My Steps To Healing From Sleep Apnea, Part 1

I was working at a local trucking company back in 2000, and had real good medical benefits. I started to have real difficulty staying awake as well as trouble sleeping overall. In fact, I would fall asleep while driving, usually at traffic lights and while on the computer at work. Much of my work, as a billing specialist, was on the computer. I would process freight bills of lading and saw my work starting to suffer, my speed going down. Speed is very critical in the billing department, I was to learn later... (another blog)

I was nagged by my wife to go see a doctor. I went to the family doctor who gave me a referral to see a sleep specialist. Amanda insisted she saw me stop breathing during the night and it freaked her out. She wanted me to get the help I needed and signed me up for a sleep study. Nonetheless, it wasn't gonna be easy to let anyone stick those probes on me and have all those wires and thingamabobs hanging off me and find out what was going on.

But that is what I did, and am grateful to this day for doing so.

The appointment came (it was at night, of course) to come to the sleep disorder clinic. I was told to eat a good meal beforehand, so I of course stopped off at the local Hardees and had one of those big, greasy, sour-dough burgers they used to have and curly fries! Yes! I then went in and had a little trouble actually getting to sleep. I don't think the 20 oz. Coke helped much, though. But eventually, I did, and they were able to get some good readings.

It turned out that I had severe sleep apnea, where I would stop breathing about 90-100 times an hour. This in turn limited the oxygen my body needed to function, and get the rest it needed. It also caused slight enlargement of my heart. I recognized the problems I was having during the day: being drained of all energy, never catching up on sleep. Plus, I was severely overweight.

I agreed to go in for treatment. It began with a C-pap machine. This thing straps around your head like a Darth Vader mask and it compresses and forces air up into your nasal passages. It attempts to keep those pathways open. It is attached by tubes to a machine that you keep on the nightstand or floor under the bed. This machine has some wires, dials and more tubes. You can dial it in to a comfortable setting.

I must say it was difficult getting used to it at first. For instance, I am not used to breathing through my nose, I do so through my mouth just fine thank you. But with this machine, it was set up only to breathe through the nose. I had to retrain myself. Others might not have this problem. Also, I was uncomfortable at first with having this contraption on my face, it was kind of claustraphobic, to me. I eventually got over it, though, as it got easier and actually helped me later.

Over time, I got more and more used to it. I felt more refreshed, as I knew I was getting much more of that oh-so-important oxygen to my brain, lungs and blood vessels. Before this time, air was being blocked and I suffered for it. Now, I started to get more and more energy, about an hour more a day.

I improved to the point that my health improved. I could go on the next step in treatment: surgery. More on this next time.