Dylan reviews Maureen’s journey from CPAP to no PAP after being told she had severe sleep apnea and emphysema. She finally feels 30 years younger.
00:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
Hey, everybody, it is me, Dr. Dylan. And we have our most fabulous, we practice, our most fabulous guests here and also client, I should mention we worked with her, you know, just someone I found, figured we’d talk and I wanted to be able to share her story because being able to have, like, inspiration in the journey is very important. And it’s one thing for me to wave my hands and tell you cool science stuff in a video. It’s another people. It’s another thing rather to share stories from real life and real people on, you know, a video here. So want to welcome Maureen here to the show. I guess I’m calling it a show now. I know this is just a standalone video, but welcome to the show.
00:49
Maureen
So happy to be here.
00:51
Dylan Petkus, MD
So happy to be here. And so we’re just going to go through your journey here. So in terms of when it all started, the sleep problems, not just like when you were born and all that, but like, in terms of when did you first start to notice your sleep was off? Like, what were some of those warning signs and those things that gave you some pause like, ooh, something’s off here. When was, what was that for you?
01:19
Maureen
It was probably about 10 years ago. And so I’m 81 now, so 71, in my early 70s, when I would wake up every couple of hours and most of the time I’d be able to go back to sleep, but it just started where then I couldn’t go back to sleep or I felt, I couldn’t name it at that time, but it was like where I felt scared to go back to sleep, just scared. So I didn’t know what it was. And so gradually and in my meditation practice, I noticed that I would, if I meditated for a long period of time, a couple hours or whatever, maybe even an hour that I would, I’d go, I’d be snorting and snoring, you know, because I would be in a zero gravity chair.
02:14
Maureen
And then I’d notice that I’d kind of fall asleep and then just wake up gasping for air kind of thing. And I just thought that was normal because my mouth was open. And then I go back to my practice and then just noticing what I thought was aging. I just called it aging because at 71, you know, I’m, you know, I just thought, okay, I’m just tired. I’m old, you know, and basically that’s what it was. And then I was also diagnosed with emphysema, a mild case of emphysema. So I thought, okay, that’s what it is. So I went into the doctor, I guess this about this was exactly 10 years ago and because I was having. What’s it called? Missed heartbeats, it would be like a Arias, not arrhythmia. But it’s the other. It’s C C. Oh, PCVACs, PACs or.
03:15
Dylan Petkus, MD
PACs for everyone at home. That’s a premature atrial contraction for PAC. PVC is not only a pipe but also a premature.
03:27
Maureen
Ventricle.
03:28
Dylan Petkus, MD
Right, yes, thank you. Sorry, I didn’t know it was a pipe.
03:31
Maureen
You’re right, it is a pipe.
03:32
Dylan Petkus, MD
It also is.
03:33
Maureen
Yes, that’s a good way to remember it though. It’s a pipe. I thought of Pac man, but see they forgot that.
03:39
Dylan Petkus, MD
That’s all so good. Pac Man. So you had Pac man and then also daytime wise, what were you feeling? Were you still jazzy or were you just like tired? Brain fog?
03:50
Maureen
I was good. I was good in the morning, and then I would like try to cool it in the afternoon and then some evening things. It all depended on if I had a good night’s sleep. So, it was gradual, and there was no logical consequence. Oh, you know, I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, you know, or when I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, when I would just be awake after I woke up to go to the bathroom and got four hours of sleep or whatever, and then I go to the bathroom and then not be able to go back to sleep, you know, that kind of thing. So, every once in a while that happened. So there was, I was pretty busy.
04:30
Maureen
But gradually, what happened is that I got more and more tired, and when I went to the doctor, and he diagnosed me with the PACs, that’s when he suggested I do a sleep study. So I did a sleep study, and they said at that time I had severe. It was like 57 episodes an hour or something. It seems unbelievable, but you know, whatever that was, it was severe sleep apnea. But if I slept on my side, which I was sleeping on my back, they said if you sleep on your side, you have just mild sleep apnea, like 8. So then I thought, okay, I’ll just sleep on my side, you know, so. So I did that not knowing that there was any really any other. He didn’t refer me.
05:19
Maureen
They didn’t say anything about a CPAP machine, or they didn’t say anything really, as I remember it. Then, I just continually got tired and more tired and noticed that I was holding my breath in the daytime. Having a difficult time. The breathing pattern was not, nor what I felt, “normal.” And maybe this is just because I was retired and I had more time to just, you know, sit and enjoy life, you know, sit on our patio or do slower things. I’ve slowed down and just notice, oh, my God, I’m holding my breath, you know, so then I would, you know, okay, let’s breathe. Or notice the tension in my diaphragm, which I really hadn’t paid that much attention to. So then it just got.
06:13
Maureen
I just got more and more tired, so that I was only good in the morning, and I would only do one thing a day. I would not, you know, try to take on too much. And I just thought, okay, I’m getting older, you know, this is just the end. Is it maybe the emphysema? You know, who knows? You know? So I didn’t pay a lot of attention until it really started to, like, I’d wake up at night. This was maybe during COVID time period. I had a very mild case of COVID, which I’m grateful for, but mild. And then I noticed, okay, here’s thing. That’s not good. Let me. Let me talk to my doctor again. So I talked to my doctor. She sent me to the heart guy again. He suggested a CPAP machine. So, I didn’t go back for a sleep study.
07:04
Maureen
Sleep study. I just got the CPAP machine. They gave me a little, you know, training on how to use it. But then I learned everything. I learned on YouTube, you know, what to do, what it is, how to clean it. Then I noticed that it was never dry. So then, you know, so I started using special water because I felt, you know, all of the toxins in the water. I didn’t want to be breathing that. Plus it did feel like a, you know, a leaf blower or a wind tunnel, you know, that you were in a wind tunnel and had this mask and. And I never liked it, but I thought, okay, but I. I did sleep better initially. And then it got where. I slept for two hours, woke up; I used it for two years.
07:53
Maureen
It was the fall of ‘22, so I used it for two years. And then I heard I saw one of your YouTubes. And I thought, oh, I don’t. I can. How can I get without. Do without the CPAP? It’s like a life. A lifesaver, you know, because I’m. At least I’m getting oxygen. And I started hearing about all of the negative things about CPAP. And I thought, I don’t want to do this anymore. How can I not do it? You know, because I noticed I was getting weaker, and I didn’t know if the emphysema, if it was emphysema, I didn’t know what it was. So I noticed that, you know, I couldn’t do. I could. I wasn’t as joyous of being as I used to be or having creative thoughts. And so, you know, all of that
08:48
Maureen
Comes from being vital in life. And I noticed that was really diminishing. And I, and I thought, I, I don’t want this. I want to be alive. I want to. And I’ll. I’ll do anything. I’ll do what I have to do if there’s a way, you know, and it’s sort of like you were the answer to this deep opening to, you know, life itself, you know, I want to live. And in fact, well, all right, so then I did find you and I just like, I’m kind of all-or-nothing person. So I just thought, let me just jump in. It just feels right. So, let me just jump in. And I, I called you, and we had a conversation that one, one call, and you said, yeah, I think we can help you. You know, I think that it can work.
09:40
Maureen
So that’s when I signed up for your program. And, you know, I felt the model was like really the direction of life. I wanted to live in where I got the updated information. And it was my responsibility then to follow the direction and the support, you know, to open to it. And that’s not easy. I think your program is. Requires a commitment to want to be well. But that grows, too because it. I kept thinking, I can’t do this. This is changing my whole life pattern, you know, of my daily living. But my daily living almost immediately got better. So that was. I thought, okay, this works. And the whole thing of the circadian rhythms being what we need to pay attention to and then how. And it was a holistic approach, which I loved.
10:42
Maureen
I thought, this is the new template for medical treatment is to have an active, involved participant with that. That critical thinking was allowed in the program, you know, and you could ask questions, and there was research and it was supportive and encouraging. And I had my resistance to it and I was helped. I could just sit with it or I could choose to be on a call. So you were available if I wanted to make a change or if I met something that I couldn’t deal with. You were available, and I learned to ask a little bit for help, which, you know, that’s. That was really just to be aware of that, I think, is in itself very valuable.
11:37
Dylan Petkus, MD
I hear you there. Yeah.
11:38
Maureen
So, the symptoms that happen right away. I’ll tell you the first thing. Should we be a pineapple here?
11:46
Dylan Petkus, MD
No, no, pineapple. We’ll include the pineapple, and then people can figure out what we’re talking about. Pineapple. But you were saying the first. First signs of life in working with us. What were those?
11:56
Maureen
Yes, that’s exactly. That was your question.
11:58
Dylan Petkus, MD
And I was gonna go, yeah, mind reading. Mind Mel.
12:05
Maureen
So the first thing. The first thing I noticed is the tension in my throat right here. Decrease. Significant enough for me to notice that, oh, my God, this feels a lot looser. That was, like, almost immediate. The second thing was the flow of nasal. What do you call that one?
12:28
Dylan Petkus, MD
Breathing.
12:29
Maureen
Not breathing. Nasal drip goes down the back of your throat.
12:33
Dylan Petkus, MD
Oh, like nasal. Like sinus drainage or nasal drip or. Yeah, that.
12:37
Maureen
All of that. That I was having with the CPAP machine, you know, all of that started to decrease. But I think within a month, I was sleeping half the night with, I just would rip the CPAP machine on. I can’t do this anymore. And I just took it off. And I talked with you, and you say, well, how do you feel? How does your day look? So you were looking at the symptoms of. What was that like, when you took it off and didn’t sleep with it for, like, three or four hours? And I said, you know, I felt better. You know, I felt I was sleeping on my side, but it. I still. I’ll tell you the difference. Like, when I started the CPAP and when I stopped, it was my breath. My breathing was significantly weakened.
13:28
Maureen
I don’t. And I wasn’t doing breathing exercises while I had the CPAP. I think when I watched one of your YouTubes, I thought that’s what I wasn’t doing, is that if you don’t use it, you lose it. And I thought, yeah, that’s what was happening to me on the CPAP. I wasn’t doing breathing exercises. I wasn’t doing any mouth exercises. I was just letting that naturally disintegrate. I don’t know what week.
13:56
Dylan Petkus, MD
Deteriorate. Weakened. Yeah. Weakened sounds better. Deteriorate is a fancy word.
14:00
Maureen
Yeah, it was weakened. It was. Yeah, they were weakened. It was like they were. And I was, like, really surprised at kind of the state of my breathing when I got off the CPAP machine. It’s like, wow, this is not like I remember myself, you know. And I don’t quite know how to say that, but that’s what happened. And. But yet my days started to get better, so, oh, I can do something in the afternoon. I can do two things in one day. And plus, I stopped using the CPAP when I went. I accompanied my husband on a golfing trip. And so I was in a new place, and I had to take the CPAP machine with me, you know, which was I never wanted to go anywhere because I always had to have that CPAP machine.
14:54
Maureen
So plus, I didn’t feel strong enough to, like, meet that. I just this natural. Just like, oh, no, I don’t want to go. I want to just stay in my little room and have everything orderly and constant the way it always is and just not be able to meet a new situation. So when I stopped and we did it gradually. But you based it on symptoms of activity during the day and how I felt. And plus, my relaxed pause, I think, was also involved in that, which.
15:26
Dylan Petkus, MD
Is a breathing measurement for people at home. If you’re so. No, that’s. And let me highlight this. So, we look at the. Like when talking about being CPAP-independent or just breathing normally at night is. Yes, we want to track how you’re feeling. That’s the ultimate thing. Because there’s a lot of people who are like, my aura ring says this, my oxygen tracker says this, and my lottery numbers were this. And I still feel bad. So symptom tracking is a big part of it. And then also tracking the pulmonary function test. Well, it’s not a true PFT. That’s the cool way to say pulmonary function test, but relax. Pause is an assessment of how your body is able to handle CO2, which is going to be weakened by constant use of a CPAP over time. So that’s what you’re feeling coming back.
16:23
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then sometimes, when necessary, we’ll also accompany that with other markers like an overnight pulse ox, see how that trends so we can educate on decision-making clients will be making there. And that’s kind of how we do that all together. So we don’t always do that. We. I don’t think we did like the overnight pulse ox with you, but you’re in the. The P. C.W. Post CPAP World. Did I make that acronym correctly? Yes. So tell us more about that. I mean, you were kind of already telling us more about that, but tell us more, because.
17:03
Maureen
I stopped using the CPAP. I came in your program in September and then in October. My birthday’s in October, so I know it was October and like a month later I just stopped using the CPAP. And since then I have. It’s just been incremental, but it has been like. Like I was 50 again, like I could do life. I’m involved in so many things right now. I’m involved in so many programs and we’re redoing the house. I sold the house. I did. There’s been so many things happening where I’m involved in the out in the “outside world.” You know, I’m involved in escrow and doing a lot on the computer and learning how to operate it safely for my eyes and for my circadian rhythms on the computer. And all of that is.
18:00
Maureen
I find life is nourishing to me now and I feel I’m able to participate with joy and creativity in ways that I never thought that I would. I mean, and really. And it’s. It’s been six months and not even six months. What is it, like, five months? Five months. Oh, October to November. Four months, maybe five. Five.
18:26
Dylan Petkus, MD
I’ll. I’ll submit that to the National Mathematician Board, but I think it’s somewhere between four and five months. Yeah, we’ll figure it out that quickly.
18:34
Maureen
And that doesn’t mean that, like, I noticed, I just noticed this. This was so encouraging to do the breathing exercises. I noticed on my little oximeter, you know, that oximeter pulse oximeter. What is that?
18:48
Dylan Petkus, MD
Pulse oximeter.
18:48
Maureen
Pulse oximeter, yes, that one. That I was doing my breathing. Right after my breathing exercises, I put the pulseometer and it was at 100%. I thought, this is amazing. I mean, it’s normally like 93, 94. And once in a while I’d do the breathing exercise, it would be 97%. But just the other day, it was like, oh, my gosh, that’s how it affects my body. And it just made me want to do the breathing exercises more and more or the tolerance for CO2. I don’t, I don’t.
19:22
Dylan Petkus, MD
Well, let me explain. So when you’re more CO2 tolerant, you have more CO2 in your blood and that will actually allow for better oxygen exchange and then higher numbers on a pulse ox there. That’s how that works, more or less skipping some steps, but that’s basically how it works.
19:42
Maureen
My history with the pulse oximeter was that before I even started the CPAP. I was tested at the hospital at 85. Now, that really scared me because I’ve been using a pulseometer just because of the emphysema. I’ve been using it for, like, maybe 10 years, you know, just off and on. But that really scared me as far as like I’m not getting enough oxygen in my body and I don’t know how to do that. And there it doesn’t feel like it’s in the medical community that they know what that means or how to even deal with it except with the CPAP machine, which seemed to make me go downhill. You know, it didn’t seem to really help me. And then I felt very dependent on this thing that was like, again, not partner-friendly.
20:32
Maureen
You know, I looked like somebody from outer space. You know, you laugh. And then I had a mouthpiece, you know, for. Because one of the treatments was to make your palate bigger side. A mouthpiece and then this nosepiece, and you know, I had to sit up in bed, and you know, it was like. And now I can be more like. It just feels more of a natural way to be in life. Not that, you know, can be helpful, I’m sure, some people, it’s very helpful for me. Did not work. So. And now I feel like. I just want to say that the program that you’ve developed is, it’s what’s missing in this culture, which is support for a healthy, multi-dimensional way of living in life. You know, the multi-faceted way you approach things.
21:26
Maureen
And it’s well researched and I think it’s leading research. You know, what you guys are doing because you’re having like this immediate feedback as what works and what doesn’t. So it’s like I just try to see every YouTube that you make.
21:44
Dylan Petkus, MD
There are too many of them. I don’t think you’ll ever get them all. I don’t think anyone will. Not even, not even my mom. But, but everyone should always watch every video.
21:53
Maureen
I at least watch two a day, and see me in the morning. I don’t know, that’s.
22:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
That’s kind of how it goes there. But so wrapping up here. So Maureen here, from CPAP to no PAP. I think that’s what. That sounds catchy. That’s good. Yeah, let’s do that. Some. Two of those, please.
22:12
Maureen
Yeah.
22:13
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah. So CPAP and no PAP. You know, dragging through the days where now is, you know, a lot more that you can do. And handle and have the creativity and you know, just feeling like you said, you know, back in your 50s and feeling like decades younger there. And also some things you didn’t mention where it’s like, you know, before afraid of sleep now sleep’s like just a thing that happens and a lot easier and don’t have to travel with it either. So that’s all good. And now the most profound question of all time here. Are you ready?
22:45
Maureen
Yeah.
22:46
Dylan Petkus, MD
So if you could talk to the Maureen when this all started about 10 years ago, what would you say to her from where you are right now?
22:56
Maureen
Oh gosh.
23:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
No pressure.
23:01
Maureen
Well, I would have her join your program. That’s what I would do to get the right information. Because you’re not. It’s not in the medical community. It’s not in putting a device on your face to make it all better. It’s a holistic approach to life, and you need somebody that can address all of the different ways because we’re each unique, and each things could be triggered by something else. And there are some mean things that you need to do, but then the fine-tuning of it to really pinpoint exactly what your uniqueness needs in order to really fully function at the highest level possible. You know, it needs to. There’s an exploration that goes on it, and you can get that. And here’s their phone number.
23:54
Dylan Petkus, MD
100 SLEEP NOW that’s not our number. Although maybe, I don’t know how do you get a toll-free number? How does that? I don’t know. But no, that was good there because it is important to have that individual attention because it’s like your story is unfortunately very similar to my story and other people’s story. You come in, oh, sleep problems, here’s your CPAP. Get out. And that’s kind of it. But being able to slow down and look at things and the person is really critically important there. So.
24:27
Maureen
And you know what else, Dr. Dylan, is that it’s not just, it’s a symptom of something else underlying, and I think that’s, it’s mitochondrial health and that’s the issue. And, so other unseen, unknown things are happening to you because of the lack of mitochondrial dysfunction, and that you under, you address, don’t worry sweetheart, there is help for you. You, you are going to find it, and everything’s going to be good.
25:06
Dylan Petkus, MD
90% of my job is telling people to not freak out. So. So don’t freak out, everyone. But we’re gonna wrap up here. So, thank you for joining me, Maureen. Really appreciate that. And for everyone at home who I’m staring at, I never know where to look in these. Like, yeah. You know, it’s confusing. Like, I’m kind of looking at you, but I’m really looking at, like, the side of my wall here. But anyway, everyone, thank you for watching. Hopefully, this was inspiring to you in your journey to reclaim better nights, for better days, for a better life. That sounded really good. That should be, like, a slogan.
25:43
Maureen
I love that.
25:44
Dylan Petkus, MD
Let’s fire up some bumper stickers. That’s. Would that fit? We’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out there. But in all seriousness, thanks for joining, and we’ll see you all soon.