The reason I have created this blog is to put some information out there about a condition/illness I have recently been diagnosed with. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). The spelling of apnea is much debated but I will stick with the simplest form. OSA is where a person chokes in their sleep, wakes up and then goes back to sleep. The soft tissue at the back of the throat falls down blocking the airway. Why this happens is a mystery as far as I have read. Skinny people, fat people, fit people, white and black people all suffer from OSA. People with OSA are usually not aware this is happening as they never completely wake up. The sleeping partners, in the literal sense, of OSA sufferers are usually the ones who notice that their partner stops breathing for anything between 2 and 10 seconds while they are sleeping. There is usually some sort of snort, a resumption of breathing and the apneac goes back to sleep. Some people with OSA stop breathing every minute. The result of this is that the OSA sufferer doesnt really sleep.
The classic symptoms of OSA are constant fatigue, waking up with a sore throat, headaches, using the words "I feel hungover" most mornings, lack of energy, lack of concentration and in my case being clumsy. There are much more serious effects of OSA. The body of an OSA sufferer is constantly struggling for oxygen during sleep. The heart and lungs are working very hard to manage on a limited supply of oxygen. OSA sufferers often report waking up in the middle of the night heart pounding, out of breath and generally feeling dead from the neck up. I write this description from experience. OSA isnt just a lack of sleep, its a massive strain on almost all elements of health. The strain on the heart means that after a few years of OSA, a heart scan shows damage to the heart which is directly attributable to OSA. The damage will get worse over time and will kill the OSA sufferer. The headline will say "Unexpected death from heart attack" but this is not accurate. The death is caused by OSA.
The lack of sleep means that the OSA sufferer will usually have lousy concentration. Driving a vehicle while suffering from OSA is a crap shoot. Many OSA sufferers will fall asleep any time their body identifies an opportunity. People have been known to fall asleep in mid-sentence. OSA sufferers sometimes report "micro sleeps". They could be sitting in a car at a set of lights and they find themselves waking up at the wheel with no idea how long they have been asleep. It may have been seconds or even minutes. Again, headlines will say "Man kills family of three after falling asleep at wheel". Again, this is not accurate, the root cause here is OSA.
Other proven medical symptoms of OSA include raised blood pressure (very common) and sexual dysfunction. My reading has revealed many other conditions are currently being investigated to see if there is a link to OSA. OSA sufferers are many times more likely to suffer from heart attacks and stroke. I have read about studies to see if there is a link between OSA and diabetes.
The treatment of OSA comes down to surgery or a CPAP machine or both. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. This is where an OSA sufferer wears a mask which is connected to a machine which blows air at a constant pressure down the back of the throat. This constant pressure keeps the airway open. Many OSA sufferers report almost miraculous results of using a cpap machine. Lives are changed by cpap. Quality of life can be improved beyond all measure. Some OSA sufferers, however, do not feel the instant benefits of cpap but get them over a period of weeks or months.
Surgery can also be an option. The tonsils and adenoids are the tissues which droop down at the back of the throat causing the airway to be blocked. Surgery removes the tonsils and/or adenoids. My reading suggests that opinions are at best mixed about the effectiveness of surgery.
I am not a doctor. I am just an average guy with a natural desire to find out about the condition I have been diagnosed with. I have felt the effects of this condition, experienced the woeful attempts of many physicians to treat my condition and witnessed first hand the knee-jerk diagnoses of pill pushers. I had to take control of my health as I could not trust my doctors to do it. OSA is a potentially fatal condition. I have two children who I want to watch grow up. My experiences unfortunately have made me realise that you cannot leave it all up to the doctors. Good doctors, doctors you can place your trust in, are very rare.
I will begin to detail my own personal journey of discovery about the condition called Obstructive Sleep Apnea in my next blog entry. OSA right now dominates my thinking and I have found my way to treatment and I have seen what amazing results the treatment can have. Its been a long journey. I hope others will find this blog at least informative.
Till next time.
George
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