Giving Thanks - In Peace I Will Both Lie Down and Sleep

The Lord was incredibly gracious to me this year in blessing me with the gift of sleep. It turns out that I have pretty severe sleep apnea, a condition in which you actually stop breathing at night. It is a condition that can prevent a person from getting the restorative sleep that he needs.

My journey to restful sleep started in April of this year during a regular checkup with my primary care doctor. In the midst of the visit, she asked how I was feeling, and the Lord allowed me to remember a couple of symptoms that I had become aware of during the past several months. I was getting up to urinate at least two or more times per night and, every day at work I would almost fall asleep at my desk. My doctor dutifully followed up with a couple of other questions.

"Do you snore?"

"Yes."

"Do you grind your teeth at night?"

"Yes."

From there, she let me know that I likely have mild to moderate sleep apnea and recommended that I undergo a home sleep test to find out if I really did have sleep apnea. Hearing that I would be doing a sleep test actually made me pretty excited, as I have wanted to do a sleep test for years, just for the fun of it (yes, I am serious about this). The test was a lot simpler than what you make think of when you hear "sleep test." It did not include going to spend the night at a clinic with 20 million electrodes taped all over me. A respiratory therapist came to my home and showed me the equipment I would be wearing to sleep for the next couple of nights: some headgear with a plastic box in front of my forehead, connecting to my skin with some silicon, a nasal tube sitting just at the entrance to my nostrils, and a canvas strap that buckled around my chest (pictured below).

I followed the instructions and completed the sleep test. Two days later, the respiratory therapist picked up the sleep test and my doctor was sent the results soon after that. She called and let me know that I had one of the worst sleep apnea cases she had ever seen. My results showed that I very frequently stopped breathing at points during the night, at one point, my heartbeat rose to 136 beats per minute, and my oxygen dipped to below 72% (when it should be in the 90s).

As troubling as this diagnosis was, I was so pleased to hear this news, as my doctor told me that treating it would really impact my quality of life. Not only was I almost falling asleep at work everyday, I was so tired all of the time that while at work I just longed to go home so that I could just sleep. I basically had no energy to do anything. Hearing that getting the right treatment could impact my energy level significantly was music to my ears.

My doctor made it clear that I needed to get started using a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) mask/machine as soon as possible. Due to the typical slowness of the insurance approval process, I knew that it might take a bit of time to get my machine. I also new that "a squeaky wheel gets the grease." I therefore made multiple calls to both my insurance provider and the medical supply company to make sure things were moving along as they should be.

During that time, I was a bit afraid to go to sleep, knowing that my oxygen had been going to very unhealthy levels during my sleep, and there was really nothing that I could consciously do to prevent this from happening. I was reminded though that in sleeping we are very much in dependence upon the Lord to sustain us through the night. A couple of verses, in particular brought me encouragement

"In peace, I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety." Psalm 4:8 (ESV)

"I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me." Psalm 3:5 (ESV)

I knew that I could ask the Lord to preserve me during these nights of sleep as I waited for my CPAP machine. I also did my best to sleep sitting propped up (not at all fun, by the way). Ultimately, the Lord was gracious to me and allowed me to live through those nights until receiving my CPAP mask/machine one week later.

What is really cool about the CPAP machines these days are all of the data they provide to the user. My machine tells me if there were any substantial air leaks (mask letting air leak out because of not being properly affixed) that night, how much average air pressure I needed, and also a score (AHI) that gives a general measure of the extent to which I stopped breathing during the night. As I started using my machine, I definitely had a bit of a learning curve, as there are different things that affected my mask staying properly affixed. However, I was determined to persevere in light of the possibility of having energy once again.

My doctor had told me that after about one month, I should feel a significant difference, especially in terms of energy level. Unfortunately, after using my CPAP machine quite religiously for one month, I still wasn't quite feeling the difference that I had hoped for. My doctor encouraged me that for some people, who have had severe cases for a long time (which she believed my case was), it can take longer. She had heard it equated to a person with a normal appetite and a person who had been starving for a long time, both being given a meal to eat. The food that might easily satisfy the one with a normal appetite, just might not quite cut it for the one who had been starving for a long time. My body was starving for sleep, and one month of great sleep wasn't quite enough to satiate that hunger.

I continued onward with my regular use of the CPAP machine, and, sure enough, at about the 2.5 month mark, I realized one day that I had so much energy. Truly, it was more energy than I had felt in a long time, possibly in several years. It was incredible!

It has fascinated me for years how seemingly small physiological issues can have a profound impact upon a person's life. From my experience with sleep apnea, I can attest to the reality of this. Having my sleep apnea under control has enabled me to have the energy to accomplish projects, exercise and enjoy life to a greater extent than I had been able to for quite some time.

The sleep I experience now is such a wonderful gift. It has truly changed my life. I am so thankful for my CPAP machine and the restorative sleep I am now able to experience every single night. More so, though, I am thankful for the gracious Lord God who gave the gift of enabling my doctor to identify and treat this health issue. Praise be to God!

Breakfast - More than Just the Most Important Meal of the Day

I ate a whole lot of cereal for breakfast growing up. Sometimes, I would stick with a favorite brand, but it was probably more often the case that I would quickly tire of one brand midway through the box and feel the urge to start eating a new brand. Fortunately, by that time, cereal manufacturers had developed the concept of selling a variety pack of individual-serving sized boxes of cereals. I’m quite certain that my brother and I consumed quite a few such variety packs of cereal.

Aside from trying lots of different kinds of cereal, though, breakfast time in our house was often a time that my parents used to reinforce in my brother and myself a habit of praying for specific people.

My mom took several index cards, punched holes in one of the corners, tied a piece of yarn through the hole and added a name or picture of extended family members and missionaries. We had at least two such decks of cards, and, I recall each day we would get to flip to a new card in the deck and include them in our prayers as a family that morning.

As Missions Sunday will be tomorrow at my church, my mind drifted this week to thinking about one of the cards we used in our missionary card rotation; this card included a reminder for us to pray for the Harauti people group in India who needed the Bible translated into their own language. In looking up the progress of this work, I was pleased to see that it appears this people group does now have the New Testament in their language, along with an audio recording of the Gospel and the Jesus Film in their language (see here).

The repetition we used to pray for this people group, along with various missionaries and extended family is a practice I have used in my own prayer life, well beyond the time that my parents first introduced this into my life. If you have kiddos, I would heartily encourage you to begin this type of routine with them now, particularly at mealtime.

What better time to instill this type of habit in kids than mealtime? Eating is something that we soon learn we must do to survive. Prayer, God's Word tells us, should be taking place on a recurring basis (1 Thess. 5:17). Coupling mealtime with a discipline that will serve your child well for the rest of their life may take some planning and preparation on your part, but will surely be time well spent.