I have good news, and I have bad news. It is now less than a month until I see my dentist to receive the Sleep Apnea device that I hope will allow me to take control of my life again. That is the good news.
The bad news is, I have decided that I need to put JFASN on hiatus again until the device is installed and, I hope, doing what I need it to do.
I am not just walking away from this blog. Odds are I will post something every now and then, although that will probably happen most often on Twitter. If you don’t already follow me there, you will find me at @JazzJock.
If you or a loved one suffers from Sleep Apnea, help is available, and I encourage you to see your personal physician to explore the various options available.
I cannot stress to you enough the seriousness of this condition. Do not trust your health to a homeopath or a naturopath or a chiropractor or a faith healer or any other “complementary or alternative medicine” therapist who claims to have a treatment for Sleep Apnea.
Those folks are modern-day snake oil salesmen whose main skill lies in separating you from the money in your bank account.
Here are some places to start to get legitimate, medicine-based information:
The American Sleep Apnea Association
Both Harvard University and The Mayo Clinic have sites with a lot of basic information about Sleep Apnea.
And the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a lot of good information.
I will caution you about relying any of the online tests that are available to help you determine if you have Sleep Apnea or not.
I took one of those online tests, and I took a similar one in the waiting room of the sleep doctor I eventually went to see. Both tests showed I was unlikely to have Sleep Apnea.
The actual sleep study, done with a machine connected to me while I slept in my own bed, showed considerably different results.
See a sleep doctor and have the sleep study done regardless of what any online test tells you. It doesn’t hurt, and all you have to do is go to bed. What could be easier?
Thanks for reading this.
Al Evans
Wood Village, Oregon
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