Hi all. Hope everyone is having a good Monday.  I had my consult for a sleep study this morning.  No big deal, or so I thought.  I thought I'd go in, we'd chat, they'd schedule a sleep study, and that would be it.  Nope.  She came in, and I instantly liked her.  We talked, and then she put her light on her head and took a stick and took a good long look at my mouth.  

I guess I should give a bit of history and let you know that I've not slept a full night since I was a child.  It takes me hours to fall asleep and I'm awake so many times during the night that I no longer count.  There are nights that I never even doze off.  I've been prescribed many sleeping pills and have never found one that helped me rest successfully.  I'm a worrier, and I worry about everything, all the time.  When I lay down to sleep, it's like bumper cars in my brain.  My brain never stops.  And I toss and turn all night long.  The best thing that has helped me so far has been xanax, however, I've been out of it for some time now.  It just helped me to relax a bit to fall asleep.  

Anyway, onto this morning.... 

She said "honey, you have a tiny mouth and a BIG tongue".  Big deal, right?  Then she sat down and proceeded to tell me that the reason I do what I do at night is because most people have a U-shaped mouth, and mine is more closely related to a V, and a tongue that is too big for my mouth.  She said my brain is smart and what it's doing is keeping me awake to keep me alive.  There's nowhere for my tongue to go when I sleep except down my throat, cutting off my airway.  She said she can't believe I'm 44 and this has not presented itself until now.  I told her that my sleep has always been a problem, but I'd always been handed pills.  She said whatever I do, don't take sleeping pills because they have some muscle-relaxer tendencies and that could be deadly to me in my sleep.  So I have broke down and am absolutely terrified to even try to fall asleep now.  Scared to death.  She is positive that I have sleep apnea and she also said that most people get to come off the CPAP machine when they lose weight, but that won't happen for me, due to the shape of my mouth.  I have a sleep study on the 23^rd, then a week or so after that I will get the results, then have to go back to get a CPAP, and follow up with her on May 16^th.  So I definitely won't be having surgery in April, as I'd hoped.  I just can't believe I'm that close to death when I try to sleep.  I guess I've woke up for 44 years, so another few weeks should be fine.  However, I can tell you that I will be a wreck come bedtime.....  

Anyone else experience anything similar to this?  I really hope not... I wouldn't want anyone to have that worry.  I live with my children, and obviously do not plan to share this information with them, because I don't want them to worry.  But I don't have a sleep partner to 'monitor' my sleep, or lack thereof.  

Thoughts??

I see that you wrote your post in November.  I hope you had your air pressure levels adjusted by now.  Absolutely, with a weight loss of 75 lbs, your pressure needs will change (likely drop).  If your machine doesn't monitor you each month adjust itself, please have a professional adjust it.  It likely has an SD card in it (or some memory card of some sort).  They can look at the readings for it and adjust it to what you need.  Having too little pressure will have you waking up because you're not breathing.  Having too much pressure can cause problems with the heart for example, especially if there are problems like congestive heart failure (not saying that's your case).  Best of luck.

If you have sleep apnea you probably snore somewhat...

The first appointment they just ask you questions. I was refered to a pulmonologist because my ABG showed it was lower than it should be. The surgeon wanted to know if it was sleep apnea or the extra weight that caused it. The pulmonologist recomended a at home sleep study. I picked up my equipment(they showed me how to uses it)  and slept with it for 2 nights(at home) then returned it.  My next step is meeting with the pulmonologist for results. They said i will only need a C-pap if i am in the moderate/severe range. 

It depends on the clinic and program. My program requires everyone to at least have a home sleep test because over 70% of people with a BMI > 35 have sleep apnea.