Reggie White - Dead at 43
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I heard that the aberage life span for NFL players is like 58
Reggie played in the USFL as well. I hope is is remembered more for his character than his athletic ability.
I think the news media initially got it wrong and that Reggie's problem was really sleep apnea.
We lost our son in November. Basically, the same problem. He was 10 years younger than Reggie and built like an NFL player.
I hope this will help bring to light what a serious condition this can be. It ain't just snoring!
We lost our son in November. Basically, the same problem. He was 10 years younger than Reggie and built like an NFL player.
I hope this will help bring to light what a serious condition this can be. It ain't just snoring!
Gulp. I'm a 43 year old Marine LTCOL, I still run a 1st class USMC Physical Fitness Test, and I had sleep apnea bad. I am NOT built like an NFL player (6', 195 lbs). You don't have to be a fat boy to have this problem. I had to undergo an incredibly painful surgery to get my throat "redone" so I could breathe better and not have my airway collapse while sleeping. They widen the passage at the back of your mouth, lop off the uvula (the thingie that dangles at the back of the mouth), and in my case, took out the tonsils for good measure. It was really uncomfortable afterwards (the row of six fish-bone-like stitches down each side of my throat was the worst part). I actually dropped to 165 lbs during my three-week-long recovery because it was so hard to eat.
SA is bad stuff. Reggie White is not the first and won't be the last.
If you think you have SA, see a doctor, now. Some temporary pain is far better than dying 30 years early. Oh yeah, there are non-surgical treatments for lesser cases, in case I just scared anyone too badly
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SA is bad stuff. Reggie White is not the first and won't be the last.
If you think you have SA, see a doctor, now. Some temporary pain is far better than dying 30 years early. Oh yeah, there are non-surgical treatments for lesser cases, in case I just scared anyone too badly
The Sarcoidosis they say he may have had and may have contributed is something my fatherinlaw has a bad case of he lives up in Green Bay so the local news channel interviewed him. My wife has sleep apnea which actually got worse as she lost weight, they gave her the cpap machine even though the Dr. wants the surgery as well as she does, but friggin insurance has to waste money on a several thousand dollar machine that forces air in her nose and keeps her awake more or less defeating it's own purpose of helping her get better sleep. These are serious problems and good luck getting insurance to help you deal with them. Before they tried the machine for my wife they tried to say she had no problem and wanted to just give her drugs to wake her up more during the day. These days you have to educate yourself and talk to a couple Dr.s I know too many people who have been hurt severely by medical "professionals" look long and hard before you trust one.
Thanks, and I should have said it before: I'm very sorry about your son.
I found the CPAP to be hopeless. Despite eight years of flying in the Marines, most of the time with an O2 mask strapped to my face, I could never get comfortable with, or even used to, the CPAP mask and the machine's incessant huffing. Try rolling over with a long hose protruding from your head! Maybe in the future the docs will do better and these stories will fade away to being just sad memories.
This scares the **** out of me. My brother has sleep apnea BAD. He is very overweight, and I've counted 10-15 second lapses between breaths while he's sleeping, but he just blows it off like it's nothing. He's in denial obviously; he smokes like a forest fire and drinks like a sailor. Simply put, he won't change his behavior and get healthy. I know I'll lose him at anytime; I don't cry much but I'm tearing up just writing this
Is there anything that can be done witjout using that machine with the mask that you know of?quote:
Originally posted by ekpolk:
Oh yeah, there are non-surgical treatments for lesser cases, in case I just scared anyone too badly.
Check with your doctor next time you're in and see if he has anything to offer. You definitely want to keep trying, but keep in mind that while what you describe is NOT good, and should be corrected, I was having periods of over 60 seconds of no breathing. There are a lot of factors that play into this, but one of the major dangers is when you stop long enough that your blood O2 saturation level drops significantly. Ten to 15 seconds of breath holding probably won't do that (but keep in mind, I'm not a doctor, of course).
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