Unending gratitude for restful nights

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This article was published 13/04/2024 (735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

U of M medical fellowship program will help more Manitobans end nightmare of sleep disorders — Free Press, April 9.

Before you read another word, you need to know that I received six hours and 12 minutes of sleep, and stopped breathing only once per hour, before sitting down at my desktop computer to write this very personal column.

It’s true that you don’t routinely get told how much sleep a writer has received before beginning their thought-filled journey on the page. But this column is about the important day the people of Manitoba had this week, when we were informed the University of Manitoba made a decision to train more doctors in the specialty of sleep medicine.

As the Free Press reported, “The medical school’s respirology section is now accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, allowing it to offer certification in the sub-specialty of sleep medicine.” Only six schools in Canada have this certification, so this is a very big deal for Manitoba medicine, which includes those teaching at the university, those practising at the Sleep Disorder Centre at Misericordia Health Centre, and most importantly, the patients who live in the world of sleep disorders. They include insomnia, restless-legs syndrome, narcolepsy and sleep apnea.

The last two in that group don’t just involve having problems sleeping — they also mean breathing is regularly interrupted. Because I’m one of those patients, I was honoured to be invited to the news conference four days ago at the Misericordia, for this significant announcement.

I was not invited to cover the story. I was there because I’m a member of the vast population of human beings in Manitoba, which numbers in the tens of thousands, who have been helped by our sleep disorder clinic.

Since the first day I turned on a professional microphone 50 years ago, my career has been a thank-you card to Canada, which allowed me to enter this country as a refugee when I was a toddler.

The thank-you tour includes my gratitude for the many institutions that have given us the country we are privileged to be living in.

For my family, the lead institution will always be the Canadian Forces. I really don’t know how I can ever be grateful enough to the young men from the cities, towns and farming communities in Manitoba and across our country who sacrificed to fight fascism in the ’40s. Without their valour, my family is among many who would have been incinerated.

Needless to say I owe my life to our forces and their allies. But I’m also indebted to the sleep disorders clinic in Winnipeg, pioneered by Dr. Meir Kryger and a young doctor he trained, Dr. Martha Shepertycky. They rescued me, 22 years ago. Thank you, Meir and Martha.

When a friend of mine brought me to their office, I was on death’s door, suffering intense headaches, blackouts and a throat that felt like it was full of gravel.

When I was hooked up to machines at their lab for one night of sleep, technology told them my breathing disorder was severe. That meant my body stopped breathing for well over 30 times per hour. The noise I was making in trying to survive the night sounded like a wounded moose.

Every minute of sleep was playing havoc with my levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, demolishing brain cells, and imposing life-threatening obstacles for my blood, brain, lungs and heart. There is zero doubt I was on the road to a life-ending cardiac arrest or stroke, had I not received emergency treatment. That included a CPAP machine, which has been my sleeping partner since that day in the fall of 2002. That’s when Manitoba health care gave me the biggest break of my life since the day I was granted refugee status in Canada.

Why am I telling you this?

Because I know you or someone you love needs help to get through the night. Most people whose breathing is frequently interrupted while sleeping don’t know it.

Now that you have gotten a few paragraphs of my story, it’s time to pay serious attention to yours. If you’re feeling sleepy all the time regardless of how much sleep you think you’ve had, there is help available.

This week in Manitoba, the help got even better.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster.

charles@charlesadler.com