Day 164

*NEWS* Several things to tell you this week. After last weekend when my partner was ill, then I was suffering from stomach pains, sleep quality was really poor and I was also starting to have mood swings again and then I realised something:-

With everything that was going on in my life I had forgotten to do my singing exercises. Something else that really should have triggered the realisation was that I began to gently snore whilst using my CPAP machine. This is pretty much unheard of, so my first reaction was to turn the machine up a little.

After a few nights of better sleep I started up iTunes to play the singing exercises and realise that it was 6 days since I last did them! It was at that point that I also realised that I could actually feel my throat closing up. I had been feeling it for a few days but just didn't realise it.

It was like I had something stuck in the back of my throat and it was making it hard to swallow. Further evidence of this was found when I notice I had to raise my head a little to allow me to swallow at all.

All these things amazed me, it was so clearly due to me missing several days of singing. Since then I've been doing the exercises every day and can already see and feel a significant difference. The good thing about toning muscle wherever it is on the body, once you've toned it, it doesn't take long to get it back into shape after a short rest period.

I know that a university is doing clinical trails at the moment and they are due to be completed this year. But I would love to know what happens to the test subjects that have been doing the exercises, when they stop doing them for 1-2 weeks. I'm sure that they will soon notice a dramatic difference. When you are doing the exercises the change is quite slow so sometimes it's hard to tell, which is why I started this blog in the first place as now I can clearly see an improvement. But I'd love to hear what happens to others that have an extended period of not signing after they have been for several months.

For me, it really did prove, the signing has made a significant difference.

I'll remain on the raised pressure for a few more days before reducing it again.

Pain/tiredness/level
1/3/10

Day 147

I'm SO TIRED! I've had a dreadful weekend. Everything was going just great until at about 9pm on Friday night my partner started being sick. Then a few hours later he was having diarrhoea as well. We think it was a case of food poisoning but we aren't really sure. It was a long night which ended with me driving around London at 3:45am looking for "immodium". I eventually got to bed at around 4:30am. The rest of the weekend was spent trying to clear up and catch up on my sleep.

To top it all off, I myself had stomach pains last night that kept me awake most of the time. I was wrapped around a hot water bottle for most of it.

So nothing to do with the Sleep Apnoea, but it really has knocked me for 6 not getting even half a night of decent sleep.

I'm sure this is going to take several days to get over.

pain/tiredness/level
2/5/9

Day 140

A very average week, so nothing really to report. I've slipped a little on the singing I only managed to do it three times last week. So I'll have to make more of an effort this week.

Other than that I have been sleeping extremely well. I've had a couple of early nights which did wonders for me. The mask doesn't feel like an interruption to my life but just a simple part of it that no longer causes more problems than it tried to solve!

Pain/tiredness/level
0/1/9

Day 134

I still have good days and bad days. Recently I've been going to bed around 11pm, but at midnight, I suddenly wake up as if I've been drinking way too much coffee, which I haven't. My whole body is tingling or itching and it has taken sometimes hours to get back to sleep. I'm not sure why its happened and its only happened a couple of times in the last two weeks. The rest of the time I've been sleeping extremely well. In fact one night I tried sleeping without my CPAP mask. After a couple of hours I woke my self, whilst dreaming I had chewing gum stuck in the back of my throat...... yep it was my apnoea kicking in.

I was a little disappointed at not being able to sleep with out the mask, but to be fair I do have quite bad apnoea so it could take a while longer before I can be completely free. I did however reduce the pressure on my machine again. I believe this is a great way to assist re-training my throat to stay open as I'm gradually reducing the pressure as I continue to do the singing exercises during the day. I'm now on level 9. Remember I started using the machine on level 8 and went as high as 13 before I started the singing for snorers. So one thing is for sure, I have been able to reduce the pressure thanks to the singing. This makes the mask easier to wear and has also allowed me to sleep in the car/train/plane without having an apnoea attack.

As a side note, my sister stayed with me at the weekend. She commented on how well I look and how young. She also has sleep apnoea, in fact all my close family have now been diagnosed with it. They all found out about it after I started using my machine and got tested themselves. Sure enough, my father, brother and sister all have OSA to some degree. So hopefully if I continue to improve as I have been doing I can buy them a copy of the CDs and help them get back some normality of sleep.

pain/tiredness/level
0/1/9