[T - 13yrs] OSA diagnosis

This was in late 1996. I started having a hell of a time staying awake at the wheel going back from work to home. The drive was no more than 40 minutes, but at about the 30 minute mark, I was having real difficulty staying awake. I tried all techniques, pinching myself, turning the radio up loud, rolling the windows down, turning up the radio, drinking tea or coffee before I left work. All to no avail. At that time, I was just diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes for which I had begon to get treated. This probably did not help my fatigue as well. The only thing I could do was to pull off the freeway and take a 15 minute nap and then I would be much refreshed. Of course several times a cop would wake me up and ask me to get off the side of the freeway as it was not safe. I went to my Primary care physician Dr. Jagat Satia, a brilliant man, who immediately sent me to what he called as a "sleep study".

The sleep study was conducted by Sequoia Hospital Sleep Disorders Center and they immediately diagnosed me as Obstructive Hypoapnea and UARS (Upper airway resistance syndrome). There it was! All my life, others and myself included that perhaps it was all mental, perhaps genetic, perhaps I was just lazy etc. etc. This proved beyoind a doubt that there was something physical. Maybe it even contributed to me getting early type 2 diabetes.

For the time being, the doc prescribed nasal CPAP with a pressure of 7cm. For the first time in my life, I knew it wasn't all mental after all.