Tony
Sleep Apnea can cause a whole bunch of different things, from High BP, to diabetes, to night sweats, and nocturia (frequent urination during the night) it can also cause low O2 saturation, and can result in memory problems. If the sleep apnea is severe enough and it causes very low O2 saturations, that can result in heart attack or stroke during your sleep. Sleep Apnea can also cause weight gain, and host of other symptoms.The treatment is simple, CPAP, BiPAP, or VPAP ASV, depending on the type of apneas you have and the severity, But I will warn you as simple as the treatment is, it can, for some, be very difficult to adjust to!
When you go for a sleep study they will wire you up, like for an EEG, and a EKG, and also put a couple of other monitors on you, then you will go to bed, as you sleep they will monitor your sleeping both with the instruments, and they will also visually monitor your sleeping with a camera that watches you sleep. If your sleep apnea is bad enough and they get enough data, they might wake you up, and fit you with a mask and hook you up to a machine and then have you go back to sleep and they will do the titration study on you. This is known as a split night sleep study. Other wise they will just do the first part, and then have you come back for a second study to do the titration. Actually the 2 night study is better, because they have more time to get all the data, and more time to do a really good titration study to get your sleep apnea under control. Anyway after the titration study, they will set you up with a XPAP machine,which is a usually CPAP machine, and they will fit you with a mask. Then you will have an new bed partner, that you will sleep with forever! and you will become a Hosehead, like many of the rest of us! When and if you have a titration study they will usually let you try different masks on, try as many as you can, til you find one that is comfortable for you, this is very important, and I can't stress this enough! a proper fitting mask can make or break your successfull adjustment to CPAP treatment! Believe me I do know what I am talking about when it comes to Sleep Apnea. I was first diagnosed with it in January of 2007, in the first 18 months I had 6 sleeep studies done, before they finally got my treatment right! I went from CPAP to CPAP with Oxygen to BiPAP to VPAP Adapt SV with Oxygen which I am on now! The proper treatment does work, but it does take time to reap the benefits of the treatment, it doesn't happen over night, some symptoms will go away in a matter of a few weeks, for me the severe night sweats and nocturia disappeared in two weeks or so. But the tiredness and constant fatigue took 3 or 4 month before it finally let up! So you do have to be patient!
Anyway if you need any information about it or any advice feel free to E-mail me. I firmly believe the more involved you are in your treatment the more successful you will be. So I would encourage you (if you do have sleep apnea and need CPAP) to get a data capable machine so you can monitor and get involved in your treatment! With CP issues, sleep apnea can be a bit more of a challenge!
Good Luck to You
White Beard
I'm Retired USAF, went back to school and became an RN, and now am on full disalbility!--Degenerative Disc (affecting mostly the thorasic disc but all levels involved), C6/7 laminectomy/diskectomy& fusion, Osteoarthritis, Ulcerative colitis, Chronic Pain, Fibromyalgia, Complex Sleep Apnea, and host of other things to spice up my life!(NOT!) Medications: Oxycontin, Percocet, Baclofen, Sulfasalazine, Metoprolol, Folic Acid, Supplemental O2 at 3lpm with VPAP Adapt SV