A few years ago when I was still in law school, my mom called and told me that a friend of mine, Angie, had died. Her grandfather and my grandfather were best friends and lived across the street from each other. My mom and her dad grew up together. They even have those embarrassing pictures of the two of them taking a bath together as babies. It was only natural that Angie and I became friends.Angie, unfortunately, had a weight problem. What could be considered "baby fat" as toddlers could only be classified as obesity as teenagers. I knew that the extra weight caused health problems. I remember that she used to start wheezing on the way to class, and that she snored a lot whenever I spent the night. I just never knew how severe the problems were.
Angie and I fell out of touch in high school when she switched to county. Back in the early 90's, kids didn't have email or cell phones to keep in touch. If someone changed schools and lived on the other side of town, they might as well have fallen off the planet because chances are that you'd never see them again.
I wish that I had made more an effort to keep in touch because I didn't see Angie again until her wake. I couldn't fathom how someone in her early 20's could just die in her sleep, but then I found out from her grandparents. Angie suffered from sleep apnea. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, sleep apnea is a condition that causes a person to stop breathing in his or her sleep, often several times during the night. The temporary cessation in breathing reduces the level of oxygen in the blood. This reduction in oxygen, in turn, causes the brain to signal the body that it's time to wake up. Theoretically, the person responds to this signal, awakens, and resumes breathing. Unfortunately, in Angie's case, she didn't respond and essentially suffocated.
I really don't know if Angie knew that she had the disorder before she died. I didn't think that it was the right time or place to ask. If she had, she might have been able to find a sleep disorder treatment center that could have taught her how to manage or even cure the condition. At SleepDisordersGuide.com, a site that has a searchable, nationwide directory of sleep disorder specialists, Angie could have simply put her zip code into the search bar and found a sleep apnea specialist in her area. I don't know if there were any in the small town that we grew up in at the time, but I'm willing to bet that there were some within driving distance. She and her family could have also read up on the signs, side effects, and different treatments, surgical and nonsurgical alike, associated with sleep apnea. I would like to think that just having that knowledge would have helped in some way, shape, or form, but you know what they say about hindsight being 20/20 and all.
If you wake up tired, even after a full night of sleep; have experienced unexplained weight gain, depression, or personality changes; or suspect that you might have sleep apnea, please see your doctor immediately, like I wish Angie had. If you need help finding a sleep disorder specialist in your area or if you just want to read more on the topic, see SleepDisordersGuide.com and click on the sleep apnea link. The information may just save your or your loved one's life.
