Hi everyone, New to this forum and I have some questions about the symptoms of OSA. I suspect I have it and I have an appointment with my doctor this Friday. I just wanted to share with you my symptoms and get some feedback. I snore a lot and loud, no energy during the day, eyes feel tired during the day, I get shortness of breath during exertion, I feel like my lungs and airways are irritated like a burning feeling, sometimes it feels like my diaphragm is tired, my anxiety has returned along with panic attacks, I've been waking up around 3am every morning. Any input you have would be helpful. Thanks
Hi eblo
Your doctor should be able to look at each of those symptoms and deal with them, starting with the most urgent.
Don't expect a single cause nor a simple solution but patience, persistence, knowledge and effort will win in the end. :)
I know. I just wanted to get real people's first-hand experiences. Sometimes things don't always go by the books. I'm pretty sure my doctor is going to look at me like I'm nuts.
Your doctor should give you the questionnaire that I gave you a link to. Those are the standard tools to evaluate sleep apnea risk. In my case, I was male, older, overweight, and had snoring issues. In my opinion I did not have sleep issues. I got to sleep easily, and got lots of sleep. I did not feel excessively tired during the day, but have had issues with alertness on longer drives in a vehicle. However, after apnea treatment with CPAP I still do have issues with staying alert when driving long distances. This said, after the actual sleep study there was little doubt that I had sleep apnea.
The main benefit I have had with CPAP treatment besides stopping the anoying to my wife snoring, has been being able to sleep right through the night (on most nights). Before treatment it was the norm to get up once. I now try to sleep less than I was before treatment, and focus on quality of sleep.
You listed several symptoms eblo and the first one, snoring , almost guarantees that you could get a diognosis of Apnea but the rest are likely to be something else and for that you need proper medical advice. The Apnea is easily diognosed and probably not urgent but the other symptoms need full investigation and might be urgent.
Don't worry about what your doctor thinks. You're not paying him to like you. You're paying him to solve a puzzle. Just focus on the clearest way to explain your concerns and the best way to describe your symptoms.