New member - User
Hello Guys,
My name is Salman, 38 yo and im from Bahrain - Middle east.
I'm a father of 3 boys and OSA has been the story of my life! since high school, I've always been tired, fatigued and worn out no matter how much I sleep.
Even if I sleep 12-14 hours I always feel tired. After graduation and my second job (which was a very good one - Senior Economist) I couldn't make the most out of it as I was always late or absent, and had to throw the towel. Yes I used to stay up late and my lifestyle wasn't healthy at all but al my friends could sleep for 4-6 hours and live normally without any issues, something I envied them for.
I got married and had kids and the struggle continued, I tried to stop smoking, I though maybe I had thyroid disease (which my mom has) did all kind of tests, even when doctors visually inspected me and said no need for checkups as I look fine I insisted on paying for ultrasound and results came positive. I did vitamin tests such as D, B12 etc.. and raised all the levels but was still suffering. tried multivitamins, ginseng, honey and it all didn't work for me. I even once slept behind the wheels but luckily it was a minor accident.
I felt hopeless, watching my kids grow and I'm really not making the most out it, literally watching my life pass by and feeling tired and cant do anything about it was very sad. When tired it's very hard to tolerate the boys and I do my best o control my self, after all they have noting to do with it so its not fair for them to suffer as well. I used to work shifts but my life is already upside down so it only made it worst so I went back to morning working hours although I literally don't do mornings. I try my beast as "a man gotta do what a mans gotta do" and that is to provide to our families, but I feel that I'm only functioning half or even less of my capacity, its effecting my productivity, mood, and generally my quality of life. My wife sleeps wit the kids ( I cant really blame her as I snore like a pig).
The thing is people don't really feel or understand what we really go through, some might think that we are exaggerating or just blame it on smoking, eating habits, staying late without really understanding our struggle! at the end we have a saying that only people with the wound would feel it no matter how much you explain. My life is boring, I work 9-5 come back home try my best not to nap to sleep early, when bed time comes I stay a bit late and go to work next day tired, I have a side business which is successful, but believe it or not after 13 years I cant even expand or progress.
After trying everything I almost gave up and I thought to my self I rest my case, the only thing I didn't give up was praying, praying to God to help me pick up myself, and that's when I visited the ophthalmology as I suffer from dry/red eyes due to LASIK operation I did 20 years ago, after asking me some question he recommended that I see the ENT doctor, which after examining me said I had chronic sinusitis and forwarded me to the sleep doctor who said its a good idea to do a sleep test, after sleep study I was diagnosed with moderate OSA (15 per hour) and I was given a choice of operation (sinuses surgery + tonsillectomy) and "maybe" see if it will help solve the problem or CPAP which I'm currently on trial (1 week before I purchase it for USD1500). Before sleep study I knew that I wake up a lot during my sleep but I thought because im changing sides and not due to apnea.
First two days I felt better, I felt oxygen in my body, less brain fog and some nice tickling feeling in my legs, with 4-20 pressure and all auto as recommended by the provider, my first mask is F30 which is not bad IMO. But mid day I would go to limp mode, struggling to keep my eyes open, im hoping that its residual sleepiness and should be ok with time. As a mouth breather, I was trying my best to breathe through my nose to get the best out of therapy, but after feeling tired and knowing that my nose is semi blocked I tried breathing from my mouth, now I thought I would use nasal spray before going to bed. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night feeling that the pressure has dropped. Today after coming back from work I tried sleeping with mask on for 1 hour, I woke up after that and took the mask off and slept for 4 additional hours. Good thing is I'm putting some hours as you can see, I will do whatever it takes to make this work for me. I used to suffer from RLS as well but I don't anymore.
I have no regrets what so ever, I'm glad and thankful for my life and I was very relieved that I finally know the root cause to my problem.
Sorry for the long post and please excuse my English, I can finally vent and speak to people who understand what I go through.
I'm trying to post my data, this remind me of the car tuning days when we used to do some pulls and post our logs to tuners to check our AFR readings
Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
Regards,
My name is Salman, 38 yo and im from Bahrain - Middle east.
I'm a father of 3 boys and OSA has been the story of my life! since high school, I've always been tired, fatigued and worn out no matter how much I sleep.
Even if I sleep 12-14 hours I always feel tired. After graduation and my second job (which was a very good one - Senior Economist) I couldn't make the most out of it as I was always late or absent, and had to throw the towel. Yes I used to stay up late and my lifestyle wasn't healthy at all but al my friends could sleep for 4-6 hours and live normally without any issues, something I envied them for.
I got married and had kids and the struggle continued, I tried to stop smoking, I though maybe I had thyroid disease (which my mom has) did all kind of tests, even when doctors visually inspected me and said no need for checkups as I look fine I insisted on paying for ultrasound and results came positive. I did vitamin tests such as D, B12 etc.. and raised all the levels but was still suffering. tried multivitamins, ginseng, honey and it all didn't work for me. I even once slept behind the wheels but luckily it was a minor accident.
I felt hopeless, watching my kids grow and I'm really not making the most out it, literally watching my life pass by and feeling tired and cant do anything about it was very sad. When tired it's very hard to tolerate the boys and I do my best o control my self, after all they have noting to do with it so its not fair for them to suffer as well. I used to work shifts but my life is already upside down so it only made it worst so I went back to morning working hours although I literally don't do mornings. I try my beast as "a man gotta do what a mans gotta do" and that is to provide to our families, but I feel that I'm only functioning half or even less of my capacity, its effecting my productivity, mood, and generally my quality of life. My wife sleeps wit the kids ( I cant really blame her as I snore like a pig).
The thing is people don't really feel or understand what we really go through, some might think that we are exaggerating or just blame it on smoking, eating habits, staying late without really understanding our struggle! at the end we have a saying that only people with the wound would feel it no matter how much you explain. My life is boring, I work 9-5 come back home try my best not to nap to sleep early, when bed time comes I stay a bit late and go to work next day tired, I have a side business which is successful, but believe it or not after 13 years I cant even expand or progress.
After trying everything I almost gave up and I thought to my self I rest my case, the only thing I didn't give up was praying, praying to God to help me pick up myself, and that's when I visited the ophthalmology as I suffer from dry/red eyes due to LASIK operation I did 20 years ago, after asking me some question he recommended that I see the ENT doctor, which after examining me said I had chronic sinusitis and forwarded me to the sleep doctor who said its a good idea to do a sleep test, after sleep study I was diagnosed with moderate OSA (15 per hour) and I was given a choice of operation (sinuses surgery + tonsillectomy) and "maybe" see if it will help solve the problem or CPAP which I'm currently on trial (1 week before I purchase it for USD1500). Before sleep study I knew that I wake up a lot during my sleep but I thought because im changing sides and not due to apnea.
First two days I felt better, I felt oxygen in my body, less brain fog and some nice tickling feeling in my legs, with 4-20 pressure and all auto as recommended by the provider, my first mask is F30 which is not bad IMO. But mid day I would go to limp mode, struggling to keep my eyes open, im hoping that its residual sleepiness and should be ok with time. As a mouth breather, I was trying my best to breathe through my nose to get the best out of therapy, but after feeling tired and knowing that my nose is semi blocked I tried breathing from my mouth, now I thought I would use nasal spray before going to bed. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night feeling that the pressure has dropped. Today after coming back from work I tried sleeping with mask on for 1 hour, I woke up after that and took the mask off and slept for 4 additional hours. Good thing is I'm putting some hours as you can see, I will do whatever it takes to make this work for me. I used to suffer from RLS as well but I don't anymore.
I have no regrets what so ever, I'm glad and thankful for my life and I was very relieved that I finally know the root cause to my problem.
Sorry for the long post and please excuse my English, I can finally vent and speak to people who understand what I go through.
I'm trying to post my data, this remind me of the car tuning days when we used to do some pulls and post our logs to tuners to check our AFR readings
Thank you for taking the time to read my story.
Regards,
