I am 71 years old and suspect I have had OSA for years. When I saw the sleep physician he told me that because I had a severe overbite and an elongated bit (?????) at the back of my throat, he could guarantee 100% that I had OSA. He said although born with those features, they were generally not a problem when we are young but as we get older, things become floppy (his description!) and the problems happen. About 10 - 15 years ago, I developed very high blood pressure and had my first AF attack which consistently last for 12 hours exactly then revert. I went to emergency for the first attack and the doctor told me I would have it for life. The attacks seemed to happen about every 3 months and although extremely uncomfortable, if I rested I managed ok.
Things changed about a year ago when in my wisdom I thought I could control my high blood pressure naturally (with diet, exercise etc) and foolishly stopped taking medication. My B/P went to 200/110 so was referred urgently to a cardiologist who said I now had moderate heart failure. Also the AF attacks had started to get more frequent (one or two a week) and during one I apparently had a small heart attack so the doctors told me when I landed up in emergency. The cardiologist was adamant that I should have a sleep study and consequently was diagnosed with moderate to severe OSA. My blood pressure is now back to normal with medication which I think is also controlling the heart failure. I have been on CPAP since early December 2019 and have had 2 attacks of AF since then. Both times seemed to coincide with lowering the pressure on my machine. The sleep physician suggested lowering my pressure from 14 to 11 (I have since read it should only be lowered in small increments) When I spoke to the sleep technician she suggested trying automatic and the next night had a really bad AF attack - I believe the range was 4-20 but it was only an hour or so in with obviously much lower pressure that the AF started. So I went back to fixed pressure after only 2 terrible nights on automatic and put it up to 15. Major leaks and swallowing lots of air have been a major problem with AHI going back up to between 7 and 15. I am now reducing the pressure every couple of nights by .2 to .4 and am currently sitting back on 14 which is better (AHI now under 3) so will reduce it a bit more but more gradually to see if I can find my optimum pressure myself. I am not sure if the mask is a problem or not but guess it is not wise to try and change too many things at the same time.
Apologies for the long post, but that has been my journey to date and I am really convinced that worsening OSA (and snoring which has now stopped) caused the high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and probably an early death had I not started CPAP.
Education for me has been the key and I am eternally grateful to ApneaBoard and Oscar (although I am battling to understand all the charts and upload data) I am so much better informed than when I first started CPAP - it's definitely 3 steps forward then 2 back!
My next job and challenge is to set up a monthly donation to ApneaBoard without having to use PayPal
PS - I think there are different types of Atrial Fibrillation. My youngest sister (I am her full time carer) has constant AF where mine are just periodic episodes. Her kidneys failed 4 years ago after a sudden autoimmune attack and she has been on dialysis ever since. She also had a small stroke a year before the kidney failure which was no doubt caused from her atrial fib - she wasn't on any anticoagulants at the time.
Atrial fibrillation in whatever form is a life threatening condition.
