Sllep Apnea?

Ok so alot of people have told me to go for this sleep test because I prob have sleep apnea,  they also say they have it and had no idea and that was their "in" for the surg.!!   Any signs that i should look for ? I made my appt and im praying, my insurance is putting up a hard fight ! 

Just some things I was told by my dr that he said might indicate I have sleep apnea before my sleep study. Waking up with a really dry mouth, really bad morning breath, snoring, morning headaches, waking up feeling like you are choking, getting up multiple times per night to urinate, daytime sleepiness, napping during the day, small mouth and/or head size, and of course having someone that sleeps with you telling you that you stop breathing. I have snored since I was a skinny teen and I have been in denial for years that I have sleep apnea. The test results were eye opening. I sleep much better since getting my cpap. I may or may not be able to stop it once I lose the weight. My sleep apnea is more because I have an extremely small mouth and airway. It will improve with the weight loss but maybe not enough to get off it. It is worth it to know that I am breathing better and I feel rested when I get up in the morning.

 It was the kicker for my approval and it is gone now!  I knew I would snore if I was on my back, but never knew that when I went into REM sleep usually in the pre-dawn hours, my apnea was pretty bad.  I guess that explains why I seemed to have bad dreams before waking up. I sleep so much better now that it is gone.

Once you have had your sleep study (don't worry, it's not horrible but still not a good night's sleep), the MD will review the results and then go over the results with you.  If you have apnea, you will need a CPAP that you have to have another study to titrate (get you to the correct pressure.)  I won't lie, I HATED my CPAP!  I threw it a few times.  However, in the hours after surgery, I actually wanted it.  As I lost weight, it got harder to deal with, so I went back in for another study and was told the apnea was gone.  Hallelujah!

If people complain about your snoring, if you wake up a lot in the middle of the night and don't know why, if you are sleepy a lot during the day, then you might have sleep apnea.  I had it, and it was one of my co-morbidities that got me into surgery.  4 months post-op and it's gone!  Some people still have sleep apnea after they lose the weight, but I got lucky on that one.

For the sleep test, they will hook up some electrode thingies to your body - doesn't hurt - and they will have a tube that passes under your nose (like you see people wear who have to use oxygen tanks).  Then they will want you to sleep on your back.  It's pretty annoying and not very comfortable, but they need to see how much oxygen you are getting.  Then if they find you are not getting enough oxygen, they will wake you up and hook you up to a CPAP machine (breathing mask) and see if that helps.  They have some pretty good masks now that don't really look or feel like you are wearing a mask, so you don't get claustrophobic in them.  At least I don't, and I am prone to claustrophobia.

Hope this helps.  Good luck!

I was also diagnosed with apnea...never really had thought about whether I might have it, though I had been told I snored.

One thing to note...it's entirely possible that your surgeon will REQUIRE a sleep study before surgery, because there is some evidence that people with sleep apnea have a greater risk (still tiny) of unexplained deaths immediately post op. Apparently it's thought to be tied to the anesthesia and docs now often require that you be checked for sleep apnea, get a CPAP machine and bring it with you to the hospital to use after surgery. I was required to do so.

FWIW, I sleep much better with my machine and don't hate it at all. But I am curious about owlisn's comments that she seemed to have bad dreams pre-machine. I felt like I rarely had dreams before I got my machine and assumed (once diagnosed) that it might be because my REM sleep was so disturbed. Now that I use the CPAP, I dream all the time.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea as part of the work up my surgeon did prior to my surgery.  I got used to the CPAP machine just fine, and slept better than I had in years.  I think I've had sleep apnea since I was a child, as I was always exteremely tired, and napped all the time.  Like the previous poster, I never had dreams until I got my CPAP, since my REM sleep was so disturbed.

Just be aware that not all individuals have their sleep apnea disappear after WLS.  There are many thin folks out there with CPAP machines.  Even though my excess weight is gone, I still have sleep apnea.