OSAS - OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA SYNDROME

For years Dora used to be jealous of my being able to fall sleep, almost anywhere, anytime ... 'Ray is so lucky, I wish I can do that'.  What she does not know is I was suffering, unknowingly, from OSAS which I only recently discovered.  The Mayo Clinic Web Doctor identifies the following as symptoms; sleepless twists and turns, toilet frequency, dry throat, easily irritated, tired during the day and, believe it or not, no sex drive.  That was me alright.

Apparently OSAS is under ENT and my specialist's first recommendation was a  'Diagnostic Sleep Study' in which I was wired for a 7-hour period.  To make a long story short, the Study showed 'severe features of OSAS, up to 65.8 disturbances per hour' or in laymen terms ... I stopped breathing almost every minute of every hour in my sleep, the worst recorded duration was 63 seconds or more than 1-minute.

I needed immediate medical attention and a CPAP or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Sleep Device was ordered.  Quite incredibly the disturbances were reduced dramatically from 60+ per hour to less then 10 now since I started using it.  I am a new man!

BTW doesn't the picture reminds one of Anthony Hopkins in 'Silence of the Lamb'?  My New Yorker brother-in-law had an even more graphic caption 'Silence of the Lamb Chop'.  Why? My doctor said excess body fat is the main culprit here, yes, guilty as charged.