Do all "morbidly obese" or "super obese" people have sleep apnea?

I am posting this anonymously because I do not want it to interfere with my surgery preparations and I know my doctor and others checks this sight often. I just got back from seeing the sleep study doctor. I went into his office, not as a pre operative requisite but because I am having a horrible, horrible time breathing at night. I have always had a terrible snoring problem but at least God blessed me with a man who could sleep through a train wreck, it bothers him very little. As soon as the man walked in, he looked me dead in the eye and told me what I had been "charged" with, making it all a 'fun' joke. You've been charged with "excessive loud noises from your snoring, leg twitches, irritablility and restless sleeping" - "how do you plea". I said "guilty as charged". My partner had to fill out his part of the questionaire and it asked specific questions - the only part he left out was the part about and you've gained 70 pounds over the coarse of 2-years. As he examined my throat, he told me what I was told 10-years ago by a ENT (ear/nose/throat) Dr. - they said the opening to my throat never developed past the age of 10 years old. Since I've snored even at my most thin weight, this MIGHT be a reason, huh? Or so I thought. Without even handling the overnight sleep study, he has diagnosed me with sleep apnea although myself, my husband and my daughter state that we've notice no break in my breathing pattern. He said that he's been studying bariatric patients since the early 1980's and not one single patient of his who is morbidly obese was NOT diagnosed with sleep apnea. He told me to go into this surgery without an oxygen mask could be extremely dangerous to me. I guess my question is this ~ and I'm looking for answers or simple comments: (1) does anyone else think it is somewhat weird to diagnose sleep apnea without watching the person sleep and be monitored with 1800 little gadgets attached to your body as I was shown in the video (2) do you think it is an assumption to believe that ALL obese patients have sleep apnea? (3) maybe I have the wrong definition for sleep apnea? Please help, if you can.

We greatly appreciate your interest in helping us build our Q&A database. To discourage vandals from posting garbage, however, we require people to register before posting.

You must be logged in to post an answer. Click here to log in.