BiPap Troubles

Hello, all.  I haven’t posted in a while, I didn’t know what to write.  This morning I went to my pulmonary/sleep doctor for a checkup.  Ever since I had the bowel obstruction back in 2016/17, it had come to my doctors’ attention that I have breathing problems when I sleep due to my lack of strength without my medication.  When I had the ostomy, none of my medications were getting into my system, therefore the meds that I take for my CMS weren’t in my system making my muscles extremely weak.  Without them, I had no muscle.  By not having the medication in me, it was very difficult for me to breathe because I wasn’t able to take deep enough breaths.   This caused me to have very bad sleep apnea which is when you stop breathing in your sleep which makes you lethargic during the day.  The doctors figured out that I have sleep apnea because when I was in the hospital, I would wake up with headaches which is a common sign of sleep apnea.  During the time between when I got sick and I got my ostomy removed, I had a sleep study conducted to see if their theory was correct.  Now, if anyone has had a sleep study, you would know that they attach a huge amount of electrodes to your head using glue, wrap your head in gauze, more electrodes to various other parts of your body, wrap a belt around you that tracks the rise and fall of your abdomen, and nasal cannula in your nose that reads your CO2 levels.  And they still expect you to sleep, and sleep comfortably with all that junk on you.  Anyway, that sleep study was absolutely horrible.  I didn’t really sleep at all and my CO2 levels were in the 80s, and the normal is supposed to be in the 40s. To say that my levels were alarming would be an understatement.

I had to go back in after my ostomy was removed for another sleep study to titrate the BiPap which means they had to figure out how much pressure I needed that air to be so I could breathe fully and better during the night.  It was a rough night because the mask is so uncomfortable and having air being blown in your face.  Even though my second sleep study was so much better than the first (because I had my medication in me), I still have to wear the BiPap at night.  At first, I thought I could “accidentally” take it off in my sleep and the machine wouldn’t notice, but it does, unfortunately.  Now, I wear it every other night or try to at least for the minimum of four hours a night.  When I went to my doctor’s appointment today, my doctor made a deal with me, wear the BiPap every night for two weeks and take a melatonin tab before bed and see how I do.  If the melatonin doesn’t work, then I stop taking it.  The other part is to see how I feel in the mornings and if there is a difference between when I wear it every night as opposed to every other night.  He also said if I need to if the mask hurts me, I can take a break for a night or two for my face to stop hurting.  I agreed to this trial, but I’m not looking forward to it because it’s just so uncomfortable.  I know of others with CMS who also have sleep apnea and have a BiPap and they all hate it.  Sleep apnea is another thing people with CMS have to watch out for and ask about during their doctors appointment if they haven’t already.

I will let you all know how the two weeks go/are going soon!!  Thanks for reading and shine on!