Snore, Take 2

Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

That was what I found to be the case with my CPAP machine... I finally got used to it after a whole month, but then a month or so after that I realized that not only was the CPAP machine not helping me to sleep better... on a good night it was not making a difference, and on a bad night it was waking me up in the middle. Eventually I realized that every single night I was taking it off in my sleep (or sometimes even in my awake, if it was bad), so I just quit bothering with it. I figured if it wasn't going to make things better, why make thing worse by strapping that thing to my face?

Our understanding had been that the next line of defense for sleep apnea was to actually widen the airway with surgery. The ENT doctor told us straight up: painful surgery, long recovery time. It didn't sound like something I particularly wanted to do, but if that was what it took, I was willing to do it. Cathy wasn't as willing. She started doing some reading on the Internet, and concluded that not only was it an expensive and painful surgery, but that the chances of it being successful were slim and the chance of relapse if it was successful were uncomfortably high. So she started looking for alternatives.

There is really only one other alternative to surgery or a breathing machine like the CPAP: an oral appliance. The idea is that you put something that looks like a retainer on your teeth at bedtime, and it actually forces your lower jaw forward as you sleep; this helps the airway to stay open and the apnea is hopefully eliminated. Cathy only found one place that deals with these appliances in the Tulsa area: RiverWalk Dental Spa. She made an appointment for me, I went in one month ago yesterday, and then yesterday I went back in and walked out with my new oral appliance (someone please think up a nickname for those, quick! Five syllables is TOO MUCH!)

The appliance is custom-manufactured to an impression they take of your teeth at the dentist's office, so when you put it in, it is very snug. If you can think of how your hands feel when you put on tight rubber gloves, that's how it makes your teeth feel. It's a weird feeling, and at first I almost felt a little bit panicky; the top and bottom halves are hooked together, so not only was there an uncomfortable pressure on all of my teeth at once, but I couldn't spread my teeth apart more than a millimeter or two. Bu tthe snug fit is what you've got to have; once you're asleep you can't keep your teeth together any more. The appliance has to hang on. This also means that getting it off your teeth takes a little bit of practice, so we tried it several times at the office until I was comfortable that I could handle it. Oddly, I was so excited to have the thing in hand that I wanted to put it in and wear it while I drove back from the dentist's office to work for the afternoon! I didn't do that, though... I couldn't think of any reason that would have been helpful. If I'm having sleep apnea episodes when I drive, then I've got problems that the oral appliance won't solve!

Last night I put it on at bedtime. The first thing I noticed was that my tongue didn't know what to do with itself. I wanted to wet my lips, but that's not possible with the appliance on (I'm going to get some chapstick or at least a cup of water to keep on the bedside table). And then my tongue started trying to figure out where it belonged, and that just was no use. Finally I did manage to go to sleep, but something woke me up an hour or so later... I'm not sure if I had a startling dream, or if I pulled the upper part loose in my sleep (which would mean I didn't put it on securely enough in the first place), or if there was a noise in the house (Cathy was still up and on the telephone), but I remember waking up and taking the appliance off. When I tried to put it back on, it put a pressure on part of my bottom teeth that turned quickly into a dull pain, and I knew I would never get back to sleep with that, so I took it out entirely and decided to wait for another night.

I woke up later to a sound. It sounded to me like a toilet seat or lid being dropped; I don't know if Mikey had gotten up and accidentally did that, or if something fell in the bathroom in our bedroom, but whatever it was, it woke me up. Cathy was awake too, but she was in bed... probably she had been in bed awake anyway. She wanted to know if I had the appliance in; I told her no but I also told her I wasn't going to try to explain why in the middle of the night; I needed to get some sleep. But since it had been some time since I took it off and I was awake anyway, I decided to put it back in and give it another go. I got it in and it didn't cause any pain this time, so I got back into bed with it.

And I laid there.

And laid there.

And laid there.

It seems like once I wake up after getting a certain amount of sleep, I can't get back to sleep with one of these therapy devices on me. That's what happened with the CPAP machine, which was why I wound up taking it off every night if it woke me up. And that's what happened last night. I wasn't particularly uncomfortable with the appliance in, but there was no going to sleep. So after vainly trying to go back to sleep for a good hour or hour and a half at least, I gave up, took it out, and decided to give it a try again the next night.

It's not a surprise that I had trouble with it. The lady at RiverWalk Dental Spa had told me straight up that the first week, I might or might not see any improvement (particularly the first night) and that at this point we were just mainly getting used to wearing the thing. I certainly would have preferred an uninterrupted night of sleep with it in, even if the therapy wasn't really kicking in... but that apparently just wasn't to be. Maybe tonight will be better.