Hello thank you for stopping by. As a recent trache pacient I decided to take some time and give some information to others with sleep apnea and concidering a trache.
HISTORY............ As far back as I can remember I have had a hard time staying awake and functioning. I always blamed it on the Meds for depression I was taking. Never thought of a medical reason. About a year ago now I went to my family doctor complaining of pains in my joints. She suggested that I go to a neurologist and have a few tests. I went figuring they would find a pinched nerve or something like that. The neurologist said he didnt like the way I sounded when i was breathing and suggested I have the possiabilities of sleep apnea looked in to. I called my family doctor and told her what he had said and she sent in for a refferal for a sleep study. to my surprise i was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea.
THE FIRST TRY.............. Well with diagnosis in hand i came home and talked to my wife. She decided to look things up on line Because we hadnt really heard too much about sleep apnea. we found alot of info that scared us both. The doctor sent a company to us with a machine to help me breath at night. Its called a CPAP. with the sleep study results in hand they fit me with the mask and told me to try it. It had to be better then stopping breathing 67 times a hour. I agreed and tried the evil machine for almost 7 months and never got used to it.
One day when my wife was home from work she was surfing the web on sleep apnea again and found info on OSA(obstructive sleep apnea) Again she worried and said we needed to talk to the doctor. she made us a appointment and we went. the family doctor again reffered us to someone new, a ENT ( ear, nose, and throat specialist)
Before even seeing my sleep study findings he said the worst case cenerio was a trache. I just about freeked thinking my gawd a tube in my throat. Later that day he called and said he got the results and needed us to make another appointment with him. we did so and found out theres alot of different surgeries they could do. worse case being a trache. After leaving the office my wife and i were talking and somewhat decided to go for it.
We surfed the net and found Mike( page to be linked soon) Mike is a neck breather(as we are called) upon reading thru his page i found hundreds of similarities between him and I.
Mike and I and his wife and Mine talked off and on on line for a few weeks before i went in to have my trache done. Mike gave us alot of great information and helped ease the scared feelings. Beth his wife even talked to Dianne my wife and helped her to support me. Dianne and I didnt know what we were getting in to but decided no matter what it had to be better then sleepless nights, falling asleep behind the wheel and never going anywhere because we were always to tired.
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Journal of facts
