Sleep Apnea 1

Hi,

My name Jet, and I'd like to share my story and some info on Sleep Apnea. Sleep Apnea is a problem for many people; unfortunately most of them don't even know they have it. But before I begin, check out these important facts:

Why is Sleep important?

If you're not alert, you're more likely to have accidents, putting yourself and everyone around you at risk.

At work, at home every where else your day takes you - Alertness Matters.

When you're not alert at work, you're more likely to have an accident. You might also forget tasks or miss deadlines. Your co-workers may think you're not up to the job.

When you're not alert with friends and family, you may be too tired to socialize and may find everyday tasks and conversation overwhelming.

Did you know?

• 51 % of US adult drivers say they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy and have actually fallen asleep at the wheel.
• 37 % of US adults report that daytime sleepiness interferes with their daily life.
• 60 - 70 % of shift workers have problem sleepiness and /or difficulty sleeping and staying asleep when they get home.
• In a study, non-daytime work was associated with a 63% increased risk of fatal occupational accident when compared to daytime work.

Sleepiness is the largest identifiable and preventable cause of commercial transportation accidents on the road, in the air, at sea and on railways.

My son is in the Army and he lived about 400 miles away from me at that time. He had surgery and needed help so I went to be with him. On the way home I fell asleep at the wheel of my car and woke up just as I was going off the road. I was very scared. I thought it was because I was over tired, because I had not gotten much sleep. I was so worried about my son. I asked a few doctors about it and they put me on several different medicines, but nothing worked. It was about 3 years before I got any help. Every day when I got up in the morning I would still be so tired. I only had a 20-minute drive to go to work, but it took everything I had to stay awake. It was the same way or worse on the way home. When it was break time and I sat down, I would fall asleep. Someone told me that I might have sleep apnea, so I went back to my Dr. and told him. He said, "No I don't think you have sleep apnea because you aren't overweight." As a last resort he agreed to send me to a specialist. They did a sleep study on me and said, "Yes you do have sleep apnea." I stopped breathing 58 times in 1 minute. They could not believe it.

They put me on a C-pap machine and every night I sleep with it. The Dr. told me that all I have to do is lose 10% of my weight and I might be able to come off the C-pap. It's not fun to be on the C-pap, but right now that is the only thing saving my life, because I could die in my sleep. This machine blows me up like a balloon. The Dr. told me to sleep on a pillow with my head tilted back so the air will flow better, that is hard to sleep like that. I still wake up at night sometimes. Not a great way to live. The only thing I can see to do is to lose weight. You can Stop Breathing and never know it.