Sleep apnea is an awful, awful condition, and I can only imagine how many pots of steaming java you’d need to go for 20 years without real rest! I have enough trouble staying awake after a good 8 hours plus a nap.
My father, among other things, has always had horrible snoring. Over the course of the years, his snoring got worse and worse until he started to wake up in the middle of the night, unable to breathe. He’d sit bolt upright in bed, making these horrible choking noises and gasping for air. Needless to say, it frightened my mother and the dog half to death every time he did it.
Philip Skeates knows that problem well. As he says in this BBC News article: “They did a sleep study where they wire you from head to toe and watch you sleep and it was revealed I had one of the worst cases they’d seen.”
My father is the sort of guy who won’t go to the hospital unless he has to, and he certainly won’t stay overnight. This is a man who, when he was diagnosed with double pneumonia, told the doctor to give him an extra shot and his prescription so he could go home and rest when any other person (well, any other sane person) would’ve been checked into the hospital immediately. His solution to his sleep apnea problem has been to sleep at an angle or sitting up for the past 10 years. It hasn’t been pretty, and it’s caused the family couch to take a horrendous beating, but it’s worked.
Philip Skeates needed something more drastic. When you read about the details of just how bad his apnea was, you can see why the only solution to his problem was a CPAP (continuous positive airways pressure) machine. Well, that and gallons of coffee.
I can’t even imagine how badly his life must’ve been before his diagnosis was made. I don’t sleep very well myself most nights, but at least I can get a few hours rest. I’ll never complain about my insomnia again!
