Surgery and sleep apnea???

[Simon]

Well I don't have sleep apnea but rather have idiopathic hypersomnolence (always wanting to take a nap and falling asleep in minutes especially when sitting quietly in a dull lecture). The funny thing was after surgery when I could not get a good night sleep and would have killed for a nap I did not fall asleep.

I really liked how they diagnosis it. After doing the overnight sleep study which came out negative they have you lie down every hour and they check how fast you fall asleep. This was my kind of test, a nap every hour for 6 hours.

It is a good idea to bring your own equipment and hospitals can deal with it. I went into the BTKR with a nonunion foot fracture that was being treated with daily ultrasound and I just brought my machine with me.

Simon

 

[Linda2]

I don't have sleep apnea, either. My husband, however, has it and I have also used the Darth Vader analogy. He also has the hypersomnolence business that Simon has. It's pathetic--he's always tired unless he is doing something physical. He even fell asleep sitting on the couch--in the middle between two other people--when the whole family was opening gifts. Believe me, the three sons, two wives, and two grandkids are NOT quiet people! It was beyond belief.

 

[dcdowden]

I had two hips replaced last year and have sleep apnea. Both times I brought the mask and the hospital provided a machine that self adjusted to the proper pressure. I think they call that machine a bipap machine? They also insisted that I be connected to telemetry the whole time I was in the hospital. The telemetry monitored your EKG and pulse oxygen levels continuously. The biggest annoyance was that the telly leads on my chest would come off when I moved around and the monitor would sound an alarm. I got really tired of that happening in the middle of the night along about the third night in the hospital. I don't think they did anything different in terms of pain meds other than monitor me more closely because of the sleep apnea.
Doug

 

[beth1954]

I guess I'll ask about the machine. I'd rather bring my own. I don't understand the self-adjusting thing.......
I hate that thing so bad too.