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