Good Sleep Health and Sleep Apnea
Speaker: Jess Lackey of Pacific Pulmonary Inc.
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
1:00pm – 3:00pm
Rose Room – Harrison Silverdale
1800 NW Myhre Road – Silverdale, WA 98383
Better Breathers Support Group
“Our Better Breathers support group encompasses community members and their caregivers who live with chronic respiratory disease and lung disease. Better Breathers is designed to provide support, education, networking, and tools to improve the daily lives of those living with these health conditions.
We welcome any community member with asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, sarcoidosis, asbestosis, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis and the many more lung diseases affecting our population, pediatric or adult.
Please email or call if you will need assistance with parking at the meeting.”
Contact: Pamela O’Flynn – 360-744-6687 – respiratorycare@harrisonmedical.org
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My sleep apnea story in short form: Some ten years ago the Sleep Study and bi-pap machine enabled me to get back into a bed after a few years of sleeping in a chair…I could not breathe lying down so had to sleep in a recliner chair…comfortable though it was, it was not a bed.
During this last year after an at home study I discovered my saturation numbers hit the basement while sleeping – bottoming out into the low 70’s. 100 is normal and nobody knew it…who knows how long that went on?
One of the questions I will be asking tomorrow: Why don’t the c-pap or bi-pap machines monitor the patient’s blood/oxygen level during sleep to alert the doctor there is a problem. Hint: After a length of time without oxygen, brain cells die. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001435.htm
During sleep how low can the blood/oxygen levels go and for how long before brain cells die? Personally, I want to hug and cherish my brain cells from a distance and keep them going as long as possible.
A sharp Harrison Medical Center ER doc caught a problem and had me put on a concentrator that gathers oxygen from the room and bleeds it into my bi-pap – leading to better sleep. Except when the RLS bounces me right out of bed to move my legs and walk around.
Ignoring Sleep Apnea can lead to serious stuff – we need to be aware.
Tomorrow is the opportunity to ask the questions and have fun at the same time.
Refreshments!
See you Wednesday! If anyone needs a ride, let me know.
Following are photos of my concentrator connected to the bi-pap and connected to the facemask that goes over my nose and blows air into my airway.
Some folks say the c-pap and bi-pap is too noisy. I call it the sweet song of life.
Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara
