DreamStalker wrote:JimW wrote:.....
And who would stand by for 4-5 minutes watching a relative suffocate?
I was not going to respond to this comment but after Bab’s post, I decided I would.
I stood by for hours and watched my dad suffocate on his last breath about 6 years ago. He had terminal throat cancer among other health issues (having survived a few heart attacks and a couple of strokes before he was 67). He went through the chemo and radiation treatment but the cancer came back with a vengeance after only a few months. So he decided to give up and did not want to put our family or himself through any more suffering than was absolutely necessary (he had watched his own dad die from lung cancer just a few years before his own diagnosis). After the docs told my dad there was nothing else they could do, he quit eating and within a week (on 9/11) went into a comma for a couple of days before dying. During those last couple of days we took turns holding his hand at his bedside and it just so happened that he took his last breath while on my watch.
It was very difficult to watch him die like that but it was his wish to die at home in his own bed rather than in a hospital with all kinds of strangers and tubes/machines/drugs prolonging the suffering. Although I’m now sure he had OSA, at the time I had never heard of the term. Perhaps watching my dad pass away like that was a foreshadowing clue of my own condition and I just was not aware enough to realize it then … maybe it is why I have taken to PAP treatment as I have?
Sorry you had to go through a prolonged passing. In a way, I think it is better if they go fast, my dad also died in my arms in the front yard of our home. Watching your dad turn blue and leave isn't pleasant experience, one minute we were talking, I was testing out a new rod & reel I just gotten with a rubber weight in the front yard as we were planning to go fishing the next day. He was sitting on the ground watching me cast it (he had gotten up from a nap just a few minutes before), I turned around and he was slouched over on the ground holding his chest. He was a big guy 6' 4" and 240lbs., I roll him over on his back and ask him what's wrong? he's gasping like for air moaning and holding his chest (dad didn't complain about anything), I look in his mouth thinking he can't breathe while hollering for Mom, looks like he swallowed his tongue, I tell her to call the paramedics (mom was a registered nurse during WWII) so I insert my finger to pull his tongue out and he starts biting it, darn near bit my index finger off, but I got his tongue out but he's still having problems, so he's grasping his chest, his color is changing, I start pushing on his chest in some form of CPR I had seen on TV (I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, back then, CPR was still experimental back then) but I keep working on him, then I hear the sirens coming from down the street (we were only 1.5 blocks away from the firehouse) as Mom gotten through to them, by then dad is starting to turn blue and finally his last breath escapes from his mouth as the EMT truck pulls up, he is completely still, paramedics who know him as a friend arrive and start working on him they continue for another what seemed like 30 more minutes even strapping that pneumatic piston-plunger CPR device to him. Finally the ambulance arrives, but by then we all knew the outcome, I know I did, he was gone. That was more than 35 years ago, I was only 15 at the time, the funeral was on my 16th birthday he was only 51 yrs old, my age now.
I know now that he also had OSA, years prior he used to smoke, mom would say he stopped breathing all the time during sleep, sometimes she would poke him to wake him up. He worked very hard all his life was in great shape for his size but he took naps all the time, I now know why.
My opinion based upon my own experience having 2 strokes prior to obtaining a OSA diagnosis and the year before that having a TIA at least once a week under the care of a Neuro is that hypoxia itself probably doesn't cause brain cell death, but that the hypoxic condition leads to what I call thick blood. Thick blood is like being severely dehydrated red blood cells become smaller and deformed so they don't carry as much oxygen to your vital organs, the lower levels of oxygen carried in the blood allows the cells that make up your arteries to die sooner where it leads to arterial inflammation which drives up cholesterol levels to fight the inflammation which increases platelet counts (mine were over >850,000) which puts you at greater risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Which one you have just depends on the luck of the draw on where that clot wants to land.
They say the 3rd stroke usually kills ya, having had 2 already it would not be the worst way to go that I can think of, but I still want to hang around for a while and don't want to be some crippled burden on my family, so my approach is simple, I quit smoking at first stroke (more that 7 years now), I use CPAP to prevent the hypoxia, which lowers the inflammation, I take a aspirin every day (even with a past history of ulcers) which acts as a anti-platelet agent like Plavix and keeps my blood thin and hopefully helps fight the arterial inflammation. So far, it seems to be working, I haven't had a single TIA or that 3rd stroke in years.
When I go, I hope it is during my sleep and they find me before I stink up the place.
someday science will catch up to what I'm saying...
