He's a young guy (we used to call him Doogie Howser) so probably 40 or so now. Charming, personable, great listener and goes for the least amount of medicine or intrusion. He looked through my file and reminded me I came in for these same two complaints last year, at different times. I forgot all about both of them!
Sleep apnea first. He has a written 0-3 scoring sheet with about 10 questions. Unless you get a 10 out of 10, he thinks home remedies are the way to go. Last year I had a 2. This year I had a 3. Guess what my fellow blogger, The Misadventures of Widowhood! He suggested the item you have mentioned!
While I was answering the questionnaire, he looked at my week's worth of sleep logs. Another reason I like him ... he's a gadget guy. He suggested using a cool air humidifier. Which may also help the coughing. Using Flonase twice a day might help as well, and again this could help with the coughing (which he thinks is caused by sinus discharge .... most likely slight seasonal allergies).
I have been taking an antihistamine every morning which helps a ton with the coughing. (I thanked him for not saying "well, at your age, this is quite common"). He promised he would never say that! I have been feeling tired most days recently and he thinks the antihistamine might be the cause of that. The BEST reason to stop doing that.
Now to get everything and continue using my SleepBot app. If I don't notice an improvement, I can give him a call and he will send a referral to an ENT. The coughing IS better .. I didn't take the antihistamine this morning so he could see the real me. Only coughed once during our 20 minutes.
And that, folks, is the rest of the story. Verdict "NO WORRIES" is in!
Wow, I feel validated that he suggested the same gadget I found and thinks makes a difference...and so cheap! Have the cough, too, and my house is very dry. I'll be a room humidifier would help me too. I know it would help my furniture.
ReplyDeleteI'm using a new app, Pillow, as Sleepbot was making me feel BAD just looking at the statistics. Pillow shows stages of sleep and the more you use it, the better it gets.
DeleteI got a one room humidifier from Vicks ... cool mist, runs 12 hours and you can put essential oil in for diffuser...or they sell Vicks pad inserts with different scents ... including good old fashioned Vicks Vapo Rub!
I've been looking at humidifiers and air purifiers but got turned off by the fact that if you don't clean them every day you can actually be putting bad stuff in the air. Still looking and studying the idea.
DeleteThe instruction manual says once a week ... since it’s cool water, I may just do every other week. The ones that heat would make a breeding ground for sure!!
DeleteWell, I love this verdict. Yes, I do. I'm getting some of those little basket sticky up the nose thingies. I googled them after Jean wrote about them. I think the humidifier is a good sense thing to do anyway. Most of us have arid air in our homes, especially in the winter. Good luck. Sounds like you're on the way.
ReplyDeleteIt's the little things in life. I feel so good when they can be solved with such little effort! No physical therapy or surgery or medicine. It's kinda nice to know that there must be MILLIONS of snoring sufferers if so many kinds of devices are sold ... on Amazon!
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