Rodney Curtis

Since I bummed a lot of you out with my previous post, I thought I’d follow up with something useful. Incidentally, a long lost high school friend of mine recently scolded me for not updating this blog more often. I loved the way he pantomimed being at the office, going to my site and pounding on his desk in frustration when the same post is there day in and day out. I apologize for that but as usual, I digress.

Do you find yourself snoring at night? Do you wake up wondering why they’re working a pneumatic drill in your bedroom? Does your spouse complain? Does this sound like an infomercial?

Well Dr. Rodney is here to help. One of the benefits of being in the hospital is sharing medical advice with fellow patients, nurses and doctors. After a quick and off-the-cuff conversation with a fellow leukemia patient last month I found myself wondering about snoring. I actually had to go back, seek her out and ask for clarification because I couldn’t believe what I heard.

Deep breathing. It’s that simple. She had gone into a sleep clinic months earlier to deal with an apnea issue and one of the main things they taught her was to work on taking deep breaths all throughout the day. Now this part needed clarification.

“Really?” I asked, thinking clarification is best when you only use one word.

“Yes, various times throughout the day, just relax, take several deep breaths through your nose and exhale, if you can, longer than it takes to inhale,” she said.

So of course I tried it.

I didn’t believe the results. I’m not sure if I believe them yet but something has changed in my sleep patterns; I don’t snore nearly as much. My wife was telling me that after my second hospital stay — you know, the one with the blood clot and all — my snoring was cacophonic. Sure, it could’ve been caused by any number of things but I had been building up to a crescendo for years. Marci even has earplugs resting on her nightstand.

After talking with my fellow patient and doing those deep breathing exercises, apparently my night rumblings have all but disappeared. Remember this is anecdotal evidence I’m sharing here and you should know never to listen to me. But the deep breathing worked.

Now, several times throughout the day and most every night or before napping — yes, I nap a lot these days — I remember to inhale deeply and exhale even deeper. Sometimes I send a rush of blood to my head but if I’m lying down, that’s not all bad. I have to tell ya, I’m surprisingly much more snoreless, (By the way, if you’re keeping track of my made up words, Spellcheck doesn’t even come close to allowing snoreless.)

While my wife is busy typing at her computer behind me I ask, “so if I were quoting you about my snoring right now Marci, what would I write?”

“It’s not bad at all; an occasional little schnuffle.” Apparently I’m not the only one with a creative vocabulary.

I looked it up online and some sites — not the majority by any means but some sites — list the same exercise. So there you have it. Take this advice or forget about it. Do your best not to yell at me in the Comments section for dispensing quack medicinery. And if you know of something else that’s helped you, jump in and feel free to share. After all, if you find it on the internet, it’s gotta be true.