Frances,

You must be so frustrated. I know that receiving a diagnosis can be downer, but I have found NOT knowing is sometimes worse.

I really hope you will still hang with us here at the SAC. We can at least commiserate about sleeping problems.

You are in my prayers.

D.

MC, I was, and am, more than willing to use a CPAP machine and mask if they would give me a good night's sleep. I would not have said that a year ago, but I have learned a lot in that time and I now look at it quite differently. For one thing, of course, I've had my husband's experience to go by. For another, I've read a lot about other people's experiences since I frequent the American Sleep Apnea Association's Forums and I can see how so many of them have been helped as well.

Also, while my husband was in the hospital and his machine was here at home, I tried it for myself one night. Because it wasn't my mask, I didn't want to adjust it in any way so I made it fit as best I could and did manage to stop the leaks but was all but immobilized in the process, and also it was too tight. I kept it on for about an hour and even dozed off a bit, but I knew I couldn't sleep all night with it so I took it off. But it took me only a few minutes to get used to the air pressure, even on breathing out (the pressure is 8) and I think that I would have adjusted to a mask of my own without too much of a problem, although I admit that it would have taken a bit of time.

The sleep doctor blamed my poor sleep on insomnia and recommended that I limit my time in bed in an effort to improve the sleep I do get. I am unconvinced that insomnia is my problem, at least at the moment, because mostly I am going to sleep quite readily and going back to sleep after a trip to the bathroom (nearly always just once a night), but the latter part of my night does not yield restful sleep, I am often what I call wakeful (meaning that I wake briefly, change my position, but go back to sleep) and I often wake from very long, detailed dreams of great immediacy. And when I wake, I feel very down and have a hard time getting started. And even when I get some kind of sleep for most of the night, I get very tired later.

Sleep studies are great for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea; the evidence can be very obvious and usually doesn't take very long to appear. However, they aren't so good for finding more subtle problems. All the wires inhibited me from sleeping in any remotely normal way and I didn't get to sleep long enough. However, I can see that another sleep study, even if anyone would recommend one for me, would be useless if it were done in the same kind of circumstances and I can't see any better ones on the horizon so I'll have to see what I can work out for myself. I do think that I should push myself harder to get started on the day and I will see what I can do to get up earlier and thus shorten my time in bed. Maybe it will work.