I got a bit of a wake-up call recently.  My 46 year old brother-in-law had a massive heart attack, survived, and had triple bypass surgery.  My wife’s younger brother… that’s not supposed to happen.  Needless to say we were at first shocked and distraught, then relieved as he came through surgery well.  What I find interesting is what followed.

He was barely out of surgery and out from under the anesthesia when a pulmonologist came into his hospital room and said that as soon as he was healed from his surgery and back on his feet, they would be scheduling him for a sleep study to evaluate him for sleep apnea.  It seems that when someone has a heart attack, one of the first assumptions they make is that there is a good chance the patient has sleep apnea!  I know there is a link between sleep apnea and heart disease, but as the saying goes, I’ve never had things explained so clearly.

The moral of this story is that if you think there is a chance of you having sleep apnea, talk to your physician and get a sleep study.  Between CPAP and custom oral appliances there are good, effective treatment options to manage the sleep apnea and maybe save your life!