my PCP, who in-turn requested from the HMO carrier to schedule me with a sleep study to either confirm or rule out the sleep apnea.

I had the sleep study test in a hospital, however, in a setting much like my own bedroom, queen size bed regular curtains and matching bedspread, TV, all very much made to look just like home. I guess this is to make you feel more at easy while cameras are aimed at you while you're sleeping. I was allowed to bring my own nightgown and once changed into those the nurse began to wire me up from head to toe. None of this was painful just leads connecting from me to a box. Then I was asked to get into bed and relax and go to sleep naturally, which did not take me long because this was October 31 and I had just driven back from Nashville, Tenn. to see my WLS surgeon, however, my husband drove most of the way as I cat napped and snored. The test ended the next morning, I think it was like 5:30 am when the nurse came back in to wake me up and un-plugging all the wires and leads. I was notified by mail of the results and to make an appointment to come back in to be fitted with a CPAP machine. I was fitted with a head gear (much like a pilots mask) and have the machine regulated and calibrated to your Doctors RX. They also scheduled me for a repeat sleep study wearing the C-Pap to make sure it alleviated my apnea symptoms.

Although I suspected I had sleep apnea for many years now I knew for sure. The sleep study showed I stopped breathing 19 times an hour, the doctor told me about my terrible snoring which also caused the sleep/wake episodes all night long. Once diagnosed and fitted with the C-PAP it was calibrated at 12.

Now comes the good part as little as 50 lbs. lost it alleviated all symptoms of the apnea and snoring. I was amazed so was my PCP. Which was great because I really don't think I could have lived with the CPAP machine for ever. I kept walking up with the headgear in my hand or on the floor. The WLS surgery was my only option for life long salvation and cure.

At this writing I'm now 221 pounds that's a loss of 146 pounds.. I no longer have that short, thick neck syndrome that most times accompanies obesity and sleep apnea. I now have very restful nights, free from those wake/sleep episodes and absolutely no snoring.