Harriette Cole: Snoring can be dangerous

Dear Harriette: For those with loved ones who snore, this can be a deadly problem. Two people in my life were significantly affected by snoring. One was my husband. I had gotten so used to his snoring that when he wasn’t snoring, I would wake up to see whether he was still breathing.

After 15 years, he started having trouble concentrating; things didn’t quite click in his mind. He underwent a test for sleep apnea, and it was discovered that he woke up 109 times each hour, which meant he was getting absolutely no REM sleep. The doctors treated him with a breathing machine, which worked for a while but eventually became ineffective.

We took him to an ENT doctor, who checked his throat. The opening in the back of his throat was the size of a dime. Action was taken immediately, and his tonsils and part of his soft palate were removed. I never realized how sick he was until after the operation. My love is a redheaded Irishman, but his pre-surgery color was ghostly pale.

Immediately after the surgery, he was pink. It took four weeks to recover, but he is more alive and healthy than he ever was prior to the surgery. The doctor said if my husband hadn’t had the procedure he would be dead by now. We were lucky that we pushed for an answer.

I said there were two people in my life with a serious snoring problem. The other, a close friend, died from sleep apnea recently. If your loved one snores and then sucks in air as if he isn’t going to get another breath, or he scares you by the way he breathes when sleeping, get him to a sleep doctor — and then to an ENT to fix it. — Allie, Denver.