A year or so ago (Feb 2010) I was diagnosed with severe
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). I was 42, I weighed 255 pounds (at 5'10" [optimistically]) and my
BP was measured at 145/115. I went for a
polysomnograph, and was told that I had an average of 65
apnea events an hour during the night. It was explained to me that the classification scheme they used was as follows:
- Normal - 0-5 events/hr
- Mild OSA - 5-15 events/hr
- Moderate OSA - 15-30 events/hr
- Severe OSA - 30+ events/hr
- [Really Severe OSA - 60+ events/hr]
While faintly proud of my ability to stop breathing at night, this was just 'some number' to me until I looked into it more. It also explained some health issues I'd had in the months prior, even though I never had the daytime drowsiness or lack of energy associated with severe apnea.
Once a week or so, I used to wake up with a headache. This would come on at waking, and it persisted. I had assumed that since it always sat in my right sinus area, it was some kind of sinus issue, and that looking at it suggested I'd benefit from using a humidifier, as the air in my apartment was usually bone dry. Now this hadn't been an issue before (I've lived here since 1995) but I just put it down to 'getting older'. The problem was it didn't really seem to make a whole lot of difference if I used the humidifier or not - or even if I ran a shower on 100% hot for an hour before bed. I just seemed to have intractable sinus issues, and a headache that refused to respond (usually) to
Tylenol or
Advil at all. Just one of those things.
Then on being told of my
sleep apnea, I did some reading, and found out about 'waking headaches'. Basically they fit the pattern. Now maybe I had a cause - but what to do?
CPAP (the air mask thing) just didn't appeal to me - it's a pain to use, people hate it, etc and knowing my laziness, I knew I'd stop using it. Even if
OHIP paid for it. The
mandibular splint where they fit a custom mouth guard to your jaw to force it to slide forward also had a really poor reputation from what I could see about it. What to do?
Obviously losing weight was #1 - apnea is clearly linked to obesity. So I went on a crash weight loss program - I paid for a trainer at GoodLife (member since 1998! never went!!) and went on a 1500 calorie diet. If a couple months I'd shed 30-40 pounds, and this continued until I dropped from my original 256 to 178 - the last 20 pounds were slow as hell, and the last 10 were insanely slow. Given that even in the diet I chose (I frequently ate less than 1500 calories, sometimes under 1000) I managed to add some muscle, I figure I dropped 80 pounds or so. Then I stuck with it because it was so hard to stop dieting. I did eat more to get back up to 185 or so as 178 seemed gaunt to people.
In the meantime my family doctor, Tracey Cohen, but me on
Norvasc for blood pressure, which reduced me to 120/80 when I was at 7.5 mg/day. As the weight came off, I basically stopped taking the Norvasc and kept checking my BP at home, and at times when I was in the 180s in weight I'd be around 110/75 at times. So bye-bye Norvasc.
But what about the headaches and the apnea?
Well, one major reason your airway closes is from sleeping on your back. So I got a body pillow, and used it religiously. No more sleeping on my back, I'd wedge myself around the pillow like my life depended on it. That thing ... worked. With the diet, weight loss, Norvasc-BP control and the pillow, my headaches simply disappeared. I honestly didn't have one for about a year. Total, epic win.
But that didn't address the long term issue of apnea - I'd ruled out CPAP for mostly aesthetic and compliance issues, so what else could I do?
To be continued...
