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Sleep Apnea - How My Husband Was Cured In Two Weeks

Patti Olson
Christian Natural Health & Wellness Coach
www.OvercomeChronicIllness.com

Sleep apnea. It’s not only hard on the heart of the person who has it, it’s hard on the hearts or relationship of the couple involved.

In 1999 my husband, David, added a diagnosis of severe sleep apnea to the growing list including arthritis, Farmer’s Lung, obesity and ED. Sleep apnea according to The Mayo Clinic Family Health Book is a disorder in which there are recurrent episodes of breathing stoppage during sleep. Those episodes may be from five to thirty or more in an hour. Sleep apnea can be diagnosed with an overnight sleep test.

The severity is determined by how often and how long the “apneas” last. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) can be accompanied by loud snoring. David’s sleep test showed he had 73 episodes an hour with the longest event at 38 seconds making it severe OSA. It was suggested that losing weight would reduce the symptoms.

So what were our medical options? 1. Surgery. It seemed like a good option until David talked to a “thin” friend who had sleep apnea and had taken the surgical option but within a year developed the symptoms back again. 2. A CPAP machine which blows air in your face through a mask that you wear at night forcing you to take breaths. Unfortunately not an option for someone with claustrophobia which David had.

David’s cardiovascular system may have been affected but more obvious than that was the affect all of the health issues were having on our relationship. His LOUD, LOUD snoring and gasping for air after a long apnea had been driving one of us out of our bedroom for the last eight years prior to his diagnosis. Either he or I would take the couch. At home that was somewhat tolerable. On trips it was impossible.

The kids would try to wear earplugs or take a separate room and I would try to find refuge in the bathroom with the fan on. Sometimes David would go out to our vehicle to sleep or use the lobby much to the chagrin of the hotel clerks. It was a trying time to say the very least. Now even the two options we had didn’t seem like they provided much hope.

We loved each other but the strain was showing with short tempers and hurt feelings. A choice had to be made because the situation couldn’t continue much longer.

You see, David thought his situation was normal for him now. He had already accepted not sleeping at night and nodding off during the day. He had accepted painful aching joints, chronic coughing, being overweight, high blood pressure, ED and rashes. That was his normal and he thought that if the medical professionals couldn’t change his situation nothing or no one could.

I knew something needed to change but I didn’t know what or how. David and I had been moderate Christians. We went to church on Sundays, rarely missing. We believed in prayer but didn’t pray together. We listened to the sermons and scripture at church but didn’t read our Bibles during the week. So we went along tolerating all of the physical ailments not understanding that with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! We had been looking to the doctors, nurses, procedures, medications for the salvation of health instead of to the Creator of our bodies.

We stalled making a choice with the sleep apnea until 2002 when God answered our sporadic cries for help. Our God is a great and merciful God and while looking in a Christian book store for a gift I came across a book that to me had the answer to David’s ailments. The book was about changing your lifestyle of eating to change your internal environment. Changing your internal environment to the way God designed it eliminates disease.

I purchased the book and read it that same evening. I handed it to David the next day. He wasn’t so eager. He felt we had been eating just fine. He had finally reduced his intake of six-plus cans of Coke a day to one once in a while and he had quit his consumption of packages of processed brownies. What else was there to do? He reluctantly took what seemed to me an eternity to read the book.

We both knew something had to change or our relationship would take a different course. David conceded. “If we are going to do this we’re going to do this ALL THE WAY.” he said. The book called for a drastic two week change of nutrition as an experiment to see if doing so would reduce symptoms. We both agreed that we could last two weeks.

Well, the change of eating was simple, but not easy. And, I hadn’t prepared for the change of cooking. It seemed everything in our house had the wrong ingredient and I learned I had relied on the food I purchased to have the flavor in it. It was back to basics and no processed food or condiments. Then there were the challenges of eating out.

Long story short we survived the two weeks and to our amazement, not only survived but David’s OSA symptoms were gone!! He had started sleeping through the night! He couldn’t believe it. It seemed strange to him to not wake up several times to watch TV or go to the bathroom or clean. (I do miss that part.) As we slept I had to put my hand on his chest to see if he was OK as prior to changing our lifestyle I had heard snoring or gasping for a breath. It was so awesome to be able to sleep together again after 11 years of nighttime hell.

A few people attributed the change to weight loss after our lifestyle change. But, five or so pounds when you weigh over 280 pounds doesn’t make that drastic a change. Not only did David’s sleep apnea disappear but so did his chronic cough from his diagnosed Farmer’s Lung, his rashes, his aching joints and swollen ankles after another week!

We were so thankful to God for the information He had led us to. If not for that knowledge we would still be on the medical-go-round of doctor visits, tests, procedures, machines, injections and medications or a funeral. We should have, in fact, gone to the Great Physician at the start of David’s health ordeal in 1991. It possibly would have saved us years of wandering in an emotional and physical wilderness.

The LORD has also led us to more knowledge over the years that when acted upon has given us true health freedom. He has also restored every bit of our relationship! Neither of us are on any medications; prescribed or over-the-counter. God has truly blessed us and has given us the calling to help others.

John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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