Living with Sleep Apnea

20 years ago, at the age of 26 my husband began bolting out of bed, beating his chest while gasping for air as if it was his last. He would drop to his knees as I watched, in horror, the color leave his face! Now mind you, it’s about 3:00am and I’ve been abruptly woken from a deep sleep. After what appeared to be hours, probably only a few seconds, he would gain his breath. Now for the next several minutes he would belch and belch from all the air he sucked in. He was horribly weak at that point and would lay back in bed, heart pounding as I stood in shock wondering what the heck just happened. Could he have died?! What would me and our 4 chidren, ages 5, 4, 3, and 21 months do without him?!! He, as most men, blew it off as nothing.

It happened again about 10 months later, and again about a year after that…by the time he was in his early 30’s it was happening more and more frequently. But still refused to go to a Dr. Until one evening after watching a news-tv show featuring sleep apnea. I had never heard of it before this. As we watched a man, in a sleep study, bolt out of bed, beat his chest and drop to his knees…we just looked at each other. The next day I set up an appointment for a sleep study.

The Doctor was shocked. It was revealed that my husband had 62 apnea episodes every hour for eight hours! Thats just under 500 in one nights sleep. He had a great deal of scar tissue that had already built up on his heart. From what we were told, typically, Apnea patients are male, over 60 years of age at at least 100 lbs overweight. That was not the case. My husband was now 33, and maybe 10-15 lbs overweight. They immediately scheduled him for surgery.

First they went in to fix a deviated septum…didn’t work. Then they went in and did some laser proceedure where they removed 60-70% of his soft palate and uvula, tonsils etc. The snoring stopped, but after 6 months it was revealed that the apnea was still there. They tried the CPAP machine, but that was almost worse for him because he has clostaphobia (however you spell it)he couldn’t keep the mask on his face without sending his blood pressure and heart rate through the roof! Now there was a battle between the ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) Drs, and the Maxil Facial/Oral Surgeons as to which is the best next step. ENT said Tracheodomy. While the MaxilFacial surgeons where saying “Jaw Advancement” surgery where they actually severe the jaws and move them forward while moving the tongue forward to open up the front wall of the throat. So my husband decided on the MaxilFacial proceedure.

So on July 17, 1997, at the age of 34 he had it done. Our children were now 13, 12, 11 and 9 1/2. It was supposed to be a 2 hour proceedure, his jaw would be wired shut for 10 days, and then back to work. After 2.5 hours of surgery the surgeon came out to see me. I thought everything was done. But I was wrong! Very wrong! The dr tells me that my husbands airway is so extremely narrow, that the drs couldn’t keep the intubation tube down his throat and it was causing him to come out of his deep sleep, which was causing his heart to race and he tells me that my husband’s heart has already stopped beating twice on the table. They have had to “paddle” his heart both times to get it beating again. He was asking me for permission to wake my husband up so that they could get him to swallow the tube. He informs me that my husbands top jaw is already 3/4 severed but assures me that they will keep him as “comfortable” as possible. I said “do whatever you have to do to keep him alive!” After 11.5 hours of surgery, my husband ended up in Intensive Care on a respirator.

He was in the hospital for a week and then released home. They were unable to “wire” his jaw shut because of the length of the surgery, so they placed rubberbands around the “arch bars” to hold his jaw in place. Along with 4 metal plates and 8 screws holding his face in place.

My husband was off work for 4 months. It was a very very slow healing process. He lost almost 50lbs w/in the first 2 weeks, he was very weak. It took 3 months before he could eat any solid food, and at least a year before he could eat any meat that hadn’t been puree’d. But it worked!!!!! It was a aweful ordeal, but it worked! My husband was cured of Sleep Apnea….so I thought! Just two night ago, on his 46th Birthday, my husband bolted out of bed, gasping for breath as if it was his last! My world came crashing down! So yesterday morning, I sat my 4 kids down….now 24, 23, 22, 20 1/2 and we have sort of ganged up on him. Making sure he gets this corrected.

DIET is the first thing. Over the years, my husband has put on a few pounds, more like 50! So that is the first thing! It is imperative that Sleep Apnea patients keep their weight down! No late night eating! A habbit in which he has fallen into. So I guess the moral of this whole story for me is Once you have Sleep Apnea, you ALWAYS HAVE Sleep Apnea! It’s a condition that must be treated and kept in check….that is if you want to keep living! So don’t ever think you are out of the woods, no matter how long it has been. Keep the weight off, keep as much stress out of your life as possible, and keep the ones you love close by! Thank you for letting me get that off my chest…it’s been a long time!