Sleep Apnea
Written January 1999
My husband, Norman, often fell asleep watching television, and the kids snickered. "Dad's getting old," my daughter would whisper. But Dad wasn't really old. In his early fifties, he was much too young to be sleeping his life away.
As the malady became worse, he'd fall asleep a dozen times a day, even in the middle of a sentence. He often fell asleep while driving, creating a danger to himself and to others. If I were there, I'd nudge him with my elbow or shout to wake him up. Several times, however, he was alone and he landed in the ditch.
He loved his fishing, but eventually he had to give the sport up because of the danger of going to asleep and falling out of the boat.
SNORING
Norman seemed to sleep heavily during the night. The kids mumbled and grumbled about having their sleep disturbed by his loud snoring, Sleeping next to him, I realized he might have a health problem. He seemed to stop breathing for short periods of time as he slept, only to awaken with a loud snort as he tossed restlessly.As the years passed, these periods of disturbed sleep became more frequent. Desperate for a good night's sleep, I finally moved into the guest room. Still I couldn't sleep. Now I stayed awake and listened for his snoring to assure myself he was still breathing.
He refused to see a doctor. He said he was just run down, and bought vitamins to increase his energy. He didn't realize how frequently he fell asleep. He could take a nap of three or four minutes during a sentence, wake up and continue talking as though there had never been a lapse.
DETERIORATING HEALTH
His health continues to deteriorate. Obese but unwilling to stay on a diet, he also often drank too much . Now he began to show increasing irritability and depression.Finally, after fighting the ailment for more than five years, he agreed to see a doctor. Knowing Norman's penchant for avoiding the truth when it came to describing his condition, I phoned the clinic before his visit and described his symptoms.
The doctor admitted him to the hospital for further tests. Two days later, he suffered a severe heart attack and was hospitalized for almost a month. His doctor suggested that probably the sleepiness had been the result of his tired heart,
He seemed better for a couple of years, although the restless nights continued. Then the restlessness increased, and the daytime sleepiness became increasingly worse. Was he about to suffer another heart attack? Finally I contacted a district nurse and she began a schedule of weekly visits.
Now, at last, we got some results. Unlike the doctor who saw Norman only for short office visits, the nurse saw him in his home environment and realized just how frequently he dozed off and just how debilitating the sleep problem was. She put him on oxygen, and that helped a little, but not nearly enough.
SLEEP APNEA
The sleepy spells were rapidly become more frequent, the sleep deeper. Afraid he might slip away into a coma, I begged the nurse to do something. Despite the long waiting list, she managed to get him admitted to the Sleep Lab of a major hospital. There he was diagnosed as a victim of sleep apnea. I had never heard of sleep apnea, and was shocked to discover the condition is fairly common, although some sufferers are more seriously afflicted than others.There are two types of sleep apnea -- obstructive, and central. Obstructive sleep apnea is by far the most common. One cause is an obstruction of the airway when the muscles of the tongue or uvula relax. In my husband's case, obesity and an abnormal amount of fat in the throat area caused the problem.
