Manny’s Healthful Journey(TM) Overcoming Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

*Manny's Healthful Journey™ Overcoming Severe Sleep Apnea

Join us for an interview with Manny and discover how he has been able to manage through his journey after diagnosis with severe sleep apnea. This is Manny’s Healthful Story™. Please note that the video may only play in landscape mode on a mobile phone.

Navigate Manny's Journey with Slepp Apnea (OSA)

00:38 I’m nearly 40, originally from the island of Guam

00:59 I’m new to the Seattle area having just moved in January of 2021

02:04 I’ve lived with sleep apnea my whole life. I just didn’t have a name for it

02:46 I never realized how difficult life was – not knowing what the impact my snoring was having on my overall health – not being able to put a name to my condition nor really having anything to compare it against

03:00 I had severe fatigue and needed caffeine to power through the day

03:14 The desire to take a nap in the middle of the day – wanting to fall asleep immediately after dinner – I didn’t know these types of things weren’t normal

03:38 My AHI (apnea hypopnea index), which is a measure of disease severity, was in the in upper 60’s which means that 60 times an hour literally once a minute or more I would experience a stop in my breathing at night

03:53 That is considered a severe condition

04:38 I didn’t realize that there were other impacts on my life as well you know my mood

04:43 I was a very very impatient person and I chalked that up to my father being a very impatient person and his father being a very impatient person but at the end of the day I didn’t realize that it was a chronic lack of sleep causing my feelings of irritability

05:14 I received a CPAP device – a continuous positive airway pressure device which was essentially a pump that will blow air into into your mouth to keep your throat open while you’re sleeping

05:58 I think in the course over the course of the next decade of having the device I maybe used the device maybe three to five times and each time

without success and you can imagine when you are in a severe state of fatigue the idea of adding yet one more thing to your routine in terms of setting up a device making sure that it is clean was simply too much for me and my in my condition

08:23 In 2017, I was living in San Francisco and started to explore new options

08:28 I was recommended an oral appliance – a new device that literally works like a mouth guard with the one exception that it will help to to move the lower jaw forward and potentially help increase the airway at the back of the throat again with that mechanical movement of the jaw

08:48 I tried that and it didn’t work and in the meantime I had purchased an oxygen sensor to wear to monitor my blood oxygen levels and again I would see very clearly my blood oxygen would go into the low 80s at night so when your blood oxygen level

09:08 I understand that 85 blood oxygen can already result in organ failure and so going into low 80s is severely is a severe situation and does indeed require medical attention

09:50 In 2018, I did manage to go see an ear nose and throat (ENT) specialist and in an examination with the ENT doctor the physician at the University of California San Francisco she mentioned to me that I did indeed have a narrow airway commence also mentioned to me that one of my tonsils was extremely large and so one of the things that she recommended was a UPPP surgery a (uvulopalatopharyngoplasty) surgery

10:21 We would remove the tonsils but also remove some of the excess tissue at the back of the throat to ensure again that the airway would be less obstructed

10:31 We went through the surgery there was a two-week recovery period that was recommended so I did it over the holiday when I was luckily enough to be off work and there was a period of recovery where I had a liquid diet – I couldn’t chew, etc.

10:51 I was lucky that I didn’t feel a lot of pain

11:09 So this was January of 2020. I just completed my surgery and I was very excited to wear my oxygen sensor to see whether or not it worked and I was disappointed

11:20 Unfortunately the oxygen sensor told me that even with the surgery I still had a severe condition to manage through and I went through a period of a few weeks where I was pretty sad and despondent thinking that you know maybe there’s nothing that can be done for my sleep apnea

11:42 But in a moment of luck or desperation, I thought to myself that I had tried these various interventions – that I tried to sit upright I had tried the oral appliance, I had gotten the UPPP surgery and of course. I was wearing the oxygen sensor to monitor my oxygen levels and so I thought to myself well – I have nothing to lose at this point

12:05 Let’s try all of these different solutions at once and so i draped the blanket over the lawn chair to set upright. I strapped on my oxygen sensor

and placed the sensor on my finger as is that’s how it works. I placed the oral advancement device, the dental appliance into my mouth and I went to sleep

12:27 And that was probably the first truly good night of sleep that I had had in the nearly 40 years that I’ve been alive

15:08 I have to talk about the importance of of what this has meant for me and for my family

15:18 I had spent my whole life feeling tired, having what’s called brain fog – this feeling that you you’re not necessarily able to keep up with with information as people are speaking with you – keeping track of conversations – the inability to to stay awake much past dinner time – The inability to read stories to my daughter who is now five years old

15:41 All these things were were signs that that something wasn’t quite right with my life and that it could be so much more I just didn’t realize it

15:50 Being sleep deprived being irritable for those in the in in the viewing audience who’ve had newborn children you know that feeling that you get when you just didn’t get quite enough sleep – just imagine what that’s like year on year for nearly 40 years. That was essentially my life

16:37 As I speak to you now, my life has been completely transformed. I have gone from what I would call a thirty percent life to a hundred percent life literally overnight

16:48 I have more energy. I am able to wake up early without any negative feelings

16:55 I’m able to power through the day without much caffeine

17:00 I no longer crave sugar

17:06 My cognition; my ability to think clearly has improved dramatically so that I can now keep track of conversations

17:27 My mood has improved dramatically. I am a much more patient person. I no longer get angry for very little things that happen in my

life and and certainly that has had tremendous impact on my family and my ability to be a good husband and a better father

19:47 It’s absolutely worth your time to make your health a priority and keep moving forward even if the first few things that you try might not work it makes it even more difficult when you’re in a situation where you’re fatigued and you’re too tired to continue to power through find these solutions

20:25 Do not get discouraged when something doesn’t work continue to fight for yourself and I am confident that good things will happen. Sometimes it just takes a lifetime

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