As a member of the group listed as male, old, and heart issues, I for some reason fell into the central sleep apnea category. And as a candidate with all of these factors, of course I ended up as an “extreme case” of central sleep apnea. I am the posted child of this disorder and as a trumpet player, I was concerned as to how it would affect my chosen field of entertainment.
Here is a short history of what has transpired in the past few years.
Heart attack while playing a show in Branson.
Left the stage at intermission and threw-up.
Returned to the stage and finished the show.
That week I realized that I had only half the air (vital capacity) I had the week before.
A month later while preparing to undergo a scheduled stress test, I was asked “When did you have your heart attack? That was a big surprise for I had no idea I had such an attack
After months of physical therapy, I was constantly told that my air intake would improve. It wasn’t until my sleep apnea problem was identified and corrected. In the mean time I worked out on the “VOLUMETRIC EXERCISER” pictured below.
For many months, I exercised my breath skills in hopes of improving my air supply. My first reading indicated that I had an approximation of 2500 ml of vital capacity. Gradually, through regular exercise on the tool, I increased my air to 3500ml.According to the enclosed chart the average air supply for a person my age and height should be 2800.
Eventually I was informed that with my condition, I needed to use a Philips Respironics “DreamStation BiPAP® Auto Machine”each night when sleeping. I have been using this machine every night for the past two months and have discovered several helpful improvements in my air supply.I have not used the “VOLUMETRIC EXERCISER” now for about a year because of many issues and when I learned that I also had complex sleep apnea, it was another good time to check my capacity again.
DreamStation BiPAP-
This afternoon I did another test with the “VOLUMETRIC EXERCISER’and found that I had actually increased my full lung supply to slightly OVER 4000ml! This increase could not have improved my vital capacity because of the “VOLUMETRIC EXERCISER”for I had not used it regularly for the past year. There is no doubt in my mind that the Philips Respironics “DreamStation BiPAP® was the reason for this huge increase in air.
“In my next post I will share with you many other improvements in my life through the use of this machine helping a patient with sever central sleep apnea”.
