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Transcript

10: From Exhausted to Energized: Shyla’s Sleep Apnea Story · Still Caring

• 0:03
  Abby Fox (Intro): Welcome to the Still Caring Podcast,
• 0:05
  presented by Stillwater Medical.
• 0:07
  Joe Akin (Intro): Here, community is at the heart of healthcare.
• 0:09
  Katon Lunsford (Intro): Through honest conversations and shared experiences
• 0:12
  Abby Fox (Intro): we explore what it means to care for our health—
• 0:14
  Joe Akin (Intro): and each other.
• 0:15
  Katon Lunsford (Intro): Because better health takes a village
• 0:17
  and you're part of ours.
• 0:18
  Abby Fox (Host): Hello, and welcome to Still Caring.
• 0:20
  I am Abby Fox, the PR and marketing manager at Stillwater Medical Center,
• 0:24
  and I am joined by Shyla Eggers, a familiar face for many of you.
• 0:28
  Shyla, tell us a little bit about yourself and when Stillwater became home for you.
• 0:32
  Shyla Eggers: Well, I've been around a while.
• 0:34
  As you know, I started toward the end of 1999 when the biggest
• 0:39
  concern at that point was Y2K, and would everything shut down.
• 0:43
  Wow, have things changed since then.
• 0:46
  So, I started my role, and spent nearly twenty-five years as a public
• 0:50
  relations and marketing director.
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  And then I am so grateful, Abby, for you for coming in and joining our team so
• 0:58
  I could step back and take care of not only being a grandma to two, now almost
• 1:03
  three grandsons, but also to take care of some health things that I've wanted
• 1:07
  to take care of for quite some time.
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  So, it's been a real pleasure to get to continue to work
• 1:12
  here with such a great team.
• 1:14
  Abby Fox (Host): Yes.
• 1:15
  Well, and it's been such a pleasure to learn from you, Shyla, 'cause
• 1:17
  you've been here for so long.
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  I was brand new to healthcare, and so thank you for all that you've done to make
• 1:22
  this a smooth transition for both of us.
• 1:24
  Yeah.
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  Well, we're here today to talk about your personal life and
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  not just your life at work.
• 1:30
  Tell us a little bit more, um, your sleep apnea journey
• 1:34
  Shyla Eggers: it actually began well over ten years ago.
• 1:37
  you know, a lot of couples have that same argument where you're, you're snoring.
• 1:41
  Well, you're snoring.
• 1:42
  Well, both of us were like, "We probably should check this out."
• 1:45
  So we, had sleep studies done back then, and of course, both
• 1:50
  of us came back with sleep apnea.
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  I tried to use a sleep machine for probably a very short amount of time,
• 1:58
  and at that time, it was pretty mild.
• 2:01
  And so after talking to, my doctor and a couple of other people, they're
• 2:06
  like, "Well, if you just don't sleep on your back," because they were
• 2:09
  talking about how your, your muscles in your neck area and, and your
• 2:13
  palate start to break down over time.
• 2:15
  Well, I was still relatively young.
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  I was still in my mid-forties at that point in time.
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  So, I wasn't ready to commit, and so I, I just kind of worked through it.
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  And then over the last few years, I just noticed that I just,
• 2:30
  I'm-- was tired all the time.
• 2:31
  I just, it, it's was a struggle.
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  My mental clarity seemed like it was suffering a little bit.
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  I just, couldn't get over the, the feeling of being tired all the time.
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  So I made the commitment after I had traveled with my daughter,
• 2:47
  and she said, "Mom, you're, you're not breathing in the night.
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  You stop breathing, and it's very scary."
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  so I'm like, "You know what?
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  It's time."
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  like I said, I, I have a reason to want to make sure I'm around for a very long time,
• 3:00
  and I knew the seriousness of sleep apnea.
• 3:02
  So, even before I went in to, have my testing done this go around, I had started
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  marketing Stillwater Medical's new, at the time, procedure called Inspire.
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  And I can tell you the minute that the team at Inspire walked in my
• 3:19
  office and started telling me about this technology, I was intrigued, I
• 3:24
  was hopeful, and I was just thinking this might be the answer for me.
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  so long story short, this last year, within the last year, I had another
• 3:35
  sleep study done, and of course, my sleep apnea had gotten worse.
• 3:39
  and I can tell you that the sleep studies, they do them at home now.
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  I, I mean, it can be either way depending on who you are, but it's
• 3:45
  like wearing an Apple Watch to sleep.
• 3:47
  Abby Fox (Host): That's amazing.
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  That is so easy.
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  I
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  mean, compared to like coming up to the hospital and doing it
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  there, which we still do that
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  too,
• 3:54
  Shyla Eggers: still have to do that in some instances.
• 3:57
  So I, I got the sleep study, I got the results.
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  I mulled it over.
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  I said, "You know what?
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  I have to try to go back on the sleep machine."
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  I did that, and I, I gave it my best effort, but being monitored, you're
• 4:12
  monitored through a sleep apnea machine as well, and I was still having 14 episodes
• 4:18
  an hour, where I would stop breathing.
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  So
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  Abby Fox (Host): is that a CPAP that you're talking about, the sleep machine?
• 4:24
  Okay.
• 4:25
  So
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  it kind of goes over your face and it helps you kind of breathe.
• 4:28
  Okay
• 4:29
  Shyla Eggers: Yes.
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  So even with the CPAP, the forced air wasn't enough for me to, get any relief.
• 4:36
  And so I did further conversations with, Dr.
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  Emde, our, our sleep medicine physician, and he recommended I see Dr.
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  Goff and start the procedure of, finding out if I would qualify for Inspire.
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  And so I did that.
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  And that process is, it, there's a few phases, so it, but it's fairly simple.
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  you go in, You have a sleep endoscopy where they just put you
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  to sleep for about 15 minutes.
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  They run a scope down.
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  They want to see how your tongue is falling when you fall asleep.
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  And of course, like I said earlier, with the muscle breakdown and everything
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  that, that goes on with that, your tongue is just falling back in there,
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  and it is blocking your airway.
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  it's called obstructive sleep apnea.
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  Uh, you'll hear it a lot of different terms.
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  But, came right at him, and he said, "You're, you're a great candidate.
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  Let's get this on the books."
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  and two months ago today, I looked at the exact date, I had my Inspire implanted.
• 5:37
  so that started my journey.
• 5:39
  Abby Fox (Host): That's amazing.
• 5:40
  Ah.
• 5:41
  So what has that been like, after getting that?
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  So you had surgery essentially, and they placed it.
• 5:47
  And then what does it look like in the days and weeks following that?
• 5:51
  Shyla Eggers: there's two incisions.
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  There's one on my neck, which is almost, almost invisible now.
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  Most people don't even notice.
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  And one of, just in the upper chest.
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  And so, it's like just a small little flat device under the skin, and they
• 6:03
  run some wires, into your chest area and up into your, the back of your throat.
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  there's a fancy name for that muscle, but it basically is the
• 6:13
  muscle that, um, controls your tongue, your tongue movement.
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  So, the first four weeks was just me healing from surgery.
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  the implant was not turned on just yet.
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  The device, that's implanted, all of that has to heal, and then it is
• 6:30
  activated at the four-week period or somewhere around in there.
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  And so at that point in time, I, uh, went back in and, and it was,
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  activation process that, that is done with the experts from Inspire.
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  They come in and do that.
• 6:45
  Abby Fox (Host): Okay.
• 6:45
  So is there a remote or something like that that turns it on?
• 6:48
  I know that I've seen pictures, and I'm like, "That seems weird."
• 6:51
  Shyla Eggers: I call it my garage door opener because that's
• 6:54
  exactly what it looks like.
• 6:57
  And so when you go in and have that, that appointment, they set the device to your
• 7:03
  settings, to whatever's best for you.
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  they do a little test mode where they do the stimulation.
• 7:09
  And, you know, just to go back a little bit, what this does is it stimulates that
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  nerve, every time you breathe to make sure that your tongue stays out of the
• 7:17
  way so that you can keep that airway open.
• 7:20
  so, when you're being activated, you do a little test like, I think of
• 7:26
  some people have had a TENS unit, so where you see how much you
• 7:29
  can tolerate, if that makes sense.
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  A little twinge, you know?
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  so they set that, and then they back it off just a little bit to get you started,
• 7:38
  and you start right away that night.
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  you put a setting in as to like how long does it take you to fall asleep.
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  Ideally, they'd like you to like be close to asleep when
• 7:47
  it starts activating at night.
• 7:50
  But I've been awake many, many times, and it's been...
• 7:53
  It's not a big deal at all.
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  you turn it on and you have that delay.
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  I have a 45-minute delay, and then it kicks in and starts doing its process.
• 8:02
  And then I, they set it for you based on how many hours you are
• 8:05
  trying to sleep every night.
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  So, if that's six or seven or eight, they will program it accordingly.
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  I downloaded an app on my phone.
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  I can see how I'm doing and how my usage is, and there are a lot of
• 8:18
  resources on your phone if you have questions and just would like l-
• 8:23
  like to be able to explain better to your friends and family what you're,
• 8:26
  what you're up to, what's going on.
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  So, and so far, I would say after about two weeks in, I did still have quite a bit
• 8:33
  of residual pain in my ear and my neck.
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  But you know, they have gone in there to get everything in its place.
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  they have intricately placed where it needs to be, and that
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  makes you sore a little bit.
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  And, and I would say that even eight weeks later, I'm still just every once
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  in a while have a little bit of ear pain.
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  Nothing I'm complaining about.
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  It has not kept me from doing anything.
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  It's just been a little annoying, but it is every single day getting less and less.
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  And I'm sleeping so
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  good now.
• 9:04
  Abby Fox (Host): I was gonna-- That was my next question, is like, how's it going?
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  Like, d- was it like immediate or it takes a while
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  since they're
• 9:11
  Shyla Eggers: I feel like the first time I really got up and went, "This is working,"
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  was two weeks after it was activated.
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  but I think I mentioned that they, you know, they set a range.
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  So, every week you go up
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  for several weeks, I think it's four or five weeks, and then you're gonna go
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  back and see, the sleep physician again.
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  And then there's one more part of the process, process after that, that I will
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  do, and I will do an in-lab sleep study.
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  Because at that point, they wanna make sure that my ranges are good,
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  that I'm not having any episodes, or I'm having significantly
• 9:48
  less episodes, during the night.
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  So, yes, the initial, study was at home.
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  It was like an Apple Watch.
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  It was super easy.
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  But I will go in and have, have all of the, the probes and, and all of the
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  processes that they would do in an in-lab.
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  And it's just, it's just one of the little things you have to jump through to, to
• 10:09
  get it working the way it needs to be working and to, to benefit from that.
• 10:14
  Abby Fox (Host): Yeah.
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  And that's just kind of an assurance that, hey, it's doing what we
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  think it should be doing, and it's
• 10:18
  Shyla Eggers: Yes.
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  Yes.
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  And I can tell you there's no doubt in my mind that that
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  has already happened for me.
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  it's just a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning.
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  It's a lot easier to focus.
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  It's, there's just so many things.
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  And I know, I mean, we work together every day, and you know how my journey's
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  been, and it's been difficult, and I just can't emphasize enough that
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  if this is something that you're suffering from, there is an option.
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  And I know, you know, just because I've been around for so long, that having
• 10:52
  sleep apnea and undiagnosed sleep apnea leads to many, many other health
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  conditions, um, heart disease, stroke.
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  There's a lot of things that can go wrong if you continue to go
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  undiagnosed or untreated with sleep
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  apnea.
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  Abby Fox (Host): And sometimes we discredit how much sleep
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  contributes to our overall health.
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  I think that's a common thing here that, you know, rest is so important.
• 11:18
  Shyla Eggers: Absolutely, yes.
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  Yes.
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  And I chase two-year-olds around on the weekends, and I'm, I'm having
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  another, another grandson soon, so I, I needed to be at my best.
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  Abby Fox (Host): So is Rick sold on this, your husband?
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  Is he
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  wanting to
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  do this too?
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  Shyla Eggers: Yeah.
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  So far, he's, he seems like, "Well, I'm glad this is working for you."
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  And I keep thinking, "Maybe it's time for you to do this as well."
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  you know, we have a couple trips coming up, so maybe after that I'll talk him into
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  that a you know, a little at a time.
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  but we do travel quite a bit, so carrying around literally a little, what I call a
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  garage door opener, it's a little remote control that, uh, turns it on and off
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  versus traveling with a CPAP machine and, you know, trying to wear that every night.
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  And, and don't get me wrong, for those people that a CPAP works, it's a
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  game-changer, and we want them to wear it.
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  And if it's working for them, great.
• 12:15
  If it's not working for them, I would encourage you to talk to your doctor
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  or make an appointment with a sleep medicine, physician or even just Dr.
• 12:24
  Goff and just kinda get the lowdown on what Inspire is
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  all about and how it can help.
• 12:29
  Abby Fox (Host): Well, and that's what's been really great about working here is
• 12:31
  knowing that, like, you just don't have to accept certain things as like, "Oh,
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  well, this just happens when you age."
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  You know, there is a lot of intervention that can be done.
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  And so that's really hopeful to hear your story and what is possible,
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  for
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  Shyla Eggers: It is.
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  And, and, you know, I just have to add in there that, again, I've, I've been
• 12:47
  promoting hospital service lines and, and new providers and, and technology for
• 12:53
  many, many years, and I'm still amazed and grateful every day that our team takes the
• 12:59
  steps that they need to take to get this technology into place and the training.
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  And I used to know everybody when I got here.
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  We had four hundred and fifty people, you know.
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  You very well know we hover around two thousand most of the time.
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  And so, to be able to go in and have the procedure and see and be cared for
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  by people that I didn't know one-on-one and to get the care that I received
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  and the recovery and the, the support after I went home has been just amazing.
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  And I, I just can't stress enough how good that made me feel, knowing I have, been
• 13:39
  out there telling other people how great our teams are because I know they are.
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  And now when I get to see it firsthand and, and live it, it's
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  just, it's very rewarding for me.
• 13:48
  Abby Fox (Host): Is there anything that surprised you
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  throughout the process or things
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  Shyla Eggers: when I really had decided that this is what I wanted
• 13:55
  to do was actually last June.
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  Last June, we had an event, to talk about Inspire, a big community event.
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  We had a huge crowd, so I know there's a lot of people suffering that need help.
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  and a gentleman came in, from Oklahoma City, and he gave his testimony on
• 14:12
  having the procedure and the outcome, and, and I just-- he was so convincing.
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  I was so drawn to the fact that, wow, this has made a difference in his life.
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  And so that's kind of where I was really like, I need to do this.
• 14:26
  And so, but one of the things that they were laughing about, made little
• 14:30
  jokes about were, well, you know, you need to turn it off when you get up
• 14:33
  because sometimes when you're, when it's on and you're awake, your tongue
• 14:36
  will just stick out of your mouth.
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  And I'm like, well, that's weird.
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  And like I couldn't get over that statement.
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  I'm like, so, my husband would joke around.
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  He's like, "Am I gonna get a remote?
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  Like, can I just, you know, turn it on and see you do silly things?"
• 14:50
  That's not the case at all.
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  I get up pretty much every night without turning it off.
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  You can pause it in the night.
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  I get up every night pretty much and go to the restroom and, go right back
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  to sleep, and I never turn it off.
• 15:01
  it can be a little bit difficult to, to talk sometimes, but I
• 15:06
  thought it would be more powerful.
• 15:07
  And sometimes I'm like, is this thing on?
• 15:09
  Because you can feel it just a little bit in this area.
• 15:13
  And, I do think-- I think what's surprising me is, first of all,
• 15:18
  I thought it would be a little bit painful, and it's not at all.
• 15:21
  I also thought, again, I was a little bit worried, like, what's
• 15:25
  it gonna do when I wake up?
• 15:26
  You know, is it really gonna do crazy things?
• 15:29
  And it doesn't.
• 15:30
  And, I do think there's some sort of muscle memory involved because
• 15:34
  what I notice is when I go to sleep, if I am still awake and it
• 15:39
  has come on, I feel it immediately.
• 15:41
  But in the morning when it's still on, I don't feel it anymore.
• 15:45
  And it just makes me think there must be some sort of muscle memory that, it gets
• 15:50
  used to, and it just, it feels it's just a lot more comfortable and unnoticeable.
• 15:54
  Abby Fox (Host): okay.
• 15:55
  Well, we are ending all of our podcast conversations with a challenge to care.
• 15:59
  So Shyla, if you had a challenge that you would give our listeners,
• 16:02
  something they can do for their personal health or for community health, what
• 16:05
  would your challenge to care be?
• 16:07
  Shyla Eggers: I would just say, you know, number one, it is an easy process
• 16:13
  to see a primary care once a year.
• 16:16
  And we have so many conversations about how do we get people to do that.
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  But the best source to keep your overall health in great
• 16:24
  shape is to see a primary care.
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  Ours are so thorough and so invested in taking care of their patients.
• 16:31
  And, shout out to Dr.
• 16:33
  Hill, who's been with me for a while.
• 16:35
  He has, he has always just managed my care, in such detail, and I
• 16:41
  would encourage people to do that.
• 16:43
  I also would encourage you that if you know something isn't right, if
• 16:47
  you feel something and you just know it's not right, get it checked out.
• 16:52
  Because early detection of anything, whether it's a cancer or a sleep apnea or
• 16:59
  a colon issue, is the key to everything.
• 17:02
  But I will tell you that start-- it starts with your primary care.
• 17:05
  And so I challenge everybody, if you haven't seen your primary care in the
• 17:10
  last year, to make your appointment.
• 17:11
  If you don't have a primary care, find one today, because most insurances
• 17:16
  pay 100% for that once-a-year, visit to your primary care.
• 17:20
  So that
• 17:21
  would be my challenge.
• 17:22
  Abby Fox (Host): And it's worth taking the time.
• 17:23
  I think sometimes it's just like, "Oh, I don't have time
• 17:25
  to do that one more thing."
• 17:27
  But you never know when that one more thing can mean that
• 17:29
  you have a lot more time
• 17:30
  left,
• 17:31
  you know, with good quality health.
• 17:33
  So, Anything else you wanted to share today that we
• 17:36
  haven't chatted about, Shyla?
• 17:38
  Shyla Eggers: I do wanna say that we do have another, event coming up to learn
• 17:41
  more about Inspire, on June the second.
• 17:43
  So be following our Facebook page and our website, and we'll, we'll have
• 17:48
  some links there where you can, RSVP and come to our event and just learn
• 17:52
  more firsthand from the experts.
• 17:55
  Abby Fox (Host): I love that.
• 17:55
  And it is very information-focused.
• 17:57
  It's just giving you kind of the facts about what this is.
• 18:00
  So if that's something you're interested in, yes, I think that would be a
• 18:02
  fabulous opportunity for our listeners.
• 18:05
  All right.
• 18:05
  Well, thanks for being with us today, Shyla.
• 18:07
  We
• 18:07
  Shyla Eggers: Thanks, Abby, for letting me tell my story.
• 18:09
  I'll tell it anywhere and everywhere I
• 18:10
  can, so
• 18:11
  thank you so much
• 18:13
  Abby Fox (Host): All
• 18:13
  right.
• 18:14
  See
• 18:14
  ya.
• 18:15
  Shyla Eggers: you.
• 18:15
  Abby Fox (Host): Bye.