Well fellas, my doc called this morning to review my test results.
Turns out that I
do have sleep apnea. It's not severe in its frequency (avg 17 episodes/hr,) but it is rather dramatic when it occurs: my O2 sats fall to 84%.
Apnea is more prevalent when I'm sleeping on my back, and during the second half of the night during my deepest "dream sleep." Which is exactly why my wife pressured me to investigate this in the first place. Guess she knew what she was talking about...!
Next steps are to complete a CPAP titration study. This is the same set up as last week's evaluation, just hooked up to a CPAP for the night. The tech will then adjust the pressure to determine the right setting to correct my problem. Once that's completed, it will be off to home health to get my own equipment.
It's hard to capture my emotions about all this right now. On the one hand, I'm glad to have been diagnosed and am actively seeking treatment for this problem. As my wife & I discussed, it might explain a lot that's been going on with me in the last 6 months or so. Maybe longer. On the other hand, I'm anxious about this life-changing diagnosis and what it will mean. At the ripe young age of 46, I'm getting set in my ways. And this will definitely be a change. I suppose it will be a change for the better, but it will still require an adjustment. My family tells me that I'm kind of a stubborn old guy. "Old dog, new tricks" and all that stuff.
Oh well.
Hopefully I'll be a positive influence for some of you guys reading this. I never would have pursued testing if my "sleep partner" hadn't pointed it out in the first place. That seems to be a big influence a lot of times in making these diagnoses. As I said before, I don't fit the body profile of your typical apnea patient, although I suspected that there was some inherited trait. That I just ignored. Probably for too long.
In any event, I'll post up more once my second study is completed.