What is it with MS and sleep apnea?

 

Sleep can be a common concern among those with multiple sclerosis. Possibly up to 60 percent of MSers struggle with some sort of sleep disturbance. Sleep apnea is a frequent contributor to this issue.

 

What is sleep apnea?

 This is a condition that causes a person’s breathing to stop and start unpredictably during sleep. During those intervals (which may last for several seconds or more), the body is deprived of ample oxygen. An individual may gasp and awaken, or slightly stir and resume breathing. Each time this happens, it’s called an apnea, and it can occur many times each hour throughout the night.

 Experts say approximately one in five American adults may suffer from sleep apnea, although many may not be aware they have it. (Often, it's identified after a sleeping partner complains enough about intense and sudden spurts of snoring that a person seeks medical advice for it.)

 

What are the symptoms of sleep apnea?

 People with sleep apnea find themselves extra tired during the day. They might wake up with frequent dry mouths and nagging morning headaches.

 

What are the risks of sleep apnea?

 Untreated sleep apnea can be deadly, or at least add to potentially fatal conditions. Some researchers claim it can take as much as 10 years off a person’s life, largely because it increases a person’s vulnerability to high blood pressure, strokes, and heart attacks. (This has something to do with decreased blood oxygen levels that occur during each apnea episode.)

 

How does sleep apnea play into MS?

 Specialists have identified two types of apnea.

1.  Obstructive apnea occurs when the muscles in a person’s throat and nose relax (usually during sleep), blocking the airway and stopping breathing momentarily. This is the type that is commonly associated with loud, sputtering snoring and most often with obesity. Smoking is a risk factor as well.
2. Central apnea occurs when the brain fails to direct the body to breathe for a short interval. This may be more of a neurological issue. (That concept sounds familiar to anyone with MS and how it can pay tricks on all sorts of body part and functions.)

 MSers are widely regarded to be at higher risk for both kinds of apnea. Neuroscientists have pointed to reduced brainstem function issues as possible reasons for this, such as may be caused by demyelinating lesions that may be caused by MS over time.

 Whether obstructive apnea, central apnea, or some combination of both, this sleep disorder wreaks havoc when it strikes someone living with MS. Even without MS, sleep apnea tends to make people extremely sleepy all day long, due to the diminishing of quality sleep overnight. MSers already face bouts of (or ongoing struggles with) a crushing fatigue that is nearly indescribable.

 When sleep apnea prevents quality sleep, it considerably complicates this battle. The lack of rest can also aggravate memory loss, increase accident risks, lead to depression, and worsen diabetic symptoms (for MSers with that comorbidity).

 Certain medications frequently used to alleviate MS symptoms may make sleep apnea worse. These include those prescribed for insomnia, pain, spasticity, and more.

 

What can be done about sleep apnea?

 Once sleep apnea has been diagnosed (usually through an at-home of in-lab overnight sleep study, ordered by a neurologist or other physician), the patient will likely be prescribed treatment using a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. This regulates breathing during sleep, piping humidified air into the person’s airway via a special mask. In many cases, sleep apnea may also be lessened somewhat when a person stops sleeping on his or her back.

 It can take time and practice to adjust to CPAP treatment, especially the wearing and breathing through the mask while sleeping. (Trust me. It can take weeks or even months to get used to it!) But this adaptation has been shown to reduce sleep apnea episodes (as well as their duration), and eventually to improve restorative sleep and rest.

 That’s worth plenty to an MSer.

 

 Related items:

• 15 things never to say to anyone with multiple sclerosis
• Got up. Got dressed. And got back in bed.
• Learning to plan down-days
• MS comorbidities: Welcome to the party!
• MS has made me more body-conscious.
• The perfect storm can bring on an MS maelstrom
• Thermostat wars and MS

 

Image/s:  Public domain photo

 

Feel free to follow on Twitter. Please visit my Amazon author page as well. You are invited to join the Kicking MS to the Curb page on Facebook and the Making the Most of MS board on Pinterest.

MS means I might have the flu for DAYS without knowing it

A nasty midwinter flu is making the rounds around here, and I finally caught it. Only I didn’t realize it for a few days. Finally, once the flu was full-blown, I got the point. 

I know that sounds weird. It’s like I’m not even paying attention, right?

Only I am. But multiple sclerosis throws a wrench into the works, adding confusion to some of our most uncomfortable seasons.

It started with a headache that lasted for a few days straight. But headaches pretty much go with the MS territory for me.

A whirling vertigo spell came along next. But that’s a hallmark of MS for me.

I started feeling hot and cold and hot and cold. Again, that’s sort of standard practice for my life with MS.

Then the sneezing started, sending me honking two or three times in a row. But I get the sneezies sometimes with MS too. (Look it up. It happens.)

The all-over aches and fatigue crept in, right about then. And yes. You got it. I chalked that all up to MS too.

The idea that I might have the flu didn’t hit me for a while. I’d been overtired after not sleeping well for several weeks. My stress bucket was overflowing for a host of reasons. And the midwinter blues were blooming in full force, as the darkest months of the year brought sub-zero temperatures, beckoned blasting blizzards, held back the sun, and made staying home a whole lot easier than going out.

But, yes. Eventually I got the point. I had the flu. It just took me a while to realize what it was and stop blaming the MS MonSter.

Once I did that, I could even count back several days and figure out where I probably caught it. I’d been at a music convention, spending an entire weekend singing with hundreds of other attendees in a crowded hotel ballroom. Singing together meant breathing all over each other. Plenty of laughing, talking, and coughing were also featured. (Enter the flu.)

Two weeks later, I’m finally digging my way out of the sneezing, wheezing, hacking, sniffling, snuffling, sweating, chilling, aching mess. Soon, the flu will flown. Thank God.

Then I’ll be battling the MS MonSter better. You can bet on it.

Image/s:

Public domain image

Feel free to follow on Twitter. Please visit my Amazon author page as well.

You are invited to join the Kicking MS to the Curb page on Facebook and the Making the Most of MS board on Pinterest.

Hacking my way back against the MS MonSter

Spring allergy season and the warm-weather cold season are raging, and multiple sclerosis warriors are slugging it out against extra symptoms. Some face added frustrations, as any illness can make living with MS increasingly challenging.

For me, it started with seasonal allergies. Heck, I never even had seasonal allergies till my mid-30s. Now they are a pretty predictable harbinger of spring.

Warm winds blew, as I planted my garden and patio pots with bright spring flowers. Dust and pollen whirled (most unseen) around me, while I trotted my dog out for daily jaunts in quiet neighborhoods and woodsy trails.

Then the sneezing started. We’re not talking about a few dainty little sniffles. These were non-stop manly snorts that took my breath away and could have cleared crowded amphitheaters.

Before long, simple allergies led to head congestion, followed by sinusitis and then a full-blown sinus infection. Meanwhile, fluid began building up in my lungs, leaving me wheezing and coughing like a sick dinosaur. At night, I gasped in my bed, with a rattling rale that sounded like someone was moving heavy equipment inside my chest walls.

Breathing difficulties exacerbated the nearly ever-present MS vertigo too.

This is not exactly the spring picnic I had hoped for, I groaned to myself.

Yada. Yada. You know the drill.

MS complicates everything. In a flash, the dreaded MS hug wrapped around my torso. I couldn’t catch a breath – or a break.

Like any experienced MSer, I know we face an increased risk of contracting pneumonia. And the stark reality is clear: People don’t die of MS. But they can die of complications of MS. And the primary culprit is often pneumonia.

“Get thee to a doctor,” is the perennial refrain.

Finally, I did.

At the clinic, they diagnosed me with a sinus infection and bronchitis. They gave me a boatload of prescriptions, including antibiotics and a powerhouse antihistamine/decongestant and an inhaler.

Oh, and pretty clear instructions to slow down for a while.

Yeah, right.

Mostly, this is all helping. I get that it’s gonna take some time. I’m still overdoing it (in terms of personal exertion), nearly daily, and paying a price for that.

Like any medications, these drugs have a few side effects I don’t like. And the antibiotic pills are ginormous and hard to swallow, especially with the MS gag reflex in full attack mode.

But I am grateful to have the prescription treatments. In days gone by (like before antibiotics), basically healthy people used to die from these sorts of illnesses. Now those conditions may just lay us up for a week or so. Sure, I know it will take a little longer to come back to full speed (just because the MS MonSter lurks for times when we are compromised like this).

I’m still hacking with a chest-racking cough. I’m still sneezing non-stop. I’m still going through tissue boxes like they are going out of style. I still run out of steam far faster than usual.

But I’ll be back … once I catch my breath again!

Image/s:

Adapted by this user 

from GNU Documentation License photo

Wikipedia Commons Images

Feel free to follow on GooglePlus and Twitter. Please visit my Amazon author page as well.

You are invited to join the Kicking MS to the Curb page on Facebook and the Making the Most of MS board on Pinterest.