Dr. Anita Bhola asked me to prepare some remarks for the first meeting of the Mid Hudson Valley A.W.A.K.E. group, which she is kicking off tomorrow, Wednesday March 20th.  I thought the remarks might be of interest to the broader community here at SleepGuide.com, so here they are:

Welcome. Thank you for coming. My name is Michael Goldman, and I am a Sleep Apnea patient. I have used CPAP, first unsuccessfully, then with great success, for the past 5 years. My path to getting well with Sleep Apnea was rocky, and motivated me to start up the NYC Manhattan A.W.A.K.E. Sleep Apnea Support Group and to assume the position of Northeast Coordinator for the A.W.A.K.E. network of Sleep Apnea Support Groups. I also run the free online Sleep Apnea support community at SleepGuide.com.

A.W.A.K.E. - which stands for “Alert, Well and Keeping Energetic” – is a nation-wide network of support groups for the Sleep Apnea patient that is chartered under authority of the American Sleep Apnea Association. Essentially, it is a resource for you – the Sleep Apnea patient. And as you have probably realized already, to get well with Sleep Apnea, you’ll need a lot of help. This is partly because Sleep Apnea is a chronic, dynamic disease that requires daily attention and care. But it’s also because there are a lot of different people you need to deal with to get diagnosed and treated with Sleep Apnea, and they don’t always work together as well as they should. Inevitably, you’ll have questions about how to get well with Sleep Apnea. And this A.W.A.K.E. group is a forum for you to ask those questions, and to get them answered.

You are very fortunate in that the A.W.A.K.E. group of which you are now part is headed up by Dr. Anita Bhola, a Board certified sleep physician whose compassion and care for her patients, not to mention the caliber of her knowledge in the field, is among the best you could hope to find. USE THIS GROUP! It’s one of the best resources you have for navigating the complex waters of getting well with Sleep Apnea. Which brings me to my final point. Your health depends largely on you proactively finding out what the right questions are and seeking out the answers. Neither your doctor nor your equipment company nor anyone else in the medical community will do it for you. This truth is humbling at first, but also empowering.

So with Dr. Bhola as your guide, I encourage you to make this group your own by using it to raise questions and find answers.

Thank you to Dr. Bhola for caring enough to make this group a reality. And good luck to you all on your journey to get well with Sleep Apnea!