Hi everyone,
I couldn't find anything posted about this so I thought I would ask here.

After her 3rd chemo treatment, my mom has developed severe sleep apnea. The doctors seemed to think it was anxiety related but my mom won't take anti- anxiety since she's afraid she'll choke or suffocate in her sleep. She's been sleepless for days and I'm worried because her surgery is in 7 days and she's not going into it with rest, or good health. She 5'4 and currently weights 111 lbs. She is dehydrated often and she hallucinates on occasions because she is so sleep deprived.

Any suggestions on boosting her health or the sleep apnea problem in the next week??

Thank you,
Nay

I realized I should have posted this in the after treatment forum, after I discovered the search feature. Sorry guys.

Ok, I don't think my mom can get her hands on the CPAP machine before her surgery date. She's tried sleeping in almost fully upright but as soon as she dozes off, her nose seems to shut on her, she snorts loudly and she jumps out of her sleep.

Any quick remedies to consider?

Hi, my husband had sleep apnea come on almost overnight from the swelling from lymphedema. There was quite a wait to get a sleep study done and then another delay of a week while we waited for the CPAP machine to come in. A couple nights were so bad I actually call the emergency room at the hospital and then threatened him if he didn't go see his doctor the next day I would call 9-11 the next night. His breathing was so bad he took 4 breaths and then nothing for 34-45 seconds. It was keeping me up night after night worrying about him not getting enough oxygen.

One thing that did work the last few nights before his machine arrived was sleeping on his side with his face close to a large fan on the night stand.

If your mother has sleep apnea she really needs an overnight study to determine which type of mask would work best for her and how much pressure she would need. Wish I could just send you our extra one.

Hope this helps.

Terri

Thank you Teri! We have a fan, it doesn't hurt to try the sleeping on her side. She lives alone and is also afraid of falling asleep and suffocating. I read that you can sew a pocked into the back of your shirt and put a tennis ball in it to prevent from rolling onto your back. Heard of it?

She has a surgery approaching on the 12th (6 days) for her cancer (mandibulectomy + flap reconstruction) so if the sleep apnea continues to persist, we can formally pursue an ENT specialist, etc. I'm really surprised her ENT surgeon didn't say anything.

Everyone kept implying it was her nerves/anxiety keeping her up. But she can't take any sleep aids because of her breathing difficulty. Turns out it was sleep apnea + anxiety.

She probably does need a sleep study but time doesn't afford it. My friend here had a sleep study, and had the cpap machine delivered the same day. However, I live in canada. Do you have a medical supply store nearby you could rent one from? I know from what my friend has told me of them they only turn on (blow) when they note you have stopped breathing... So it's not something that would cause her any medical issue if you use it without having the study first. Maybe talk to her dr.? best of luck

CPAPS a individually adjusted for each patient, i.e. pressure needed to trigger the airflow increase, levels of increase etc. This is a medical device that is highly individualized. You can't just go out and self diagnose and rent one.

The racing heart and sweating that often accompany an abrupt wake up from the adrenaline rush of an apnea event are most of the time mis diagnosed by the medical community as anxiety disorder. This is a hugely under diagnosed issue in an America that is over weight. But it is also grossly under diagnosed in head and neck cancer patients. This isn't a matter of losing some sleep, long term untreated apnea will shorten your life span. Most people don't even know that they have it, but being tired all the time during the day is a dead give away. Before I was diagnosed, I was having 13 event an hour. None of which except four major ones a night woke me up fully.

In head and neck patients with chronic mucous flow combined with the anatomical changes in the area around the opening to the trachea, a cpap machine many not be successful in resolving the problem.

Brian has spoken... he knows what he's talking about. I wasn't sure as I have little knowledge in this area. I do know that my friend had a study done, and came home with the machine the same day - maybe the clinic sells them? She was taught how to individualize it. Unfortunately, time wise this isn't likely to help now. There are other devices. You could look into. take care.

My sleep study clinic did indeed provide the CPAP (which does not work for me sufficiently ) and I left with it on the morning after my night there. So it's just another profit center, in stock kind of thing for the people that do the studies.

There are a gazillion different mask styles to choose from as every face is slightly different in shape, and some fit better than others. So there is the fitting of that to deal with to when you find the right mask, as another reason that you just can't buy one off the shelf.

I don't think you can hurt yourself with a CPAP, but for sure getting the right machine features and the right mask fit takes a little bit of playing with different things. And after having one for a week, you may want to change it for something slightly different.

There are a variety of reasons for the apnea, and in some people there are some dental devices that can be custom made and worn at night to keep the tongue forward, and others that actually position the mandible slightly forward, both approaches keeping the airway more open.

For those of us that have this as a result of the heavy mucous, like charm and I, none of this stuff works.

If someone actually finds a solution for that cause, I would LOVE to hear about it.

I wonder if 02 with simply a nasal cannula would help? I know a cpap delivers air all the time.. Or maybe they would admit her to the hospital early - perhaps knowing she's in an environment where she's being monitored would help?

The principle behind a CPAP is not air delivery. It provides an "air splint" that holds the airway open. When the airway collapses (or in my case becomes clogged) you stop breathing. It may take a bit for your brain to understand that this is happening. When it does it send a jot of adrenaline to your heart to jump start things. This is the culmination of the apnea event. That is why this so often gets diagnosed as an anxiety attack, is that you wake up suddenly with your heart racing wildly, often perspiring as well. Very similar to an acute anxiety attack.

So adding 02 to a patient does not deal with apnea. Monitoring does not help, as your brain gets it that you are not breathing for 20-30 seconds or even longer, and it takes over in a drastic way. You are monitored in a sleep study, but they don't come in and wake yo up every time you have an apnea event. some of them are not the big whammy event. Like I said in my study it showed I was have dozens of them an hour. So monitoring is of no help.

In obese America, where there are far too many fat necks, apnea is out of control as the air way can collapse as a result of all that tissue . It can also be the tongue falling back into the throat some, which is a positional thing in some people.

But CPAPS force air into your airways to keep them open under pressure, not to provide you air to breathe.