Always Listen to Mom

I've got a confession to make. A couple of months ago I was visiting Mom and accompanied her to a doctor's appointment. In the course of visiting with the doctor, my mom said she was tired all the time and had no energy. I jumped in and told the doctor that she didn't sleep at night because she, like many elderly widows, felt anxious alone in the house at night. (Sheesh! If my mom reads this and sees I referred to her as elderly, there will be repercussions. She hates the E word.)

Sleep Study

Anyway, her doctor suggested she have a sleep study done. I knew he was thinking sleep apnea, but I didn't think she had sleep apnea. I thought, erroneously, that this condition affected snorers who shook the rafters with the sounds they made - and who were usually overweight too. My mom doesn't really snore. She just breathes a bit heavily sometimes. And she's a tiny thing. Not overweight at all.

To make a long story short, I was ignorant. And wrong. So I want all of you to know that if you're tired all the time, you might want to talk to your doctor. Check out sleep apnea for the quiz they have and to learn more about this condition. I wish I'd visited the site before. I might have recognized that what was affecting my mom wasn't just advancing years.

Resources

The site is a directory of all the medical centers and doctors nationwide that treat sleep disorders and cure sleep apnea, and there are a lot of resources on the site to help you with your inquiries.

My mom has been fitted with a high-tech gadget which I call a sleep machine. Hopefully, she'll be catching Z's every night, all night long until dawn, instead of counting sheep or tossing and turning.

Takeaway Truth

Don't dismiss out of hand the complaints of your older loved ones. There may be reasons for being tired other than being, well, let's just say, slightly more mature in years.