I've been on a journey for the last six months to understand why my breathing has changed, and I'm looking forward to sharing my journey with you!
The Diagnosis
I started feeling incredibly tired, especially mid-day, and this concerned me. Although I don't typically drink caffeine, I was starting to rely on it to stay awake through the afternoon. I knew I had to get to the bottom of it!
I'm learning more about perimenopause and I thought my sleepiness was a result of that (because I've had LOTS of those symptoms!).
But when I talked to my doctor, she encouraged me to get a sleep test and cross that off the list first. I've always snored, but recently my husband noticed a change in my breathing, and my Reiki practitioner mentioned something was off with my breathing during our sessions.
So, I made the appointment and was pretty devastated when the results showed I had severe obstructive sleep apnea. 😭 I knew that meant getting a CPAP, and I didn't want to deal with that at this point in my life. Another component of these recent breathing issues is probably a festering sinus infection that won't go away, so I got to work exploring that too.
My sleep doctor and ENT doctor have been very focused on the CPAP, and I will use that to treat my sleep apnea, but I'm determined to figure out where this problem started and find other solutions for the future. Luckily, I knew Brittany Baily from Joyful Breathing. She works with adults and kids to rebuild their mouth structures and refine their breathing. I recently shared info here in Macaroni KID about her work with sleep apnea, so I reached out to see if she could help!
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I did a quick exploration call with Brittany, and I went over my journey so far. She told me that her results with sleep apnea clients are very positive, and I was thrilled! When we chatted, I also decided to have my son come with me for visits. He's a mouth breather, and I don't want it to progress to something worse as he gets older.
Our Journey Begins
During our first visit with Brittany, she asked many questions and measured different areas inside and outside our mouths. Then, it was time for her to share those results and what they meant for our breathing.
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Everything she examined made it very clear that my mouth structure, lip posture, and tongue positioning were contributing to my obstructive sleep apnea. I also learned that my tongue was supposed to be parked on the roof of my mouth, and even when I try to do that now, it's impossible (but we're working on it!) She also mentioned that my lips weren't the correct length, and that's part of the reason that my mouth can't stay closed when I'm sleeping.
My son's tongue tie is the main challenge for his breathing. He doesn't have a full range of motion, so it's contributing to many different things we can work on!
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The results were FASCINATING!!! I couldn't believe these issues weren't common knowledge or something we screen for in kids. Breathing affects so many muchmin our body (the list is LONG), so it's critical to be aware of the changes we can make. I was so happy I had reached out to Brittany and knew we were in expert hands!
Brittany gave us each four exercises to do three times a day. I was surprised at how hard the exercises were. It was clear that my tongue and lips needed to do some heavy lifting to get into shape! One of the exercises my tongue simply wasn't capable of doing, poor little thing, so I have a more basic exercise than my son. And that basic exercise was nearly impossible. I had to focus very, very hard to get my tongue to do what it was supposed to do.
It's been three weeks since that first visit, and our next appointment with Brittany is coming up very soon. I've already seen a huge improvement in the strength and flexibility of my mouth from the exercises, and I am really excited to see what's next! (I'm sure it will be hard, and I'll feel incompetent again, lol, but I'll get there!)
Stay tuned for the next part of our journey as we continue working with Brittany!
💡 Work with Brittany
Brittany owns Northglenn-based Joyful Breathing, a Myofunctional-based practice specializing in Breathing Education where she sees clients of all ages.
Clients come to Brittany from around the Denver metro area because they want to pursue better breathing and oral behaviors, and she helps with issues like finger/thumb sucking, TMJ issues, anxiety, asthma, sleep apnea, tongue-tie care, and orthodontic treatment/relapse.
If you think you or your kiddo would benefit from working with Brittany, you can find her here:
11184 Huron St Unit #9 Northglenn, CO 80234
info@joyfulbreathingcolorado.com
720-383-4945
