Sleep Apnea Is A Very Serious Concern

This is what most of my friends from myLot believe. They are mostly common people who don't have medical background or education. But they have at least one family member that snores at sleep, so they understand the danger of apnea, what it could cause if the patient have not given proper attention.

What makes us feel sad regarding Sleep Apnea is that, not everyone is aware of this kind of health condition. Some will even have a great laugh when they see one person snoring so loudly.

The worst part of this is, even some medical professionals do not take this condition very serious. Yes, they know about apnea and even believe this will lead to some more serious health problems, like heart attack, hypertension, etc. But they don't move fast, so easy and calm to tell you, "don't be hysteric or be rattled." Won't you feel that way if you see your child suffering?

One friend also said, "A lot of people are uneducated about the condition so it's up to you to explain to them and how it's dire that your child gets the help he needs."

So I hope I can reach more people with this writing, and let them understand how serious Sleep Apnea is.

Still A Long Way To Go

We started ways to raise funds for the surgery. And we are overwhelmed with the outcome. So far, we have reached about 15% of the total estimated cost.

We thank everyone who support us from the beginning. Everyone from myLot especially Auntie Marti. All the friends from TUP-MTI and from Facebook. From the workplace, friends and relatives. We also, of course, thank all those who have pledged and still wait for the right time.

But this is still not over and still a long way to go. We still have to work harder to reach our goal. We hope more and more people will do their share when they find it in their hearts to do so.

We badly need your help.

We Should Not Wait For A Sleep Study

Our son Zayzay always have cough and colds, keep coming almost every month, just like today for almost 2 or 3 days now. We decided to see a pulmonologist so that even tuberculosis issue will be given an end to our worries.


So we found one who seems to be the perfect medical practitioner for our child, after so many doctors who checked him. And we told her everything, his health history, from he was a baby who snores loudly, and so on. And so she is convinced it is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) for all the symptoms of it are present with our child.

But this, she said, still have to be referred to her most trusted ENT doctor who will reconfirm the OSA. She said she worked with this ENT several times and had their last team-up with a patient whom they done an operation, removing the tonsils.

She also added that sleep study is not necessary at this time or we are not supposed to wait for the study be done or something more serious might happen to the child. We should not wait for a sleep study, she said.

By this time, it is not yet final that the operation will really be necessary, but the pulmo-pedia looked at it as very much necessary, although she said, the ENT doctor will have the final say about it.

Let's see what will the ENT doctor will have to say once he see Zayzay. If he will find operation is unnecessary then it's good. But if not, we have to work more harder to raise the funds for the operation.

So what is this Sleep Apnea?

Sleep Apnea is a disruption of breathing while asleep. You can tell that a person has apnea when he experience choking or gasping for air while sleeping. It is somewhat the stoppage of breathing for 10 seconds or more. Pauses in breathing can occur 30 times or more per hour or over a hundred each night.

People who have sleep apnea usually don't know that they have it. Only their sleep partners can notice as they are usually disturbed by the loud noise they produces - snore.

The common symptom of sleep apnea is snoring. It is the sound that produces by the nasal passages when we sleep.

In addition to continuous loud snoring, other symptoms of sleep apnea, mostly in babies are:

poor weight gain;
mouth breathing;
enlarged tonsils and adenoids;
restless sleep;
excessive daytime sleepiness;
behavior problems which includes aggressive behavior and hyperactivity.


When someone has sleep apnea, his throat collapses during sleep, blocking the airway and preventing air from getting to the lungs.

Sleep Apnea can be fatal if not treated. It increases the risk of:

heart attacks;
strokes;
high blood pressure;
decreased productivity at work;
decreased attentiveness at home;
sudden death.

What are Adenoids?

Adenoids are tonsil-like glands located at the back of the nose. The exact function of adenoids is not understood but it may be a sort of protection from infection, and people can live normally without them.

Babies are born with a very small adenoids. As they grow older, adenoids also so grows. When children reach 10 to 12 years old, adenoids should reach it maximum size. From that point on, the adenoid tissue starts to shrink on its own. It's during the growth phase that adenoids can potentially cause problems.

Enlarged adenoids can block a child's nasal passages and result in nasal congestion, mouth breathing or increased snoring. When adenoids block the nasal passage completely, they can cause sleep disturbances.

The best way to confirm the size of the adenoids is to do a simple x-ray of the neck region, which will reveal if adenoids are enlarged and how do adenoids block the nasal passage.

There are no available medications to help shrink enlarged adenoids. The only treatment that can be done is to surgically remove them.