The apnea group Sleepguide.com, whom I had the pleasure to meet at Twitter has asked me to discuss my experience with sleep apnea. On November 22, 2008, I had major surgery to treat it.



It all started around 1998. My mother had just died in my rural home in Ms. I had returned there after almost two decades away to take care of her. I was there for four years as a caretaker. She was a trooper, always had lived life to the… Continue

Awareness is not yet widespread that Sleep Apnea is a disorder that doesn't just touch the lives of overweight, middle-aged men. But Sleep Apnea doesn't discriminate. Take James Simmons. He's 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 190 pounds and is only 23 years old. He's a top prospect to pitch in the Major Leagues for the Oakland A's, and can throw a 90 mph fastball.… Continue

Is it possible that a pill will turn out to be a Sleep Apnea cure? Hard to fathom, but that's exactly what Cortex Pharaceuticals, Inc. of Irvine, Calif. has its sights set on with its new AMPAKINE CX1739 drug compound. Cortex says that animal studies have demonstrated that the AMPAKINE compound can stimulate the regions of the brain responsible for regulating breathing and muscle tone in the upper airway. The notion is that an increase in breathing and an improvement in upper airway… Continue

My wife's Sleep Study confirmed what I had suspected all along: my wife has Sleep Apnea. What I didn't bargain for is that this Sleep Study has landed me squarely within the four corners of the proverbial dog house. Here's why:



My wife has snored all night, every night since I've met her. It's so bad that I wear Macks earplugs just so I can get to sleep with all the ruckus. She's seen me go through all the stations of Sleep Apnea: the sleep study, the titration, the missteps, and the… Continue

Sleep Apnea Depression. If you're asking which one it is, sleep apnea or depression, you're in good company: unfortunately, primary care physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and patients often confuse sleep apnea and depression. Understandably so. Loss of energy, loss of interest in once enjoyable things, difficulty concentrating and fatigue are common symptoms of depression. But they are also common symptoms of sleep apnea, and new research is continually emerging to show… Continue

Are we ashamed of having Sleep Apnea? I know the answer for myself is a resounding "no." But for others, it's not so simple. To my way of thinking, Sleep Apnea is a common disorder to which no stigma is attached. Sure, sleeping with a hose attached to a breathing machine every night is inconvenient, but I don't feel as if it's something I need to hide. But for my friend Peter (name changed for sake of anonymity), it's a black mark that he feels compelled to hide from others. When he… Continue

The connection between Sleep Apnea and Diabetes is real and scary. Studies published in the European Respiratory Journal and Journal of Internal Medicine tell us that up to 40% of people with Sleep Apnea will have Diabetes. Other studies show that up to 50% of those with type 2 Diabetes have Sleep Apnea. Essentially, Sleep Apnea causes intermittent shortages of oxygen in the body and fragmentation of sleep, which in turn causes physiologic stress which then wreaks havok on glucose… Continue

If you haven't heard, Medicare and private insurers are putting the screws to the DMEs that provide our Sleep Apnea equipment in an effort to cut costs, much to the chagrin of DME providers. One aspect of the cost-cutting is to deny reimbursement to DMEs and other providers that cannot show that their patients are complying with CPAP treatment. While at first blush, this might seem like an adverse development for us patients, the problem for us might be that the insurers didn't do this sooner,… Continue

The comment period is over, and the attached represents the revised version, based on your feedback so far. The original, along with the context surrounding it, is set forth in this article. Given the growth of the community over the past month, and the addition of many… Continue