"My story as to how I was diagnosed.....
So I got married in august 2012, was under a lot of stress and pressure and one morning in September my husband woke me up for work (we used to have the same sleep schedule wake up at 6:30am work at 8am and I usually fell asleep at 10-11 every night and crashed on the weekends and slept my 12-15 even 8 hours is never enough sleep for me ) I felt strange I couldn't think I felt like I was in a dream he said I was slurring and I fell over once (my legs were SUPER heavy and weak feeling) the longer I was awake my legs felt better I knew something was wrong I told him and he agreed and I drove him to work (my legs were weak but still functioning it felt difficult to get them in and out of the car though which I’ve never experienced) like they both had heavy bricks on them and my muscles were weak, I drove myself to a walk in clinic( I didn't have insurance yet) they did some blood tests told me I was pre diabetic even though my blood sugar was fine and sent me home... I went to work the next day mean while I was in a living hell, my brain was not functioning anymore... I couldn't remember stuff I felt like someone drugged me, my legs got better the same day and were fine after but I felt mentally impaired which scared the crap out of me I was in anxiety mode and crying for almost two weeks after that, I quit my job which put us in a financial hell for a while and I went to visit my mom I was so out of it ( I just couldn't think I felt like I was in a daze it felt like my mind was in slow motion, like I walk into a room to get a drink and doing that was difficult, I was scared to be out in public cause I felt like I was living in a dream) so my mom picked me up I started getting more sleep and after about a month almost a month and a half of getting my 12 hours of sleep every night (which is how I’ve been since I was little I’ve always needed way more sleep than everyone else even when I wasn't over weight my weight gain didn't happen till I was about 13 and I can’t nap I sleep for a good 5-6 hours and wake up groggy) and I was mostly back to normal but suffering with a lot of fear and apprehension of it happening again, I chalked it up to a nervous breakdown from getting married and just prayed it wouldn't happen again, well it did (about a month ago roughly) well I remember my mom saying she thinks it had to do with my sleep the first time this happened she said I snore and stop breathing a lot so she was constantly checking me and waking me up telling me I need to lay on my side and I just shrugged it off thinking that can’t possibly be it and it’s just my weight and I’m working on it so I’ll be fine soon but there’s no way my sleep has anything to do with it other than I probably wasn't getting enough which contributed to my "nervous breakdown" well anyways I went back home and have been doing computer work which allows me to work whenever I want and my sleeping pattern (which it always tends to do unless I have a steady schedule) started flipping around to sleeping during the day and staying up at night, I have insomnia issues I like to sleep 12-15 hours and then stay awake for anywhere from 12 to 20 or so and then sleep again for a long time but anyways I got myself to staying up all night and basically sleeping only while my husband was at work so for about a good month or two before it happened again this last time I was back to sleeping 6-8 hours, from about 8-10 am to 4pm get up make dinner take care of the dogs do my work stay up all night get him up in the morning and back to sleep during his work shift, well he came home one day I had over slept it was almost 5pm and normally I’m up and have dinner ready by the time he’s home well I was still in bed with my phone alarm going off and I woke up confused and heavy legged again, I didn't go to the doctors because they didn't help me last time, however after we got married and I got sick last time he put me on his insurance so I finally have insurance but anyways the heavy legs went away later in the day again but the brain issues stayed their almost gone again I’m down visiting my mom again but shortly after I came down here I worked myself up so much from feeling mentally impaired and being scared about it that me and my mom went to the ER on the weekend, my mom brought up my sleep thing, they did a pee test and a drug test lol which I suppose makes sense cause of how I told them I felt which by the way even though I’ve been feeling out of it and slow and unable to do even small things and having memory problems and concentration issues and just feeling out of it I appear fine to everyone else I told my ER doc I feel like I should be talking slow or something with how I’m feeling but I’m not anyways he asked how much stress I was under first than when my mom brought up the sleeping issues she sees he didn't even take another look at me he just said ok you have sleep apnea go get a sleep study and that was it so I called my insurance to see where i could go and that was that now I’m here just nervous and waiting my fear is that the sleep apnea didn't cause this, oh also I said this happened twice and that it takes about a good month or so for it to slowly wear off its taken a little longer this time it seems to be sticking a bit more and my memory issues have been a lot worse I feel like I have to re remember stuff I don't normally think about like my husband’s work number I could barely remember it its better now since I’ve been purposely trying to memorize it again but I’ve never ever had memory issues this is VERY unlike me, I’m the kind of person who doesn't even drink because I hate feeling out of it in any way, but anyways this second time it happened I slowly was getting a hair better each day and about a week later it happened again the heavy legs and I felt like it set me back to square one but they happened so close together I just kind of lumped it together, since it takes a good month to get back to my normal self, it doesn't seem to happen when I’m at my mom’s I’ve been sleeping on my side more here mainly cause she tries to watch me as well oh also during both times I watched my blood sugar like a hawk because of the first doctor saying it was pre diabetes but it’s always been normal when I sleep when I wake up after I eat before I eat it’s never been off accept for once when this happened the second time I had eaten a fair amount before I went to bed and when I woke up feeling weird and out of it this second time my blood sugar was 146 and that was probably about 8 hours after I ate, but shortly after I woke up it went right down and I didn't do anything or eat anything also I had just had a physical before this happened and everything came out fine accept I have gallstones which I already knew my ac1 was good cholesterol and whatever else they do oh and one other thing that's worth mentioning is that when I woke up both times other than heavy legs and feeling out of it I felt numb for a little while but it went away quickly that happened both times and also that I had stayed up almost 24 hours I was trying to fix my sleeping pattern hoping that the less sleep I got which I got about 6 hours that I would be tired enough to sleep during the night anyways I’m sorry I wrote a book I’m scared to see how long this is lol but I’m at a loss and sooooooo scared that this isn't from sleep apnea, I’m scared I’ll be treated with my mask and start feeling better and needing less sleep but I’ll wake up feeling like that again and have to suffer feeling mentally slow and out of it for a month and a half again to feel better that's why I’m telling my story I want to know if anyone has heard of or has had something similar, maybe my brain was just so tired it like broke down or something and the extra rest I get at my mom’s makes it better? this whole thing has made me extremely insecure and I pray this is just my sleep apnea since nothing else seems to be wrong with me physically other than gall stones and being overweight and the first time this happened I was a bit stressed but the second time this happened I was happy and was exercising and eating better and things were going pretty good I don't know how you can go to bed feeling perfectly find and wake up screwed up like that? at least it does go away with lots of rest and a little bit of time I asked my sleep tech if he’s ever heard of a story like mine and he said he hasn't but its possibly its sleep apnea related because of oxygen deprivation and also because everyone has different symptoms. Also during my sleep study I guess I was nervous I went in at 9 fell asleep at about 11 or a little before and got up at 5 with one bathroom period at about 2:30 and I didn't have any REM but he said that could be because I was in a strange place I know that when I’m at home and not sleeping as much (6-8 hours) I don’t remember having any dreams but when I get my 12 hours I remember having dreams but I guess my question is Can all that happen with 10-20ish apneas an hour ? I don’t even know how long they are I guess I’ll find all that out when they call me but I don't know anyways sorry for writing a book! Ill end it here
Oh! Sorry one other thing....Every so often I feel like I have to stretch my legs but no matter how much I stretch them its not enough so I move them around and it just feels like I want to sleep and I'm exhausted but my legs need to stretch and move but its not very often only once in a rare while at least that's all I remember I know when I sleep I kick and throw my blanket off me all the time my dog tries to sleep with my but I move too much I actually sleep on the couch a lot because I snore and move around but I don't believe I have RLS because they didn't say anything during my study and I don't think I moved around a lot I was worried about the wires"
Oh and another thing to add im overweight (I think that's why I have sleep apnea but im not 100% sure yet since I haven't been told my results officially just from my really awesome and nice tech) and before I was diagnosed I was and am on a weight loss mission its a permanent change and has been going well it started last September it stopped due to illness (which I believe now was due to my sleep apnea) but am back at it again im 269lbs and my highest weight was 293 that's when I decided to make a change I was getting way too high....Im too young to let this happen and am changing it. Anyways thank you in advance for reading this!
Sarah <3