I Just HAVE To Share This !!!

[Slinky]

I just HAD to share this story w/everyone here. I wish every newspaper in the country would pick up and run this story!! I am delighted that Strawberri is willing to share this story w/anyone who will listen or is interested!!!

RN for many many years....no mention of sleep medicine in school or at the various jobs I had.

Hubby had 4 heart attacks from '94-'98, CABG in '98, went into atrial fib, cardioversion was attempted 2x's, CHF followed suit since the heart is more or less jiggling like jello instead of beating. His ejection fraction was very low when we brought him home after a 3 week stay following the CABG. For the next three years, he was admittled to the hospital for CHF on the average of 9-11 times per year. Never could get the heart back into rhythm, his blood sugars were like a roller coaster, he was in a wheelchair, had to have assistance with personal care, etc. Then came 02 therapy, and his depression grew deeper. He went from a vital truck driver, hunter, fisherman, sports fan, to a "sick old useless man" (his quote, not mine).

2001 "something" felt funny he said, he was a dusky gray color, raced to the ER, heart cath showed one of the two bypasses had occluded. No chance of further surgery, no healthy heart tissue left. This hospital eventually told us they would discharge him, and "make him comfortable". They were sending him home to die and he knew it. One of the cardiologists I hunted down offered to send him to UK in Lexington to see what the cardiologists there thought. We grabbed the bit of hope he offered.

A few days later the heart transplant surgeon and team walked in surrounding his bed. He had hope for a few minutes as they introduced themselves, then it hit bottom again. The doc told him he was on the "B" list, meaning he had one shot in a billion of getting a heart. We asked why bother? He said their job was to keep him alive until technology could catch up, maybe tomorrow would bring new drugs, or surgical techniques. Hubby took the chance they offered and told them to try ANYTHING.

After they left, one intern returned and said they were sending him to the sleep lab that night for a sleep study. Being the sleep medicine illiterate person I was back then, sat there and thought "what the heck does sleep have to do with his heart???" (yeah, right...we were in for quite the education). We filled out the questionnaire and checked YES he snored (we had our best fights in bed!), YES he quit breathing in his sleep (I would elbow him in the tummy until he turned over and stopped snoring, then shake the snot out of him when I realized he no longer was breathing). He or I would end up on the couch.

Arriving at the sleep lab the next morning, the techs knew I was an RN and raced to tell me all about the study, using terms I had no clue as to what they meant. AHI, hypopneas, etc. Some of the terms I grasped, and realized my hubby had been slowly dying while lying next to me for over 14 years. Had to find a chair and a box of tissues when that thought registered fully in my uneducated sleep medicine brain.

He was sent home on CPAP and a new $!@# of drugs. Within three months his ejection fraction was up from 15 to 17. He requested the 02 therapy be stopped.

Within 6-9 months, he was out of the wheelchair. The next appt. with the heart transplant surgeon we learned he no longer met the criteria to be on the transplant list!!!!! This was cause for celebration!! Until the doc explained his theory of my husband's illness to us....and when my eyes were fully opened, I was never the same.

He stated the drugs had helped, the cardiac rehab had helped, but in he and his team's opinion it was CPAP taking the stress off the heart that was responsible for hubby's steps back to a better quality of life.

He added the following statement directed toward me because he knows I am the type of person that apologizes when it rains, so he knew when I finally figured this out for myself I would take all the guilt and beat myself up over it for the rest of our lives:

His statement: "IF ANY of your husband's docs had caught his OSA after the first heart attack, I will go out on a limb and say he probably would have avoided the three other MI's, the CABG, and he sure would not be sitting in my office today".

I thought my heart would break right then and there...literally. I was supposed to be trained in the medical field, I was a professional!!!! But I was an ignorant professional. But instead of beating myself up, I promised myself if I ever had the opportunity to save someone from going through what my hubby has, I would grab it and never let it go.

In 2005 I was given the opportunity to be hired as the tech for a sleep lab opening up in our small community. After hearing our personal story, I was hired, because my employers recognized the passion inside put there through my hubby's illness.

Since coming off the HT list, he had a pacemaker and defibrillator inserted and ablation done to try once more to get the heart out of atrial fib...didn't work, however in November last year, his cardiologist was able to do a heart cath and inserted a small stent and opened up the occluded bypass from 2001!!!!!!!! His ejection fraction today is a whopping 25!!!!! Additionally, the part of his heart all the docs called the "dead zone", is actually growing teeny tiny blood vessals....who needs a new heart when his "original" is being so cooperative???????

Today on this nice fall day with the sun shining and the breeze blowing on his face, he is out riding our nieces (ages 6 and 10) on his 4-wheeler.... The wheelchair in the attic gathering dust....and every night when I go to work, or every support group I'm asked to speak at, I pray for the opportunity to tell someone my hubby's story, and for at least one person to hear it, act upon it, and avoid what my hubby has gone through. He's my hero and through him many lives are being saved here.

Will I ever go back to nursing? NOPE, not as long as there is such a profession as RPSGT!!! I tell the RN's when they ask why did I go "down a rung on the professional ladder", I just laugh at them and say there is no feeling on earth like watching a patient leave the lab the next morning, titrated - excited about feeling better - and ready to get on with their life!! So excuse me...............BUT I am not "down a rung on the ladder", I'm sittin' on top of the world!!!

AND WOW!!!!!! - the rush when a former patient makes contact a few months, weeks, years later and tells what sleep medicine has done for them...would not trade it for anything!!!

[dsm]

Fantastic story - thanks for posting it Slinky

DSM

#2 PS some quick witted person tweeted this fascinating story before I had 1/2 the chance to - good !

[Julie]

OMG! Having worked in hospitals all my life I would NEVER, EVER have given your husband a 2% chance of recovery, let alone anything else. He was as close to dying as a person can be, and now look at him! Incredible!

[Slinky]

I'm not a tweeter, or tweeterer, or whatever term is correct, but I am delighted someone has posted it there!!! Thanks to whoever it was who did so.

[BleepingBeauty]

Awesome story with a very happy ending. Kudos to Strawberri, and thanks to Slinky for posting it here.

[elg5cats]

Slinky, Thanks for sharing.........that's an amazing experienced shared!!!!

elg5cats

[fuzzy96]

great story

but what concerns me is the arrogant patch 'em up and send 'em home attitude our medical establishment has implemented. a simple questionaire or o2 sat monitoring could have prevented the repeat heart attacks.
they tout prevention but do little ensure it

[dsm]

I'm not a tweeter, or tweeterer, or whatever term is correct, but I am delighted someone has posted it there!!! Thanks to whoever it was who did so.

Twas Johnny Goodman

See here ...

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=cpaptalk

DSM

[GumbyCT]

I found the story right here....the 'ol fashioned way.
Not while I was driving down the hiway about to crash into someone while reading a twit.

Thanks Slinky.... you da man

[grumpygirl]

AMAZING story!!! Loved it! I must send it to my friend who recently told me he hasn't used his CPAP for months saying" it is such a pain having something on my face all night , just too much to deal with..." This from an overweight 55 yr old male who does not exercise and eats anything he wants!!! OMG-I'm so afraid for his health!! THANKS SO MUCH Slinky!!- GG

[Slinky]

Ha! Bless Johnny Goodman. Right on top of things as usual. Thanks, Johnny!!! You da man.

[mymontreal]

Wow - thanks for sharing - this is an amazing story!!

I will keep a copy with me to share with people I meet who are skeptical about the seriousness of sleep apnea.

Mike

[rosiefrosie]

I have to give that story a thumb's up. Its so nice to read something like this for a change. Thanks for the post Slinky.

Rosie

[dsm]

One of the extraordinary sub messages that comes through in the story, is that although the person had the series of potentially fatal heart attacks between 94-98, they did not go onto cpap therapy until the early 2000s yet the outcome is someone back to an apparently normal mobility by mid later 2000s.

The other interesting info was the evidence that appears to suggest the heart has been repairing itself somewhat unexpectedly.

The forceful conclusion that can be drawn from what has happened is that good cpap therapy can both quickly and very effectively relieve the stress on the heart and by doing this bit so well, can allow the heart spare capacity to start repairing itself.

Other intriguing thought lines include what would have happened had they not sent him off for a sleep study, and, how close he came to accepting nothing could be done.

A critical message that needs to get out from this story is that heavy snoring damages the heart over time and it isn't only a heart attack that can be the cause of heart deterioration and the weakening of it.

DSM

[DoriC]

Slinky, thank you so much for posting that and my tears were happy and but some sad ones. It really hits close to home because my dear Mike was also literally dying in front of me and I also knew he snored and then "seemed to hold his breath". Early on way before his first MI and triple bypass in 1997, our Primary Dr casually suggested a sleep study because of his snoring but didn't fully explain the ramifications. I asked no questions either and ignored his advice because snoring was "no big deal". Once we got into the care of "cardiac specialists" after his heart attack, our wonderful Primary dr of 15yrs somehow got pushed into the background and sleep apnea was never mentioned again by anyone else. Then in 2002, another triple bypass and in 2005 an aortic valve replacement + 2 new bypasses. All this suffering and his health was still declining rapidly. We were seeing our family dr occasionally in between specialist visits for minor things but Mike was really too sick for any other intervention at the time. Then last year our Dr.C finally insisted, actually yelled that he had to go for a sleep study. He said he was convinced long ago that Mike had OSA but we had stopped going for our regular checkups with him because we were so involved with the other drs. I blame myself for that because I got selfish about spending so much time sitting in all these other doctors' offices. Fast forward to this morning. Mike had his usual 3month followup with Dr.C(we don't miss any of them now) and his blood tests were perfect, BP=120/70, cholesterol=138, heart & lungs sounded good, no ankle swelling,etc,etc. I swear I saw a few tears in the dr's eyes. He then joked with me about when was I going to stop looking at the daily data reports! I said Never! He was also happy to hear that I'm now finally sleeping better, he was concerned about that. I can't believe I wrote all this, I was only going to say thanks to Slinky. Oh well, I'm not deleting it now. Blessings to all, Dori