After years of declining health, sleep therapy provides hope

This has been a difficult year for all of us. I am no exception. Besides struggling financially due to rising costs of pretty much everything, I have been dealing with taking care of several health issues that had been going unchecked, leaving me very, very sick for the first time in my life. I was so fatigued, my bones and muscles were constantly causing me pain, and I couldn’t seem to get better no matter what I tried. It turns out I had a severe case of complex sleep apnea, and I had had it for years. Leaving my sleep apnea untreated was literally killing me, slowly but surely.

My dog was happy I was sleeping so much, but I was not

By the grace of God I have been surrounded by a loving church community over the past two years, and when I got sick many people from the church offered all types of support to me. Their compassion gave me the ability to seek out the medical treatment I so desperately needed. I was able to get on an excellent health insurance plan. And I started getting treatment for all that was ailing me, which as it turns out was more than just sleep apnea.

The sleep apnea had exacerbated and probably caused atrial fibrillation, which is a disorder of the heart which, left untreated, most inevitably leads to stroke and other severe issues. I was able to get on a medication to help me avoid such a fate, and immediately I could tell the difference in how I felt. I got on a blood thinner and believe it or not it felt like a weighted blanked had been lifted off me. Once I got that physical aspect taken care of it was time for the sleep study.

My sleep study was done in two parts and at two different locations, both within the UPMC hospital system. I had a split study done first. This is where you get hooked up to a bunch of wires and sleep in your normal state. After four hours they observed that I stopped breathing nearly 80 times per hour. Not only that, but of the four levels of sleep – the fourth being the all important REM sleep – I did not get beyond a superficial sleep. In other words, my brain was not getting any rest and was not able to process any of my thoughts overnight, which is essential for mental clarity and health.

After the first four hours, they began to try a CPAP machine at varying levels of intensity to see what I could tolerate. It turns out my case was a bit more complicated and required a second study. Then, for the second study, they tried a BiPAP ASV machine. This machine adjusts the intensity of the air pressure to match my specific, moment-by-moment needs. This proved almost miraculous. That night I slept like a baby for more than six hours without interruption and reached REM sleep multiple times.

Treating my sleep apnea with my ResMed AirCurve 11 ASV

After the study, the doctor prescribed me the top-of-the-line ResMed AirCurve 11 ASV. After having had such a great night sleep, the next few days I was on a high from the amazing night’s rest I got. Unfortunately, though, I had to wait nearly a month to get the machine through my insurance company, and by then I was back to my former groggy, exhausted, and mentally confused state. But then the day came for me to pick up the machine, and since that very first night my life has been completely changed.

I have loads of energy. I work currently as a Lyft driver, and while before I could only manage a two-hour shift before becoming too sleepy to drive, I can now driver for 12 hours at a time and not loose mental clarity and focus for that entire time. I have so much more energy now. And I finally have enough clarity to get control of other areas of my life, which had gotten out of control.

The result of all this is that I am back on my healthy eating plan and am getting more exercise in the form of stretching and walking. Soon I plan to rejoin the gym. From my top weight I hit during my illness of 455, I have lost about 40 pounds. I am hoping to lose another 20 by the end of August to finally be back under 400 lbs.