I have severe chronic obstructive sleep apnea. Perhaps you do or likely you know someone.
99% of the time treatment is a CPAP air machine- you wear a mask over you nose & mouth at night and it keeps your air way INFLATED.
This requires dang near $1g out of pocket to purchase, or good insurance and then tolerance. I liken using a cpap to hanging your face out the window of the car in the air stream doin 75mph on the interstate.. And trying to drift off to sleep. SUCKS.
REGARDLESS- they require electricity!
Lesser employed treatment are oral devices that hold the jaw forward that are expensive, never covered by insurance and marginally effective.
Lastly there are surgical alterations of the tongue and airway- controversial, taboo in the surgical depts- likely not an option. Exorbitant is cost.
Sleep apnea is where the soft tissue in your throat relaxes and block your air way. It causes you to stay in a state of o2 deprivation throughout the night, which makes you miserably tired every day and makes you die early. Most likely heart failure before age 60 if untreated.
One of the huge choices I had to make in deciding to go off grid and pursue a wilderness life is me having to leave my cpap behind, be willing to be quite tired every single day of my life and die earlier...... I decided to LIVE for a while as opposed to "existing" for a long while. I left the grid, my cpap and long life behind.
I was re-updating my combat medic training and had an epiphany... Over and over I heard "establish airway." I began to get angered with life or fate and thinking "well I lose my d@mn airway ever time I sleep!" Then BAM!
I asked myself why I can't use the same technique to ESTABLISH my airway during my sleep that a medic does for a trauma victim with a compromised air way?????????????
I began to do 'net research and lo-n-behold some meds are experimenting with just that thought:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18520380
and others.
SO I have been sleeping with a NPA in place: Nasopharyngeal airway or commonly called a "nasal trumpet"
http://www.itstactical.com/wp-conten.../11/Airway.jpg
http://www.sedationresource.com/PDGI...airway-set.jpg
Wikipedia on NPA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasopharyngeal_airway
I'm very excited to have found a means to treat apnea off grid, deep woods, whatever. Like when I was prescribed a CPAP back in the day I was told my body was so deprived it would take a few or several months to see good effects. I expect the same with the Nasal trumpet- better health long term.
Despite what my medic buds and trainers told me I may experience I do not gag when inserting the NPA, nor do I have hoarseness the next morning.
Lastly NPA's come in several sizes. YOu'll need to either by an assorted set or get fitted prior. I'd just waltz into my a fire department and ask if you can speak to the medic. Ask him to size you....
The correct size of NPA will be the length from your nose to your ear.......
They are available on ebay, w/o prescription for a whopping $6, free shipping.
Good NPA training here:
http://centegra.org/wp-content/uploa...eal-Airway.pdf
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