posted
Yes, a dread medical topic. I will be making a doctor's appointment but I was wondering if anyone here had similar experiences.
Lately, I've been really tired. This isn't too unusual for me since I have anxiety and its getting close to the end of the school year. But then I started dropping weight really quickly (4 or 5 lbs over a weekend) despite being fed huge healthy meals by my cook-boyfriend and downing tons of pizza, burgers, chips, soda, and other sugary sweets. This made my mother worry because she noticed similar fatigue and weightloss in my younger brother when he was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago.
But recently, I had a terrible throat infection that went on for weeks because the first doctor I visited didn't prescribed me a strong enough anti-biotic. After getting some quality rest over Spring Break, the swelling in my throat went down and I felt alittle better.
Yet I'm still tired. When my throat was swollen, I would often wake up gasping for air because my tonsils were blocking my airways. I'm sleeping again but apparently not well according to those around me. My boyfriend noticed that I'm snoring and sleeping very restlessly. The bathroom in our apartment is connected to my room by a vented door, and my roommate said she can hear me having trouble breathing in the mornings.
I've always been a sleepy person and lots of college kids need naps to deal with the late-nights. But this is making me worry.
My boyfriend, who used to be a sleep technician, suggested I see about getting a sleep study. Unfortunately, its going to be weeks before I can get home to see my doctor (I live in a small college town with a medical community that has a horrible reputation.)
It would make sense that my recent throat infection left my tonsils larger. And I had a previous infection just this past October/November that also nearly sealed my throat. Still, no doctor has said anything about them looking bigger than they should. Could they be causing my sleep problems?
So I'm just curious if anyone has had any experiences with sleep apnea or complications from tonsils? Most of what I've researched online recommends AGAINST adults getting their tonsils removed unless they're causing obstructive sleep apnea.
Or have I inherited my mother's hypochondriac tendencies and am worrying over nothing?
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Can you make an appointment at your school health center just to get an opinion? It may be something else that they can fix quickly, or they might be able to give you some advice before you're able to see your doctor.
I know there are a few people on the board who've mentioned sleep apnea. Quidscribis comes to mind.
Posts: 1547 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
You may want to wait a bit before you submit to a full-blown sleep study and treatment for sleep apnea. What may be happening is that the swelling in your throat has caused the lining to expand and it hasn't yet gotten to the point where it is tight again. When you sleep, the muscles in your throat relax to the point where the excess flesh starts to block the airway. Once that happens, you snore/stop breathing, and as a natural consequence your body will force you into a higher level of sleep where the muscles contract and open your airway. That is basically sleep apnea, but since your throat is likely un-naturally loose at the moment, the time and expense of going through sleep studies and getting equipment to treat the apnea will probably be prohibitive (Sleep studies often cost 1000 dollars each or more, and I went through 2 of them before being prescribed a CPAP, which cost 2000 dollars...if you have good insurance, this might not be a problem. But it also took about two weeks before the results of my test were studied sufficiently to determine that I did in fact have sleep apnea). In your case, surgery may help the situation (removal of the tonsils and uvula are standard operations in sleep apnea cases, though the success rate of these operations is fairly low in almost any case and is also quite expensive, running around 4000 dollars not counting the cost of sleep studies), but again, your body may eventually recover and begin sleeping normally with a little bit of time. I would say that if you are still having trouble after a month or so, it would be a good idea to visit a sleep specialist. Of course, that also depends on how long this has been going on.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
It is just over a year now since my friend died. He was young, just turned 30, and strong as two horses. He was one of those guys built thick and solid but not particularly tall. And the girls just loved him. Mostly, I think, because he was always laughing.
That he died in his sleep, is not much comfort to me because it was entirely avoidable. CPAP works and would have saved my friend. Cheap at 10000 times the price.
There is no way to determine exactly the cause of a particular apnea without a sleep study. Take the study, do the cure and worry about hypochondria later.
Posts: 675 | Registered: Aug 2001
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