Any snorers out there?

I snore. And not the delicate, princess kind of snore you see in Disney movies. The kind that makes you take a step back and wonder where that horrible sound is coming from. As a kid, my friends would gently roll me over at sleepovers. In college, my roommate (Hey, Lindsay!) would throw small objects at me. When I was pregnant, the snoring got worse and those simple tactics no longer worked. The problem intensified with my second pregnancy. “Intensified” being the nicest way to describe the sounds I made when I slept.

After realizing how disruptive my snoring was to Aaron, I finally turned to the professionals. This is my experience.

What I tried on my own

Obviously, what I tried on my own didn’t work. So I’ll just tell you I tried breath right nose strips and a mouth guard. The nose strips didn’t do a thing except peel off roughly seven layers of skin every morning. The mouth guard also didn’t do a thing. Later when I saw an ENT, I learned that my septum is straight and unblocked, so nose strips weren’t the right remedy for my type of snoring.

Bring in the professionals

Sleep Doctor. Snoring has never disrupted my sleep. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a weirdly deep sleeper. In fact, I would have thought my kids slept through the night from day 1 if it weren’t for Aaron. My first appointment was with a pulmonary sleep specialist. After filling out an incredibly long survey, the appointment was short and uninformative. The takeaways:

• I don’t look like the “typical snorer”, which I took to mean I don’t look like an overweight dude. 🤷🏻‍♀️
• The doctor ordered a home sleep apnea test and referred me to an ENT. The sleep apnea test was to make sure snoring wasn’t a result of an underlining medical problem.

Home Sleep Apnea Test. I picked up the test in the morning, wore the device overnight then returned it the next day. The device was small but involved. It strapped around my chest to monitor my heart rate, had a pulse ox on my finger and oxygen tubes in my nose. All together not a beautiful look, but I still managed to get a pretty good night sleep.

The takeaways

• I definitely do not have sleep apnea. When the doctor called to discuss the results, he told me I was a very “boring” sleeper.

Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Doctor. Within 30 seconds, the doctor told me I’m congested based on the puffiness in my cheeks and dark circles under my eyes and I’m a mouth breather based on my dry lips. He also told me I have acid reflux based on the swollen area behind my larynx (I don’t remember the more technical way the doc said that). Phew! Overload of unattractive traits.

In summary, he said I had “good anatomy”, which meant my tonsils were small, and my septum was straight and unblocked. In other words surgery is not an option for my particular brand of snoring. Big disappointment because I was hoping for a quick surgical fix.

The ENT prescribed 3 things for my “problem areas” and felt confident that those should solve the problem. The 3 prescriptions were for:

• Acid reflux (did not know I had)
• Seasonal allergies
• Non-seasonal allergies

The plan was if the snoring went away, then we would work on eliminating the prescriptions I didn’t need.

Snoring status 7 weeks later

It has been 7 weeks since I have been on my 3 prescriptions and according to Aaron, the snoring has gotten better but has not gone away. Some nights I don’t snore at all, but other nights I still wake him up.

I have a follow up appointment with my ENT in 2 weeks, so he will hopefully have alternative solutions or insight. I will follow up with an update post.

In the meantime, do you have experience with being or living with a snorer? And if so, have you figured out a way to fix it? Please share!