Question:
Typically I can't remember my dreams. But sometimes I do wake up in the
middle of the night from dreams - just regular dreams, not nightmares.
Sometimes this will happen a couple times each night.
One other note that comes to mind at the moment... as I mentioned, I
just got checked out for hypothyroidisim. In addition to thyroid tests,
they checked my blood count. If sleep apnea is an issue, would I have
abnormalities here? My red blood count was 4.96 with a reference of
4.20 - 5.50. Basically, nothing unusual was found with my blood.
Any thoughts? I haven't spoken to my Dr. about possible sleep disorders
yet. Honestly I'm a little hesitant to go back in and request to be
checked out for sleep disorders at the moment. Having just made a fuss
to get checked out for thyroid disease, I'm afraid they might start to
think I'm a hypochondriac or something. :) Can I get a referal from my
therapist to see a sleep specialist rather than from my MD?
Answer:
Make all the fuss necessary. Its your body and your life.
If the medical community hasn't found a solution don't hesitate to suggest
possibilities. Let the doctor prove you wrong. You do provide indicators
that could be linked to a sleep disorder just as they can be identified as
symptoms of depression.
Remember that medicine is an "art" as much as it is a science, that doctors
are still "practising" and very few scored 100% in all their exams.
First thing is to make sure that your doctor and therapist are working
together as a team! In such a situation, they should work together to
eliminate any 'medical' conditions for your deperession and other
symptoms. Sleep disorders may be a contributory factor and asking to see
a sleep specilist is not unreasonable.
I was diagnosed with dysthemia several years before I was diagnosed with
severe OSA. In retrospect, it would appear that most of the depression I
was suffering was probably caused by the untreated OSA.
There is still a residue of depressive symptoms, including a degree of
anhedonia. Whether that is because the OSA treatment is not completely
effective or because I have a mild dysthemia and severe OSA is unclear
even after 18 months of treatment for OSA. But my anti-depressant intake
is much lower than before the OSA treatment and my quality of life much
better.
I, too, was checked for thyroid disease and many other things (including
parasites only found in places I have never visited). I must have seen 4
MDs (three psychiatrists and one internist) before a new internist
recognized the symptoms and sent me to a sleep doctor.
I initially suffered from extreme lethargy, fatigue, inability to
concentrate, etc. I was diagnosed as depressed and (mis)spent four
years being treated for depression before correctly diagnosing sleep
apnea. The "depression" vanished the day after my first use of the
CPAP.
Now it's ten years later and I've developed additional sleep problems
that the CPAP doesn't cover. I still have periods of depression, but
they coincide precisely with the periods of sleep disturbance and
generally begin about two days after the sleep disturbance starts and
end the day after I start sleeping well again.
