Dylan Reviews Brian’s Journey From Severe Sleep Apnea to Better Breathing, Sleep, and Energy
Dylan Reviews Brian’s Journey from severe sleep apnea to better breathing. He could finally leave the CPAP behind while traveling and feel younger.
00:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
Hey everyone, it is Dylan Petkus here with one of our lovely clients, they’re all lovely here, who has been through the journey. And of course we’ll have. This was Brian’s joke earlier. We’ll have subtitles for English here because Brian speaks only Mandarin. Kidding. So, but welcome, welcome to the show. I guess this is the show now.
00:31
Dylan Petkus, MD
So we will start off where it all began. So, the Big Bang happened, Earth formed, and then, somewhere along the line, Brian started to experience sleep issues. So tell us what happened there. When did you first start to notice that you were having sleep problems?
00:51
Brian
I think I probably started having sleep problems about 13 or 14 years ago, but it took a few years before it actually manifested itself. And I went and spoke to a health professional. So it was actually 10 years ago next month when I was diagnosed as having sleep apnea, and I was sent off packing with a CPAP mask under my arm, which wasn’t what I expected. And I’ve spent the last 10 years hating my CPAP mask because it never ever did what it was supposed to do. I felt I had bad sleeps with CPAP and bad sleeps without CPAP, but I did, when they did a sleep study on me, I did have quite a severe form of sleep apnea. And I was waking up, you know, in multiple times at night.
01:48
Brian
And it was clearly having a significant impact on my health and on my energy levels during the day. And I think the thing that actually drove me to seek some help was a, I was starting to fall asleep whilst driving, which was obviously potentially dangerous. And that was when I was put on the sleep study, and that was when they discovered that I was having these episodes.
02:11
Dylan Petkus, MD
Mm, yeah. Yeah, that’s always quite the wake-up call there. Not being able to get behind a car confidently, there and use the CPAP as best you could. You didn’t like give up on it right away. And in terms of like other ways, I showed up because not everyone may be all the way at the “I’m falling asleep while driving.” And by the way, there’s this sudden craze of people deciding that getting a self-driving car is the fix for that. It’s not everybody. I mean, I guess in some ways it is, but in some ways it’s not. What were the other signs throughout the day? Maybe it was like at work, or maybe like the end of the day at home. Like what were some of those other things?
02:56
Dylan Petkus, MD
You’re like, okay, I can’t keep dealing with this anymore.
03:01
Brian
Yeah, it was a standard day that as people who have apnea will know, it was that sort of brain fog, struggling to concentrate, disengaging with friends and family because you know, it was just too much of an effort to actually get involved in a conversation because your brain and body was shutting down because it just, it felt. I mean it was sheer exhaustion. I think I described at one time to my wife as like trying to walk through really thick trickle. You just, it was just a constant fight, and it was easier to give in to it and just basically sit and allow the exhaustion to take over your life. It’s a horrible affliction, as you well know.
03:53
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah.
03:54
Dylan Petkus, MD
And so then they gave you the CPAP and you tried it and then like what were the things? I’m trying to make this question nice. What did you hate the most about the CPAP?
04:07
Brian
Oh good. I hated everything about CPAP. I mean, you, things like I hated traveling and carrying the seat through an airport, and you always get stopped at the X-ray machine because you’ve got this electronic gizmo in your, in your hand luggage that could be some kind of threatening thing for airline staff. So you. And then if you were only. If you’re trying to travel light and only take hand luggage. 50% of your hand luggage was a CPAP mask. I hated having to be, you know, if you want to go camping, you had to find somewhere where you had power so you could plug the machine in. You couldn’t be as spontaneous, and you were effectively handcuffed to this bit of equipment that was really my life, and it really, it was making me completely miserable.
05:01
Brian
I mean, it really was the single most damaging thing for my mental health.
05:08
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha.
05:10
Dylan Petkus, MD
What do you mean?
05:11
Brian
Just, just because it was actually making me sad. I just, I, I didn’t, I mean the, you know, having this everywhere you went, you haven’t rigged up this machine and get this mask on. You know, it’s also, it’s not a particularly pleasant thing if you’re sharing a bed with your partner to be lying there with this machine as well. And it used to sometimes disturb my wife if the mask would come off and the air would be escaped and that would wake her up. So there was just nothing good about it. Plus, for me, I, I didn’t feel as if I was actually get. Well, I certainly wasn’t getting better because the CPAP doesn’t make you better. The CPAP just deals with the immediate symptoms to a point, if you can actually tolerate wearing it all night. And I, I don’t think.
06:03
Brian
I don’t think I ever went a full night wearing the mask. I, I mean, halfway through each night, it would get launched across the room. Just couldn’t. Couldn’t put up with it.
06:13
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah, yeah.
06:14
Dylan Petkus, MD
A common experience, actually, it’s the majority experience. Can’t tolerate a CPAP. So you’re just in the silent majority there. So you try out CPAP and then, like. Because there are a lot of other things to try. What. What else did you run into before us?
06:29
Brian
Oh, yeah. So, yeah, I was a. I was, as you know, testing everything, like all the gizmos that you see online. I was researching it and I tried everything from mouth tape to neck braces to tongue exercises to things that you put in your mouth. I went and I saw an orthodontist who claimed he could make some kind of thing fit in my. And I could wear it at night. I went and I spoke to an ENT surgeon. I spoke to two ENT surgeons to talk about whether there could be some kind of surgical intervention. I mean, you’re right. I was a. I was everywhere. Mouse, tape, all sorts of stuff. Nothing. Nothing worked. The orthodontist, the surgeons. I mean, nobody seemed to have any kind of alternative option. I mean, I was at the point of desperation.
07:26
Brian
I really, I really thought that was it. There was, there was no other solution.
07:32
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then the clouds opened up and one of our.
07:36
Brian
They did. Yeah, they did. Because. Because I discovered. I discovered yourself. And I watched some of the videos, and I think for the first time in 10 years, I was listening to a health professional who completely and fully understood what I was going through, because he’s gone through it yourself. And, you. You knew. You got where I was. Everything you said, I recognized, I immediately related to. And that, that was comforting. And then the fact that you said that there were options was also a. I was grasping at that potential to see if I could also get myself out of the situation I was in. I’m a cynic by nature. I don’t, I don’t believe things I see on the Internet, for example.
08:32
Dylan Petkus, MD
Nobody should.
08:35
Brian
But, but the more I watched of the information that you were putting out there was, There was a lot of science behind it. There was a lot of research that had gone into it. It all stacked up. It all made a lot of sense about just the, you know, the statistics as to why there are so many people suffering from apnea in the modern age, and all linked, all joined up, and it all made an awful lot of sense to me. And that was why I signed up, and I’m glad I did.
09:09
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha. Yeah.
09:10
Dylan Petkus, MD
So, I mean, I feel it is one of the most cynical things to be cynical about. All right, not most cynical things, the most appropriate thing to be cynical about because you get told, right. Surgery, CPAP, etc, and then like, I don’t know if it was like an Instagram ad or something. It’s like little me like, hey, you can work on this with breathing. Okay, sure, dude. Makes sense. But yeah, being able to look into it more. So then you reached out to us to, you know, work on this thing at a much higher level. And then like in the first few weeks, usually good time frame, like, what were some of the signs for you that like, you knew you were on the right track?
09:53
Brian
I think quite quickly, certainly within the first month I noticed an improvement in my sleeping. You know, I haven’t been near a CPAP since we started the program. So the machine’s still lying there, and it can lie there, get rusty for the rest of its life as far as I’m concerned. I think perhaps I was pleasantly surprised how quickly I saw some of the improvements, and those were probably focused more around some minor lifestyle changes and some breathing. And then we’ve just built on that to actually make it more permanent, more resilient over the time that I’ve been on the program.
10:42
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha.
10:43
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then how do you see that kind of show up in the, just in the day to day, like whether, just. Yeah, go ahead.
10:50
Brian
Yeah, I mean, I remember the old brain, the one from a year ago who was tired, had no energy, wasn’t participating in conversations. It was potentially dangerous behind the wheel of a car. And you know, that, that isn’t there anymore. That’s. I have significantly better levels of energy. I mean, I, you know, you for example, you could, I could have maybe attributed last year, or I’m just getting older, and that’s it. You’re going to get tired as you get old. I mean, I’m, if that was the case and I’m younger this year than it was two years ago, I certainly feel younger. I’m able to exercise more without getting fatigued. I, you know, and I’m not saying I’m not depressed about the thought of having to put a CPAP mask on.
11:48
Brian
I no longer travel with a CPAP. So I, you know, just simp from the simple things like the convenience of traveling to the. To the more important things of being alert, aware, and having higher energy levels. Yeah, I mean that’s. For me, that’s been the biggest, the big change.
12:07
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha. Awesome.
12:08
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then also changes in numbers because you were at severe sleep apnea. And then, you know, we’ve been tracking some, not just a few numbers every now and then. I’m not sure how many emails we’ve had, but enough.
12:21
Brian
Yeah.
12:23
Dylan Petkus, MD
How would you say what would have been those changes, those numbers that you’ve seen? Because a lot of people ask about that as well.
12:29
Brian
Yeah, well, I’ve been wearing an O2 pulse oximeter at night, and I can see now that my apnea events are minimal, sometimes almost nil. I mean it’s a couple of nights. I’ve recorded pretty normal scores like non. What would assume is a person without apnea. And I rarely get bad scores. If I do, it’s usually because I’ve done something, you know, then you know that’s a negative impact on my, on my sleep generally. So, you know, eating late or something or having too much alcohol or whatever, you know, so it’s quite clear now that there are things that I can define that I know. Yeah, that’s going to help. That’s not going to help my sleep tonight, for example. And it’s always stacked up by the data that I get from the pulse oximeter.
13:30
Dylan Petkus, MD
Mm. Yeah. And for the viewers at home, the pulse oximeter is something that monitors your oxygen levels overnight. And so I’ll just graph with my finger someone with severe sleep apnea, their thing will look like this, like the Richter scale kind of all over the place. Brian’s now is like, you know, maybe you know it because it is normal to have a few dips per night. Not nothing dramatic, but like a few. So like now Brian’s like, wait, let me try to.
13:59
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah.
14:02
Dylan Petkus, MD
Maybe a little, maybe some drama there. And so like way smoother there based on that data. So that’s always good to see. And then like, and then those are the numbers I know we talked about, you know, being the. Well being the better version of Brian. I forgot who is old versus new because we did. We regressed two years of aging in one year. So now it’s. Now we’ve done time travel, but like, okay, other metrics of whether, like now that when you’re on trips you can really enjoy them or like exercise is easier, work just like you can focus. What have been some of those other metrics you’ve seen positively shift since then?
14:41
Brian
Yeah, I mean, well, one of the things we do obviously is we, we practice pause breath, paused breath and paused breathing. And I’ve seen my pause breath score increase. I’ve seen my breathing generally get better. A heart rate, pulse rate, and things like that has generally been an improving thing. And I monitor my blood pressure is quite good as well. So I think these are all probably outputs from what we’ve been doing over the past several months.
15:17
Dylan Petkus, MD
Gotcha. Awesome.
15:18
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then, and in working towards that, in I guess us working together towards that, there what were some of like the most helpful things from us. And you know, obviously every time I say anything because Dylan’s smarter, it’s like you don’t need to repeat it. Everybody gets it. But beyond that, it was a joke.
15:38
Brian
Everyone.
15:40
Dylan Petkus, MD
What was like some of the, I guess like the most helpful things from us to you and making this journey a little bit smoother and faster?
15:49
Brian
Well, I think the thing that the most and the quickest effect was the breathing exercises. I think another thing that quite a big effect was the soft palate exercises. Again, I think that’s that suited me and I think that’s where it can become bespoke because you can actually identify whether somebody’s got tongue issues or soft palate issues or nas or whatever. So, I think the discussions that we, that I’ve had with you and the team have always been bespoke to me. And I think the other significant thing, and I know you and some of the teams say, is you’ve always got my back. And I think that’s always been important because if you do go off track and feel that you’re not achieving your objectives, there are the coaching calls, the Q&A sessions, and the emails that we can always rely on.
16:48
Brian
I can ping questions and say, look, I’m not sure about this. I don’t know if I’m doing this the right way. Can you maybe give me some guidance or. I’ve tried that, I’m not sure it’s working. Can you, can you go over it again with me? So you’ve always got my back, and I think you’ve always got everybody’s back, and it’s clear that you’re passionate about what you do. And as I say, it’s something that you are very knowledgeable in and you’ve gone through it. So that to me has always been encouraging and helpful.
17:19
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Awesome.
17:20
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yeah, we always send Coach Lisa out to get people who. Yeah, she’s our primary militia.
17:28
Brian
Awesome.
17:29
Dylan Petkus, MD
And then. And just to wrap up, because, like, you’ve gone through a big, long journey that accelerated towards the end there, which is always good. And then the big profound question time. What would you say to The Brian of 10 years ago when he was first starting out?
17:47
Brian
Yeah, I mean, it was a. I hadn’t, I didn’t know much about sleep apnea, so I had to go through a learning journey of, you know, of what the implications were of that. And as I say, for me, it took a long time for me to find you guys. And, you know, I just wish I found you nine years ago and saved me buying mouth tape and mouth guards and neck things, and other stuff because the answer was there. I just didn’t know it was there.
18:24
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Awesome.
18:25
Dylan Petkus, MD
All right, well, thank you for sharing your story, Brian. For everyone at home, let that be your inspiration, that even if you’re severe, even it’s been 10 years, you can make great progress with pulling the right levers. Right. As Brian was saying, whether just like some simple lifestyle changes, some targeted exercise, little things go a long way when you know what buttons to press. So thank you so much for watching, everyone, and I’ll. I guess I’ll see you soon if you watch a different video or something else, or talk to you soon in some other format. But thanks for watching and thanks for joining us, Brian. And we’ll go ahead and sign off. So bye, everyone.