I guess you want to get to know me. So, my name is Elina but you can call me Ellie. I’m 25 years old Latvian. Right now I work as a project manager and have my own small business. I’m learning new things every day (fortunately, I now have enough energy to do that).

I won’t bother you with information about my personal life, my thoughts about politics or something like that. I want to introduce myself as a person who has sleep apnea, so I could help you. And that’s why I’ll tell you more about my health and how I found out I had this problem.

From the beginning.. I’ve had different health issues since I was born. When I was only a few months old I was in the hospital because of digestive problems. Problems with the digestive system I have also today. My doctor mentioned me Chron’s disease, gluten intolerance but… Well..

When I was about 7 years old I was diagnosed with asthma. When I was about 13 years old I had a headache every morning for some months but my doctor really wasn’t that interested to find anything. I’ve had a middle ear infection, sinusitis (a few times as I remember). I’ve also had problems with joints. I have scoliosis, problems with the nervous system. I also have thyroid nodules from teenage years. The thing is – I’ve head different problems my whole life but why is that – don’t really know.

I’m overweight although I try to live a healthy lifestyle. When I was younger I was much more physically active as I was doing something all day – dancing, playing football, walking and so on, than now when I have a desk job. I also know that I have to check my sugar levels from time to time as some of my relatives have diabetes.

But how did I find out I have sleep apnea? Some of the symptoms started when I was in high school (at least I think so). With years it got worse but it wasn’t that bad and I didn’t actually know that there’s such thing as sleep apnea. Only after some years (actually last year), I started to look for solutions for my constant fatigue, insomnia, mood change… My doctor said the problem is just that I’m too worried all the time but I knew it wasn’t that. So I found the names “sleep apnea”.

Then I started to read more about it and realized that I had almost all symptoms but the only way to find out if I really had this problem was to do a home sleep test but as I was a student I didn’t have money for that. Then I tried to fix the issue myself. I tried to change my habits (again) but nothing was working, and I got even more tired, so I didn’t want to even try.

Then in August, I was just chilling in the backyard and my cousin showed me his fitness watch. I wanted to try it so I put it on. And surprise – my pulse was 150 although it wasn’t how outside, I wasn’t worried, I wasn’t running or even walking at that time. Then I realized that I really have to find out what is going on.

I went to my doctor again and this time she was more interested in my health.. So she sent me to some other doctors and yes, I also had a consultation with a sleep specialist (or how do you call him). And after our conversation, he said that there’s a pretty big chance I have sleep apnea (and I was like – I knew that). And when we were talking I realized that I really had those symptoms although I always thought that the problem was something else. I really had morning headaches, difficulty concentrating, fatigue and sleepiness, nocturia, there were some nights when I woke up out of breath, my memory wasn’t that good although I’m just 25. I couldn’t lose my weight even when I really tried. My blood tests weren’t that good. As I mentioned before, I had an increased heart rate (sometimes during the night I woke up because my heart was going too fast, at least I thought so)..

Then I had a home sleep test and test results were that my AHI was 28,5. I had some obstructive sleep apnea episodes during the night but mostly I had central sleep apnea. So we had to find a treatment. The doctor told me about different solutions, including surgery to fix a deviated septum. But we agreed that I need to start CPAP therapy, at least try it, and then think about the next steps. So I tried to sleep with a CPAP machine for the first time. It was uncomfortable at first, that’s true, but after a week or so I realized that I felt so much better. I was sleeping during the night, I wasn’t waking up out of breath with a dry mouth and palpitations. I had more energy during the day so in these few months, my life got much better although I still have sleeping problems – it’s hard to fall asleep (but I had this problem my whole life, as I can remember). I’m also more actively trying to set my mindset on losing weight. I hope it will help. Again – I’m really happy that we found the problem and now we can try to fix it. Hopefully, I can help you too by sharing my experience and thoughts.