Sunday, February 18, 2018

Re: morning headache, increased BP, no snoring/choking/waking, could still be sleep apnea, doctors may not diagnose correctly

"Here's a short list of documented symptoms of sleep apnea: 

Fatigue 
Headache 
Choking 
Myocardial infarction. 
Hypertension 
Stroke 
Arrhythmias/Dysrhythmias 
Bradycardia/Tachycardia 
Heartburn/GERD 
Poor memory 
Depression 
Insomnia 
Snoring 
Night Sweats 
Nocturia – Frequent nighttime urination 
Erectile dysfunction 

There are others as well. These are some of the most common. Apnea is truly a systemic malady which produces such a vast array of symptoms that physicians have neither fully documented nor fully explored the extent of its involvement with these and other symptoms."

On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 4:14 PM Connie L. O'Dell <odellconnie@gmail.com> wrote:
If you wake up with headaches sometimes, you may have sleep apnea, even if you do not snore or choke or wake up.  The only visible sign may be silent breathing pauses during sleep.  Do not assume your doctor will ask you the right questions to find out if this is your problem.  The high blood pressure I have had for 10 years with the headaches is potentially another symptom, and my doctor never asked.  I was diagnosed because: 1) My husband saw me stopping breathing/breathing very shallowly, and 2) I used a cheap pulse-oximeter from amazon.com that has an alarm that goes off when you have low oxygen, and taped it on my hand overnight, and sure enough, it showed drops to 85% and even 80%.  Immediately my doctor approved a sleep study to officially diagnose apnea.  In case you don't know, sleep apnea over time leads to multiple organ failure, hear attacks, and reduced brain function, which I *do not* need...  ;-) and is extremely hereditary, so my siblings should suspect it also.  I would like to think CPAP and more oxygen will fix my lifelong brain farts, but I'd be happy to just not to get (much) fartier, too...

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