sleep study

[pennst8r]

One of the things to come out of my hospital stay was an order for a sleep study. Can these be of any help to my diagnosis process (for whatever I have)??  I do sometimes awaken with body parts twitching pretty violently - not all the time though. I sometimes awaken to spasms, but again most of those occur when I am awake. Wake up with a headache almost every day. Just curious.

BTW - my borther was released from the hospital today. He did have to be catheterized (same as my DH had) but had only 1 minor (25%) blockage. My uncle should be released tomorrow. I wonder if they give family discounts???

Thanks

Penn

[pennst8r]

It's the apnea they're looking for. I was wondering if there was a chance it could also help clear up the big MS/not MS mystery too. I'm all for killling 2 birds with one stone (OK, I could never even harm a bug let alone a bird, but you get the point, lol). I have no tonsils, but I do remember I used to get weird sore throats where you could see my uvula sitting on the back of my tongue - that's not the norm though.

Thanks for the link. I will look it up tomorrow. Gonna try to get some sleep - gotta practice fo rnext Friday;)

Penn

[hbananas]

I just had a sleep study as part of the workup for the unexplained fatigue.  It turns out I'm having apnea about 7 times an hour on my side, 25 on my back!  5 is about the top of normal.  So, routinely, I'm coming out of the right kind of sleep and kind of getting startled, but not really knowing about it.  I don't sleep on my back (they made me) and the pulmonologist told me it's minor enough not to treat unless there are heart problems, including high blood pressure, which I have.  I'm putting off doing anything further until the MS thing is settled.

The guy that did the sleep study also said that maybe I don't really need to get up and go to the bathroom 4-5 times a night.  Instead, I'm waking up from the apnea and becoming aware that I probably ought to go, but if I hadn't been awake, I would have slept and held it longer.

The pulmonologist offered me a trial of a CPAP machine, but she also said that in women they often get better results from surgery.  She looked at my tonsils and saw they were big and full of crypts, and I have a long uvula.  So maybe I'll get everything trimmed up someday, unless finally losing some weight takes care of things.

Here's an abstract of an article about sleep disorders and MS.

http://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-2005-867075

Holly

[pennst8r]

Thanks for the info. Is it possible fo rme to have spasms at night that don't wake me up? I do have SOME that wake me, but not all the time. I sometimes wake up and have no clue why, so who knows what that is. My legs are often rigid at night. Sometimes vibrate-y, sort of like RLS???

Penn

[Quixotic1]

A sleep study is often a part of a good neuro work up and one that is overlooked too often.  It may be another opprtunity to have your spasms observed and documented.  BTW - Nighttime spasms are felt to be one of the biggest causes of sleep disturbance in MS.

I glad both your uncle and brother are doing well!

Quix