Dylan Reviews Kelly’s Journey from Moderate Sleep Apnea to Being Sleep Apnea Free
Dylan Petkus reviews Kelly’s Journey where she went from having moderate sleep apnea to being sleep apnea free according to her latest sleep study.
00:00
Dylan Petkus, MD
Hey everyone, this is Dylan Petkus here, and I have a lovely guest with me here today. I have Kelly, and she’s here to share her journey. Not just from, I don’t know if you lived in California, then moved somewhere else, but like her journey with her sleep and all of that here. So thank you very much for joining us, Kelly.
00:22
Kelly
Sure.
00:23
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. So with all of our success stories, it’s always good to give hope to people like, hey, I’m not just like out here like this has never worked for anyone, but instead like real people having real success. So we want to start at the beginning of not the universe, but like, you know, you are. And on the first day, there was no, but like when did you start to notice something was a little off with your sleep?
00:52
Kelly
Actually, sort of watching some of your success stories helped me for the same reason on my journey better because things I didn’t realize were part of these clues sort of made sense then. But really, about 10 years ago, I got an autoimmune disease, and I had to go on a plant-based diet to cure it. And everybody else that I knew that had done this came away with a lot of extra energy. And they were like, I can’t even nap anymore if I want to. And I still was tired. So I thought, why? Oh, maybe I’m just getting older, wondering what that was about. But a few years later, my husband started buying earplugs in bulk, and he said I was snoring. And I was like, I’ve been snoring, but you know, you don’t know it.
01:38
Kelly
And I thought, well, I guess that just comes with age, too. Didn’t really know what that was. My kids used to sort of make fun of me because at family movie night, I would be, it would get to the climax of the movie, the big battle, the exciting moment, and I would start snoring and be sound asleep. And they were like, how can you do that in the middle of a movie? And so these little things were there, and you know, I needed naps a lot. And then my husband said, you know, I think I’m hearing you stop breathing in the night. I think this might be sleep apnea. And I was like, I don’t think it could because I’m like the best sleeper in the world. I thought I was a super sleeper.
02:21
Kelly
Like the moment my head hit the pillow, I was asleep. I could sleep anywhere, anytime. And I didn’t realize those are all signs of having sleep apnea because you’re so exhausted. So it took me a while to think he was right. But I also had a lot of brain fog. Everything just seemed harder. And so one night I was out to dinner with a friend, you know, and I was having trouble figuring out how to compute the tip. I was like, what is wrong with me? And that was sort of a big sort of worrisome moment for me. It made me think of you at your job when you had your moment where things, you know, didn’t go as well as, you know, there was a little mistake, and I thought, this is not right. My brain’s not working.
03:08
Kelly
I need to do something. So. So I went and got tested about two years ago, and they said I had a mild sleep apnea. And they immediately wanted to give me a CPAP machine. And I was not interested in that. And so I went with a bite guard because friends of mine had used that, and that seemed less invasive. So I tried one that was like $500, and it worked. I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t snore anymore. And my husband knew that. I thought it was working, but my jaw was really sore. And I thought, you know, I’m going to try to fix one problem. Cause another, you know, so another friend of ours got a really expensive, like thousands of dollars worth bite guard. But they use something they call muscle mapping. And I thought, okay, well that must be the best.
04:00
Kelly
They must make it so that it’s real comfortable or something. And so I said, I better get one of those. So I got muscle mapped for that, put that in, and it definitely stops the snoring, but, you know, I really didn’t feel any difference. So I went and had another sleep test done a year ago, and they said now I had moderate sleep apnea. I was. I was waking myself up 21 times an hour, and it was really no difference between the two nights with or without the mouth guard. It really wasn’t doing anything. So I was like, well, that’s a lot of money to do nothing. And so I was feeling really hopeless. And you know, I did not want to go to the CPAP, but I just felt like I had no other options.
04:58
Kelly
So the funny thing is, my husband found you. Then you popped up on his YouTube feed, by the grace of God. And he was like, “There’s this guy, Kelly —he says he can fix it.” You just gotta do a little work, you know. And I was like, I don’t know, you know, somebody on the Internet, I don’t know. And then I thought, well, what I’ll do is this program takes a while, a couple of months. I don’t want to keep frying my brain every night. I’ll just add the CPAP and use that while I figure out I hated it. It just felt like it was working against my body because I’m trying to breathe out. It’s forcing air. And I just feel like there was this battle going on all night. Struggling to breathe.
05:53
Kelly
I hated being strapped in and the thought of that for the rest of my life. I echoed all your sentiments that you said in your video, that I felt the same way, like the body was not meant to do this. You said that people with sleep apnea breathe, I think you said, three times faster than people without it. And I thought that’s something that needs to be fixed and that has to be related. I mean, so maybe if I can fix that, then maybe this will go away. So that made a lot of sense to me. And I sort of jumped into your program and got started. And, you know, it’s. It’s hard because you don’t know if anything’s working at first, but it was very relaxing. And I thought, you know, this is not a chore.
07:01
Kelly
This is a great way to start and end the day. I got my husband doing it with me. The breathing in the morning and the breathing at night, it really just is a nice way to wake up and to end your day. So. So that was very nice. I love your tips, your encouragement, your emails that you send out, and you said to tie it to something you already do. And that was helpful because in the morning, I just saved my prayers while I’m doing and my morning prayers, and then in the evening, I do my evening prayers. So it’s sort of like killing two birds with one stone. It worked out great. And then halfway through, like I was taking my relaxed pause, but it was sort of up and down. And sometimes on the days it was down, I’d get a little discouraged.
07:50
Kelly
So then I would think, okay, I’m just not going to check my relaxed pause for a couple days, but keep doing the exercises. And sure enough, I say this to encourage people because don’t be discouraged. My husband. To encourage me, graphed out my relaxed pauses for me. So you could see that even. I’ll just show you if you can see it here.
08:12
Dylan Petkus, MD
Nice.
08:13
Kelly
Even when I stop taking the relaxed pause, it’s still an upward trend the whole way, you know, so here you have some up and down, but it’s always moving up. And so that was really helpful for me to keep staying with it, you know, I actually have a girlfriend who’s struggling with some depression, and so she would do it with me every day. And it helped her too. She was very relaxed afterward. And we would walk, this is when I got to the walking triangle, which is a little tougher, a little bit. So we would do that together. So it’s been a nice journey. And then after 13 weeks, I signed up for another test, an at-home test with the Lofta company you recommended. They were wonderful.
09:02
Kelly
And I did their test, and instead of waking up 21 times an hour, I was down to less than 3 times an hour just after 13 weeks of doing your breathing. So you don’t realize it when you’re in the middle of the sleep apnea. But I realized I had put off so many projects around the house, and I had really stopped doing things because it would just take too much mental energy. It was just this brain fog, and everything seemed really hard. And it’s so fun because I’ve been running through the house, catching up on all this stuff I’d put off because there were too many decisions to make before. And it’s been so freeing to be able to get back to doing that and sort of get my life in order again. So that’s been really nice.
10:01
Kelly
I definitely take fewer naps, don’t really need them as much anymore. I’m awake during all our movies, our family movies. And it’s, it’s just been really a nice change and so nice to know that not only did I not have sleep apnea, but I feel like there is strength in my body. I feel like you can make a list of all the positive things these exercises do for you. I think it’s just good for your overall health. So I’m just so grateful.
10:29
Dylan Petkus, MD
Awesome. Excellent. The full journey here. I like that I get just to be here basking it. So that’s amazing. This is really a testimony to, you know, consistency, finding ways to work it into your habits and work people into it as well. So having a lot of great success with that. And a few things I want to highlight because clearly Kelly really fits the mold of sleep apnea. She is 62.4 years old and 70% male and BMI. I’m joking. She’s not. So really anyone can have sleep apnea.
11:06
Kelly
Okay.
11:07
Dylan Petkus, MD
We have people who, they fit the classic mold. We have people who don’t. All right. I didn’t when I was dealing with my own issues. So very important thing, if you are wondering if you do consider strongly getting a check, just. Just the thought there, especially when there’s a lot of great options to deal with it here. Second big thing I want to highlight out of many is, you know, a lot of times when people go to mouth guards, et cetera, because it could have been like a mouthguard, it could have been a palate expander, could have been a cpap, et cetera, that pathway of you doing the thing, maybe a little bit of help. And then like, you retest and it’s like, wait, things have gotten worse. That’s common. It is. Because what you did was correct. One of, like, the.
12:02
Dylan Petkus, MD
The bad patterns and also like the muscular string. We’ll talk about some other things you did. You did that. Whereas those things kind of like, okay, help me out. And then if your body adapts to it or the side effects, like you said, like the mouth pain becomes kind of difficult to deal with, you fall into that category of people where it’s like, this is not as helpful as it could be. So, I mean, good on you if you keep going. Sometimes people are like, all right, mouth guard one didn’t work. See ya. I guess I just, you know, won’t drive or whatever, but good job keeping it.
12:37
Kelly
You know, it’s funny because my friend who told me to get the whole muscle mapping, expensive one, he ended up with TMJ, so he can’t wear his anymore, and now he’s in therapy to fix that. So. Yeah, and the muscle mapping made no difference. It was still just as sore as the cheaper one.
12:53
Dylan Petkus, MD
You know, okay, muscle, maybe they should upgrade the GPS. But that’s the real problem there. And so in. In doing the program. So 13 weeks there. So you did the breathing, and what were some of the other aspects that were helpful for you? Whether it was some of the myofunctional pieces or having some of the support mechanisms over calls, et cetera. Like, what were some of those other helpful pieces for you?
13:19
Kelly
I definitely tried to sleep on my side. I had a pillow, like, to put between my legs, sort of to remind me to stay on my side. That that helped. And I definitely did the. Trying to get the tongue plastered against the roof of your mouth at the front so it wouldn’t fall back. And it’s. You can sort of train it to do that. So I keep it. I’m trying to keep it up at the roof there. Sort of like I have to get it locked in when I go to bed. Just think about it and do it and. But really, I mean, I think I already eat pretty healthy anyways, so if that was the thing, I think when I first started your program, I got caught up in all.
14:02
Kelly
There’s so many different things you could do at once, and it was too much. And so I would tell other people, just sign up, get the homework sheet that you send us once a week, and just start doing this 10 minutes morning and night. Don’t you know, you can figure out the other stuff later. But each time you do that, like you say that.
14:21
Dylan Petkus, MD
That’s what I say.
14:23
Kelly
Right.
14:24
Dylan Petkus, MD
What else can I do? The things I gave you. Yes.
14:29
Kelly
So yeah, each 10-minute one there makes a big difference. And the other thing, I would encourage people at the end of each week, I’d be like, I can barely do this. This is so long. I will never be able to do Dr. Dylan’s homework next week. Right. And then sure enough, the next week you back it up like a couple seconds, and then you move forward again, and then I can do it. It’s like you can see your muscles getting stronger. It’s really amazing. So don’t get discouraged. Keep moving forward. They say 90% of the success is showing up. Right.
15:01
Dylan Petkus, MD
And that kind of leads us to our final question. It’s a big question. So where Kelly is now? Sleeping a lot better. More energy, more productive. Not adding too many extra zeros on the tip. Honey, you left a 400% tip. That’s interesting. What would you say to Kelly when she was like first starting out with everything?
15:28
Kelly
I would say definitely don’t procrastinate. I feel like because it was new and unfamiliar to me, I put it off for a while. And so that’s what I’ve been trying to do with my friends who have sort of been watching me to see if it works. And then they’d be like, well, if it works for you, then I’ll try. You know, they didn’t want to jump in yet, so then just walked my friend through yesterday, the steps on Lofta, how to get your sleep study done. And I’ll just tell you, Lofta, the moment in the morning that you hit end study. I ended at 6:15 in the morning. The results were in my email at 8:01 that morning. Less than. Yeah. So it really doesn’t, it doesn’t take that long. You can sign up for that quickly, get your number and.
16:14
Kelly
And then if you do have sleep apnea, then you can sign up for your program easily and your email comes right away with your homework, and you just start and yeah, I would say just begin. You don’t have to figure it all out. You can. You can start and then start watching videos and figure out more stuff as you come along, but just the sooner you jump in, the sooner you’ll have success, I think.
16:36
Dylan Petkus, MD
Yes, absolutely. Step by step, folks.
16:39
Kelly
Step, step by.
16:40
Dylan Petkus, MD
So awesome. Excellent. Well, thank you, Kelly, for sharing your success story. And for everyone out there, that is what’s in reach for you. Okay. You may not need to, like, I mean, some people do, like all the breathing exercises, but, like, you’re a perfect example of, hey, add this in here, add this in there. Be consistent. That’s really what pays off. Nice and steady. And like your graph, if we drew a trend line through there, I know it kind of looks like the stock market, but that’s kind of the. The point where it’s like, you know, Monday, great, Friday, bad. And. But like, overall, it’s. Well, I’m not sure how the stock market’s staying right now, but overall, things go up there as long as you keep showing up for yourself. So great job being an example of that.
17:27
Dylan Petkus, MD
Thanks for sharing that, everyone out there. Hopefully, you take that into your practice with whatever you may be doing, whether you’re in the program, you’re thinking about joining the program, just apply that to yourself to continue to see better results for yourself, your sleep, and thus your life. So with that, we will sign off. Although I’m not sure what we’re signing off of exactly. I’ll just start waving goodbye, everyone, and I’ll see you somewhere else on the Internet. If you want to go ahead and take the first step just like Kelly did, all you have to go is either go to apneareset.com/show or click the button in the middle over here so you can get your custom breathing protocol and direct support from me. So again, either go to that URL on the screen, or click the button in the middle.
18:16
Dylan Petkus, MD
Either way, I’ll see you on the next page.