What the sleep apnea is doing to me now

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I turned fifty-one in January and I felt like I was a lot older than that. Not only do I have the problems with sleep apnea, I also have Meniere’s disease. I also blog about my Meniere’s disease; which I started at the same time as the sleep apnea blog. Right now my meniere’s is getting better; at least it seems that it is getting better. I haven’t had any attacks lately, so that’s good. And I am finding myself under the same stress as millions of Americans in that my job may be ending soon. So even without sleep apnea I probably wouldn’t get much rest.

I think that I am at a turning point where I have to do something about not getting enough rest. I have been able to get by without a lot of sleep for many years. It’s been difficult with the illnesses and that fact that I am a father of a seven year old son. But now I am starting to worry about my heart and whether it can last at least for another 15 years so I can see my son graduate from college. My own father died when I was 19, he also had sleep apnea and heart problems. At the time no one ever spoke about sleep apnea, I know he had it by the way he snored at night. It took its toll on him and he died at 61.

As I have written in past posts I have tried the cpap mask and the bipap mask and gone on what seems like a million sleep studies. I have tried to lose weigh but I gain it back. But I know that I just can’t forget that not being able to sleep isn’t good for me.

So, what am I going to do? First I am going to set up an appointment with a dentist who specializes in dental devices for sleep apnea. If he gives the okay that I am a candidate for that I will give it a try.

If not, I will have to try the cpap again and just force myself to use it. The only other option is surgery and I haven’t heard anything good about that.

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Comments

  1. HIO Golf DoctorJune 12, 2009 at 6:24 PM

    Has there been correlation between the two conditions?

    ReplyDelete
  2. David StillwagonJune 12, 2009 at 10:01 PM

    I don't think so. I've had the sleep apnea for years and I've had only had the Meniere's for about 5 years.
    But then again Meniere's is a strange illness.

    ReplyDelete

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