Back in 2007, between getting back from Iraq and being posted to what was to become Joint Base Lewis-McChord, I had a sleep study performed at the Georgetown Sleep Center in Texas. I had a good suspicion that I suffered from sleep apnea and wanted to know for sure.
Turns out I did.
They gave me a CPAP machine.
An Unwanted Gift.
I absolutely hated it. The last thing I wanted was to sleep with a plastic mask strapped to my face and pumping air down my throat like I was some sort of human balloon.
So, while I was stationed at JBLM with 4/6ACS, I found myself on rear detachment and being offered a surgery called bimaxillary advancement. It’s a curious treatment that involves taking your face apart and putting it back together again with your jaw sticking out a centimeter, hopefully opening your throat so you don’t choke to death in your sleep.
Well, I was as opposed to choking to death in my sleep as I was opposed to the CPAP machine. Sufficiently opposed that an anecdote might serve to illustrate: When I returned to Iraq from mid-tour leave, the beds and pillows at the Kuwait base were so crap that I woke up choking to death twice. Fun fact: waking up choking and experiencing sleep paralysis – that period of time between waking up and being able to move – is less fun than it sounds. I spent the next four days awake.
The surgery was a success and cut my apnea/hypopnea index from 31 down to 15 – qualifying for a continuation of the CPAP prescription. However, one doctor told me I wouldn’t need to use the machine any more and that, coupled with the fact that if I arranged my pillows so I could sleep comfortably, I didn’t wake up choking, lead me to forget all about the CPAP machine.
Don’t It Always Seem To Go…
Well, cutting the intervening years short, my quality of sleep has been degrading ever since, so late last year I requested a new CPAP machine.
That meant I had to go through another blasted sleep study. Two in fact. One to verify that I still have sleep apnea and another to run a CPAP titration to establish the pressure for CPAP treatment.
Suffice it to say that I don’t enjoy sleep studies.
So right now I’m having to hurry up and wait for a new CPAP machine.
Quite A Turn Around.
It just struck me today that, after a particularly crummy night’s sleep where my Samsung watch reported a blood oxygen level bottoming out at 70% (which correlates with the initial sleep study report) that I’ve gone from originally not wanting a CPAP machine to actively looking forward to getting a new one.
This Thursday is my lucky day.
Really looking forward to a good night’s sleep.
Categories: CPAP, Health, Uncategorized
Andrew Wellington 
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