How I Got Decent Nights Sleep and Swept my Sleeping Disorder under the Pillow

Email To a Friend 16 June 2009 I consider myself to be a healthy young man; however, I was in quite a quagmire. I am 22 years old and I was just diagnosed with sleep apnea. I discovered this problem when I was almost fired from my job b because I couldn’t make it in on time and missed quite a few days from work without giving notice. I noticed that no matter how many alarms that I accrued, none of them woke me up at the time I set them for. I spoke to my human recourse administrator and discussed my concerns about the matter. I was advised of a leave of absence that would excuse my lack of tardiness if I was able to have my doctor fill out a 20 page form. I hadn’t been to the doctor yet and thought that it would be a good idea if I wanted to keep my job.

I didn’t even know if my doctor would be able to give me the clearance I needed to keep my employment, but to my surprise, after thorough examination, it was determined that I have sleep apnoea. The doctor described it as temporarily losing consciousness while sleeping, preventing me from hearing my alarms on time. He advised me that I would have to go through numerous phases of testing because the exact cause was unknown. In the meantime, he did fill out the booklet that my employer required and sent it to them by fax.

I was eventually approved to have my lateness and absences approved due to my doctor’s cooperation. He advised me that there was a disruption in my breathing and I would have to take a series of tests to come up with a program that would improve my situation pending an exact cause of my illness. I do smoke cigarettes and was informed to stop immediately so that my testing g could pinpoint the causes. Giving up my cigs was difficult, but possible and I continued testing while I waited for this mask-like thing to come in the mail.

The mask is a CPAP unit (continuous positive airway pressure unit) which supplies pressurised oxygen to my airways while I sleep to regulate a build up of carbon dioxide in my lungs. My doctor enrolled me in a paid study so that I could be evaluated while making some extra cash on the side. The CPAP mask has been helping me to sleep better while my doctors continue to discover new breakthroughs concerning this growing health concern.

Malcolm Berry, Rochdale.

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