1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:20,120 Hi everybody and welcome back to Airway First, the podcast from the Children's Airway First 2 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:21,120 Foundation. 3 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:23,560 I'm your host Rebecca Downing. 4 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:27,600 My guest today is Kaisa Bradley from Portland, Oregon. 5 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:32,080 Kaisa was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2017. 6 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:37,160 She's also been diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and ADHD. 7 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:42,920 While she wasn't diagnosed with sleep apnea until 2017, her story actually started much 8 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:44,520 earlier. 9 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:48,360 She was misdiagnosed for quite a long time. 10 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:53,480 With a strong purpose on giving hope, Kaisa now documents her journey and shares information 11 00:00:53,480 --> 00:00:59,680 on airway, sleep, and mental health issues on her blog, mentalhealthknaps.com. 12 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:05,440 I encourage you all to follow Kaisa on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as well. 13 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,640 And now let's jump into my interview with Kaisa Bradley. 14 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:11,240 All right, thanks so much for joining us. 15 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:15,680 Kaisa, it's nice of you to be here and share your story with us. 16 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:17,160 Yeah, definitely. 17 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,920 I'm excited to be here and talk about all the things. 18 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:21,920 Yeah. 19 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:22,920 Yeah. 20 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:25,400 Let's go ahead and jump right in. 21 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:32,920 So your story, as I understand it, began in your early teens. 22 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:35,560 Yes, definitely. 23 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:37,920 Absolutely. 24 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:43,800 It's taken a long time to figure that out because hindsight's a beautiful thing. 25 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:44,800 Right. 26 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:57,840 After talking with my sleep doctor and talking with my nurse practitioner of mental health, 27 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:03,680 we all agree that it started in my early teens basically when puberty hit. 28 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:05,480 So yeah. 29 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,160 But you weren't diagnosed or nobody addressed your issue at that point. 30 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:10,840 You didn't start. 31 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:20,520 Just to kind of lay the timeline out, your mental health journey didn't really take on 32 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:24,160 the form of a mental health journey until later, correct? 33 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:25,080 Correct. 34 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:30,440 I would easily say until I was 19 or 20. 35 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:39,800 And something to just note is like when I was going through, I didn't go to middle school. 36 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:42,040 I went to a junior high. 37 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:50,560 And then through high school, like mental health was not, even though it wasn't that 38 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:57,600 long ago, like I graduated from high school only 10 years ago, it was not talked about. 39 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:01,960 It was not something that was believed. 40 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:10,280 And it's so interesting now because I kind of had to do this whole deconstructing of 41 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:16,360 my own thought process about mental health, what it is, what it looks like, what it actually 42 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,080 does to you. 43 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:26,120 Because like back then, you know, I just thought, well, life doesn't get better than this. 44 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:28,480 I don't know what I have. 45 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,440 It's just how I am. 46 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:40,720 Because, you know, I think for me personally, like I kind of went under the radar because 47 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:46,400 of that because no one in my close circle believed in mental health. 48 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:48,400 It was something we just didn't talk about. 49 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:54,040 You mean they thought it was, it just doesn't exist or it's... 50 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:57,160 To be frank, it's like take a pill and it will go away. 51 00:03:57,160 --> 00:03:58,160 Gotcha. 52 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:03,400 It's like only if it's really bad and I felt terrible that that was the attitude. 53 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:08,280 But it was just, it wasn't something we talked about at school. 54 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:12,720 It wasn't talked about, you know, just it wasn't an opening. 55 00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:15,200 Not in your friend groups, not in your family. 56 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:16,920 It just wasn't talked about. 57 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:17,920 No, no. 58 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:24,800 So it was just kind of like, I had to like stumble through all of the feelings of depression, 59 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:32,360 anxiety and later, you know, figuring out, oh, you actually have some ADHD going on there. 60 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:36,920 And I figured out my own ways of coping with it. 61 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:42,760 And now like looking back, I realized, oh man, I missed so much during those years because 62 00:04:42,760 --> 00:04:48,280 I was so busy, you know, I get off from school, bam, coping mechanism, coping mechanism, you 63 00:04:48,280 --> 00:04:53,400 know, like to make it so I could just live. 64 00:04:53,400 --> 00:05:05,160 And then when I got to 19 or 20 and I moved away from home and I really had my first like 65 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:09,120 mental breakdown, if that's what we want to call it. 66 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:18,000 And I was put in contact with a mentor of sorts, a really close friend of mine who disclosed 67 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:23,640 to me that she had had depression her whole life. 68 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:27,360 And she just, she started talking to me about how it felt. 69 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:32,560 And for the first time in my life, I realized, oh, it's not me. 70 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:34,440 It's something I'm experiencing. 71 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:41,160 So and I don't, you know, I don't feel like my family, like I don't put them at fault 72 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:42,160 for not knowing. 73 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:43,160 We just didn't know. 74 00:05:43,160 --> 00:05:44,160 They just didn't know. 75 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:45,160 Yeah. 76 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:46,160 Yeah. 77 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:47,160 So. 78 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,920 And, you know, I've heard, I've heard you say, I just want to get it right because it 79 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:56,160 was a quote that I've learned to cope with whatever was around me with the energy that 80 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:57,360 I had. 81 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:04,200 So, you know, as you're talking about in your, your late teens, just going through the 82 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:07,480 motions, going to school, coming home, doing your coping mechanisms. 83 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:16,200 I mean, what is that like when you, when you don't really understand what's going on? 84 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:17,200 That's a really good question. 85 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:18,800 I don't think I've ever been asked that question. 86 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:19,800 I like it. 87 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:22,440 Um, I like, I like it. 88 00:06:22,440 --> 00:06:23,440 It makes me think. 89 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:24,440 I like thinking. 90 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:35,320 Um, when I think back to that particular time in my life, it's almost like a different 91 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:36,400 person. 92 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:42,520 It's like seeing the same image with just a completely different filter. 93 00:06:42,520 --> 00:06:50,400 And you know, on my channel, on my Instagram, on my YouTube, TikTok, whatever, I play a 94 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:55,880 lot with black and white filters because I feel like a lot of the times that's how I 95 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:00,240 felt like life was, there wasn't any color. 96 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:02,640 It was very black and white. 97 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,800 I felt like I had a script I had to follow just to survive. 98 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:14,360 And if I didn't follow it, then everything would go crumbling because I didn't know how 99 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:17,040 else to keep it together. 100 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:23,800 Um, because it's like, you know, you feel sick in your, you know, you've, you're dealing 101 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:27,480 with depression and you feel sick and you don't know why you're feeling sick. 102 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:33,080 You just know that if you take a nap here or if you take some time alone here that helps 103 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:35,080 it take the edge off. 104 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:39,480 Like it's really disorienting. 105 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:44,280 And also you kind of feel a little bit alienated. 106 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:49,280 And I felt like a lot of people didn't understand why I acted the way that I did. 107 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:55,520 And because of that, like a lot of my outside relationships outside my family really suffered. 108 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:59,920 You know, it's like, I was never that party going freshman. 109 00:07:59,920 --> 00:08:00,920 Right. 110 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:02,760 I just, I just, you didn't have the energy. 111 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:03,760 Yeah. 112 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:04,760 Not to mention the anxiety, right? 113 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:05,760 Yeah. 114 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:09,760 So that's like a whole other like monster. 115 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:10,760 Right. 116 00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:16,720 And so it was just, okay, this is how we're going to balance the depression. 117 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:19,760 This is how we're going to balance the anxiety. 118 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:22,920 And this is how we're going to balance the ADHD. 119 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:27,760 And for the longest time with ADHD, I thought that was just in boys. 120 00:08:27,760 --> 00:08:30,040 That's what I was taught. 121 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:35,040 And I was just like, well, this is just how my mind works. 122 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:38,040 And it doesn't, it doesn't get better than this. 123 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:45,200 And when we diagnosed with ADHD, was that in middle school, high school? 124 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:46,760 Was that in your 20s? 125 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:48,040 It's in my 20s. 126 00:08:48,040 --> 00:08:49,040 Okay. 127 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:54,280 And I also understand you, you are a fellow dyslexic as well. 128 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:55,280 I am. 129 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:56,280 Yeah. 130 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:57,280 That's a fun way to go through your life. 131 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:03,040 It's challenging and I will say as a fellow dyslexic, you get creative because you have 132 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:05,280 to figure things out. 133 00:09:05,280 --> 00:09:06,840 Yep. 134 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:10,120 So was that earlier in life? 135 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:14,160 So that you went through high school with, you knew about that earlier? 136 00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:15,160 Yeah. 137 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:21,400 So the dyslexia, this is where it gets a little interesting. 138 00:09:21,400 --> 00:09:27,200 Because we run into a parenting decision with my parents that I understand why they 139 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:29,080 did it that way. 140 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,000 And I don't know if I agree or disagree with it. 141 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:34,000 It's just what happened. 142 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:38,960 And it was when I was actually in the fourth grade. 143 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:41,960 And back then we didn't have computers. 144 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:42,960 We didn't type. 145 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:46,200 We hand wrote the thing. 146 00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:51,600 And I turned in papers and it was like in the middle of the year, and my teacher, she 147 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:55,120 called my parents in for a conference. 148 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:59,400 And she said, Hey, I noticed that Kaisa, she transposes letters. 149 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:03,680 She is very interesting in how she tries to write. 150 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:05,680 I think she has dyslexia. 151 00:10:05,680 --> 00:10:09,440 I think we should, I think we should get her tested. 152 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:14,440 And my, my dad, he has dyslexia. 153 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:19,200 But that for him, you know, he really didn't talk about it, right? 154 00:10:19,200 --> 00:10:20,200 Right. 155 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:21,200 For generations. 156 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:22,200 Yep. 157 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:28,560 And he just accepted that it would take him three times as long to do his homework, that 158 00:10:28,560 --> 00:10:35,560 you can work your way into a workable form of dyslexia to like be successful and write 159 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:37,960 and all of these things. 160 00:10:37,960 --> 00:10:43,400 And my parents, they didn't have me officially tested. 161 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:49,520 They didn't go in to have me labeled as dyslexia as dyslexic. 162 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:55,280 They didn't want that label on me because that teacher wanted to put the label. 163 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:58,520 She wanted to put me in extra classes. 164 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:04,160 And I understand why they didn't want me to have the label because I was already like, 165 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:09,800 I wasn't showing signs of the other stuff yet, but I was already showing that I was 166 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:14,720 very creative and doing a little bit different things. 167 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:22,600 And then my younger sibling, he is not dyslexic at all and is very, very smart. 168 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:28,360 And he qualified for all the extra like smart programs. 169 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:36,040 And they, you know, when it came to him, like they wanted to label him as a tag kid or like 170 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:37,960 the, you know, awards. 171 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:38,960 Right. 172 00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:39,960 Yeah. 173 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:45,680 And I did not want my sibling and I to use that against each other that I had the dyslexic 174 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:48,600 label and he had the tag label. 175 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:57,480 They wanted to keep us like this, to keep us working in a way that we could and to develop 176 00:11:57,480 --> 00:12:01,400 our own working styles and our own labels. 177 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,320 So I get why that happened that way. 178 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:07,600 If people disagree with that, I see why. 179 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:10,600 If they agree with that, I see why. 180 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,040 But that's just, that's just what happened. 181 00:12:13,040 --> 00:12:20,480 So when it came to going through school and everything and knowing, hey, I'm dyslexic, 182 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:22,520 it takes me longer to do things. 183 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:24,200 Reading is not my thing. 184 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:25,880 I have to listen to it. 185 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:26,880 Yeah. 186 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:34,760 I would just, I would just plan everything to take longer or to just do it differently. 187 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:42,480 Like for example, I remember, you know, you get the book reports and I would set like, 188 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:46,680 I would ask the teacher, hey, you know, when is this book report due? 189 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:51,960 I'm going to add a few extra weeks so I can listen to the book instead of reading it because 190 00:12:51,960 --> 00:12:54,600 if I read it, I'm not going to get everything. 191 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:56,000 So I don't know. 192 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:00,680 I just kind of learned to just to cope to get you. 193 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:01,680 Yeah. 194 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:02,680 Yeah. 195 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:08,960 And that's what I think is the case with a lot of, well, diagnosed and diagnosed. 196 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,680 You just kind of, you figure your way through it. 197 00:13:11,680 --> 00:13:12,680 Exactly. 198 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:13,680 Yeah. 199 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:19,040 And then I understand the audio part because I can't tell you how many times I read standing 200 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:22,440 up walking because I could hear it and so it worked. 201 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:27,760 So I think a lot of kids did that. 202 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:33,920 And just so our listeners will know we will get to this because the part of your hindsight, 203 00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:41,080 what we're finding out is at the core of this does actually relate to children's airway. 204 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:45,000 And then that's why this is such an important message for parents to hear. 205 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:54,640 So you're going through high school in your early twenties, you know, about your dyslexia. 206 00:13:54,640 --> 00:14:00,440 You have anxiety that has never really been diagnosed and depression and you're having 207 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:07,640 to figure out how to navigate the waters on your own and get through it. 208 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:18,560 At what point did you turn to your website, to your blogging, to become your platform? 209 00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:19,560 Really to do. 210 00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:23,560 I know it started as dialoguing your journey, but it really has become this platform that 211 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:29,280 is now this outreach to others that have a very similar journey. 212 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:30,280 Yeah. 213 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:40,560 So I want to say that it started sometime in 2016, 2017. 214 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:49,680 I don't remember the exact time, but I've always been drawn to writing. 215 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:52,560 I've always been drawn to storytelling. 216 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:54,600 Funny because I'm dyslexic. 217 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,760 I know it's like a whole conundrum. 218 00:14:57,760 --> 00:15:05,400 But I just remember I was sitting in a therapy session with my nurse practitioner of mental 219 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:10,000 health and I wasn't doing very well. 220 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:15,360 We were trying all these different medications, trying to find the right mixture and levels. 221 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:17,920 I was sick a lot. 222 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:26,120 And I just remember telling him, I am so frustrated with my lack of progress. 223 00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:29,840 I just felt so cooped up in my own head. 224 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:35,760 And he suggested, he's like, hey, have you thought about writing things, writing stuff 225 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:36,760 down? 226 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:40,120 And I'm like, well, I kind of do, yeah. 227 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:44,960 And for the longest time, I kept these notebooks. 228 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:49,480 They're just regular no lines, write however you want notebooks. 229 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:53,880 I called them my brain for the longest time because they were like an extension of my 230 00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:54,880 brain. 231 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:55,880 Right. 232 00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:56,880 Okay. 233 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:03,680 And he was like, I think you really should focus on making those legible, complete thoughts 234 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:06,480 and really focus on getting your thoughts on paper. 235 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,080 And I was like, you know, that makes a lot of sense. 236 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:14,920 I really should put more effort in doing that and not just like, I'm feeling sad today. 237 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:15,920 Yeah. 238 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:16,920 Right. 239 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:18,920 Put thought into it. 240 00:16:18,920 --> 00:16:24,880 And because of all the medications that I was on, I wasn't safe to drive. 241 00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:29,640 So oftentimes my mom, she would drive me to my appointments. 242 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:38,320 And I was sitting in the car and I was telling her what we talked about in the therapy session. 243 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,640 And she said, I'm going to take it a step further. 244 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:43,840 I think you should start a block. 245 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:45,720 And I was like, a blog. 246 00:16:45,720 --> 00:16:49,520 Who would want to read that? 247 00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:53,240 And like, that was my honest goodness reaction. 248 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:57,480 And I was like, well, I don't have anything to lose. 249 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:00,160 Like I'm already at ground zero right here. 250 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:04,440 So like, let's just, let's just, why not? 251 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:13,600 So I, I started writing complete thoughts and mental health maps. 252 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:16,200 It wasn't mental health maps right away. 253 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:24,720 It was actually called vitty, vitty, vitty, which is Latin for I came, I saw, I conquered. 254 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:31,880 And I just started writing these little pieces because I've always been attracted to words 255 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:36,800 and languages and understanding deeper meaning of words. 256 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:41,320 So, and I love weird words or like different language words. 257 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,000 So that explains some of your earlier blogs. 258 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,600 It started with one word, one capitalized word for anybody that wants to check it out. 259 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:52,320 We'll put the link to your blog in our show notes, but it's one word. 260 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:57,520 And then you just, the whole blog builds on this one word. 261 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,440 And I was like, okay, I like this. 262 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:02,440 I like it. 263 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:03,440 It feels good. 264 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:09,640 And the words directed my thoughts in a way that made the ADHD happy. 265 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:13,360 And I was like, okay. 266 00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:21,480 And the first blog post is called sisu, which is like the beginning of me starting to process. 267 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:22,480 Okay. 268 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:26,840 This is what I went through when I was starting in my early teens. 269 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:28,880 This is me through high school. 270 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:36,160 This is, this is all of the things that I have gone through at this particular point. 271 00:18:36,160 --> 00:18:37,160 Right. 272 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:41,520 And it just, it just started building on itself. 273 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:50,000 And I started writing more and things started to make more sense around me than just having 274 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:54,200 it all a mumble, jumble mess in my head. 275 00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:55,200 Right. 276 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:56,200 Which, which absolutely makes sense. 277 00:18:56,200 --> 00:19:03,080 Now at that time when you started your blog, you knew that you had anxiety. 278 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,760 You knew about depression at this point. 279 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:07,760 And your ADHD, correct? 280 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:10,280 So you knew about those, those three. 281 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:12,080 Yep. 282 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:20,840 What point did your diagnosis of sleep apnea and then the hindsight, everybody, let's look 283 00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:26,760 back and realize, oh, wow, there was some kind of an airway issue way back here that we 284 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:27,920 met. 285 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,360 When did all of that transpire? 286 00:19:30,360 --> 00:19:34,600 Oh, probably. 287 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:39,520 I was diagnosed with sleep apnea actually in the summer of 2017. 288 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:43,720 So it didn't happen much later. 289 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:46,720 Oh, I shouldn't say it like that. 290 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:52,520 The starting of the blog and the sleep apnea thing, they didn't, they, it was kind of in 291 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:53,520 a year timeline. 292 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:54,880 They were close proximity. 293 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:55,880 Yeah. 294 00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,400 That's the better way of saying it. 295 00:19:58,400 --> 00:19:59,400 Words. 296 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:00,400 Words. 297 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:11,040 And to be honest, finding the sleep apnea thing was a complete and total fluke. 298 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:12,040 Complete fluke. 299 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:13,040 Really? 300 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:14,040 How? 301 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:15,040 Yeah. 302 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:21,720 I was, I was talking with my nurse practitioner of mental health and I wasn't responding well 303 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:23,280 to medication. 304 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:25,000 I had tried for like a year. 305 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,720 It was awful for me. 306 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:30,600 And we found out I was very, very sensitive. 307 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,160 I got a sensitive liver apparently. 308 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:41,440 And I was improving with the blog, but like, you know, that just kind of keeps me rolling, 309 00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:45,920 but not improving as far as you mean, like your anxiety or ADHD that. 310 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:46,920 Yeah. 311 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:47,920 Okay. 312 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:52,880 But something to note too is I was physically not functioning well. 313 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,600 I was not getting out of bed really. 314 00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:59,600 I was having a hard time eating. 315 00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:01,880 I was dealing with a lot of headaches. 316 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:02,880 Exhaustion. 317 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:06,640 I was exhaustion. 318 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:12,560 It was like all of these little physical symptoms like symptoms that I had been experiencing 319 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:17,640 since my early teens, just like amplified. 320 00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:26,520 And I remember sitting in my therapy appointment. 321 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:34,800 And my therapist for short, he was like, well, I think we should get your sleep study. 322 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,720 We should check your sleep quality. 323 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,440 And I just looked at him like he was crazy. 324 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,080 I was like, sleep is not the issue. 325 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:46,640 I'm sleeping too much and I'm tired. 326 00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:50,600 Like I understand like it's like, yeah, there's a problem with your sleep. 327 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:52,120 You're still tired after your sleep. 328 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:55,320 But like in my head, it was crazy talk. 329 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:58,320 I was like, no, no. 330 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:00,040 Which I think is very common for people. 331 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:01,240 I sleep, I'm fine. 332 00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:02,240 That's not the problem. 333 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:03,240 Yeah. 334 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,280 I realize it's the quality and yep. 335 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:09,960 And cause like sleep is sleep. 336 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:15,280 And I actually didn't take him seriously the first time he said, like you should get a 337 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:16,280 sleep study. 338 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:20,720 I'm like, whatever, let's just try upping the dosage. 339 00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:23,440 And if I don't feel better, maybe I'll consider it. 340 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:26,000 I'm a little bit stubborn too. 341 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,960 And so surprise, surprise, nothing improved. 342 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:36,760 I went back to my nurse practitioner and he's like, so that sleep study. 343 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:41,520 And I said, again, to myself, what do I have to lose? 344 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,880 I'm not, I'm not feeling well. 345 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:50,880 I'm, I'm missing out on what other kids in their early twenties are doing. 346 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:56,400 Like at this point, I had to withdraw from college because I couldn't, I couldn't keep 347 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:04,800 up and I was at home barely able to get out of the bed and feeling sick all the time. 348 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:12,360 And so he, my nurse practitioner of mental health, he got me in contact with a sleep 349 00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:17,880 doctor, like a whole on sleep specialist in my area. 350 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:26,880 And I set up a consultation and I went in and we hit it off right away. 351 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,440 Like it was a really good doctor patient relationship. 352 00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:35,840 And he told me honestly, he's like, I have no idea what we're going to find. 353 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:38,600 We might find restless leg switch syndrome. 354 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:43,280 That's was kind of the hypothesis. 355 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:47,760 And but you know, we'll just, we'll just test for everything. 356 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:53,840 And at this point, I should mention, like I had already gone to like a regular doctor, 357 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,320 done a ton of tests, passed them with flying colors. 358 00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:00,280 Like looking at me, I looked healthy. 359 00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:04,480 Just the traditional physical kind of test at it. 360 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:05,480 Yeah. 361 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,400 And I think I had a blood work done too. 362 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:14,080 They, they look for everything and didn't find anything. 363 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:21,840 And I had that first sleep study and I remember in the morning, the sleep doctor, he came 364 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:27,440 in and he's like, well, we found the problem. 365 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:29,280 And I was like, Oh, what is it? 366 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:34,440 And he's like, you have severe sleep apnea, severe sleep apnea. 367 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:40,120 And I'm like, girl's my age, don't get sleep. 368 00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:42,640 I was going to say, right, you're in my twenties. 369 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:43,640 That doesn't happen. 370 00:24:43,640 --> 00:24:44,640 Yeah. 371 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:50,960 And he said, you know, it's fairly uncommon for relatively healthy young women to have 372 00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:54,120 sleep apnea like this. 373 00:24:54,120 --> 00:25:02,160 And in my head, sleep apnea was for middle aged men who are overweight. 374 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:03,160 Yep. 375 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,160 Well, sure. 376 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,920 That's what you see on the sitcoms, right? 377 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:07,920 That makes sense. 378 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:08,920 Yeah. 379 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:14,320 And I was like, my dad had sleep apnea and I had it worse than him. 380 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:17,080 Like my pressure was higher. 381 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:25,400 I started out on a pressure of 13, which increased to 14. 382 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:31,440 And I had an AHI, so breathing instance an hour. 383 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:34,560 It was somewhere in the fifties or the sixties. 384 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:36,560 I can't remember. 385 00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:37,560 Wow. 386 00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:45,880 And it was, it was just earth shattering knowledge that this, that this was the problem. 387 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:51,480 And like right off the bat, like my sleep doctor was all of a sudden talking to me about 388 00:25:51,480 --> 00:26:01,640 CPAP machine, CPAP care, masks, like getting me into this whole culture that I had no idea 389 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,480 that I would be a part of. 390 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:10,600 And I just remember thinking, I'm alone. 391 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:20,600 I don't know anyone my age or my gender, like being a girl, having sleep apnea. 392 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:30,720 And I felt so embarrassed and ashamed and just like, I couldn't talk about it for a 393 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,720 really long time to people. 394 00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:40,040 And it was just this, a whole other journey to call it. 395 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:57,800 I'm just accepting that this was, but that this was the problem. 396 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:01,720 Listening to Airway First with today's guest, Kaisa Bradley. 397 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,440 You can find out more about the Children's Airway First Foundation and our mission to 398 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:10,440 ensure that every child has access to screening, evaluation and treatment of all children's 399 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:17,800 airway disorders before the age of six on our website at childrensairwayfirst.org. 400 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:22,600 You can also find a ton of great resources for parents on our website, including videos, 401 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:27,480 blogs, recommended books, comprehensive medical research, and more. 402 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:33,760 As a reminder, this podcast and the opinions expressed here are not a medical diagnosis. 403 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:38,840 If you suspect your child might have an airway issue, contact your pediatric airway dentist 404 00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,040 or pediatrician. 405 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:57,080 And now, back to my interview with Kaisa Bradley. 406 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,160 You said something about, you know, that there was shame that came with it. 407 00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,960 And that's the first, you were the first person I've ever heard, I've ever heard embarrassment, 408 00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:04,960 but shame. 409 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:09,000 I mean, you were actually ashamed of it. 410 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:10,000 Yep. 411 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,000 Wow. 412 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,000 Yep. 413 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,840 I was absolutely 100%. 414 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:18,680 Like I remember like it was yesterday. 415 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:29,640 And I felt ashamed that I had this, this problem that I stopped breathing in my sleep. 416 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:37,800 And I worried big time about going back to school in a roommate situation. 417 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:39,920 What other girls would say? 418 00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:40,920 What would dates say? 419 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:44,320 I was about to say dating. 420 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:51,040 And I just, I kind of shut down about it. 421 00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:55,640 I just, I just pretended I just, it wasn't a thing. 422 00:28:55,640 --> 00:29:01,920 And like, you know, you can, you can say, well, you can buy a private room, but those 423 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:02,920 are expensive. 424 00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:03,920 Sure. 425 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:09,640 And so, and money was tight and I had to have a shared room. 426 00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:13,280 And you know, you don't know how your roommates going to sleep. 427 00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:15,320 Are they a light sleeper? 428 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:17,200 You know, those things aren't quiet. 429 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,920 Yeah, they're not. 430 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,680 And you know, what are they going to say? 431 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:27,160 You know, all you're just opening yourself for mockery. 432 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:28,880 You know what I mean? 433 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:37,040 And for someone in their early twenties who was very insecure about a lot of things, it 434 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:42,520 was just something that I just had a really, really hard time accepting. 435 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:43,520 Yeah. 436 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:45,880 Which absolutely makes sense. 437 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:50,600 So as you're going through this journey now with your sleep apnea and coming to terms 438 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:58,640 with it and working with your doctors, at some point, somebody acknowledges, hey, this 439 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:00,760 isn't new. 440 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:06,840 You've had these issues for a decade or more. 441 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,520 I mean, you've had them for quite a long time. 442 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:10,520 Yeah. 443 00:30:10,520 --> 00:30:12,800 You know, when did that come about? 444 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:20,600 And at what point did you come into the understanding that sleep apnea and this lack of sleep, this 445 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:27,960 lack of oxygen that you're getting, actually impacts things like mental health and ADHD 446 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:28,960 and anxiety? 447 00:30:28,960 --> 00:30:31,400 When did that connection happen? 448 00:30:31,400 --> 00:30:33,160 How did that come about? 449 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:35,920 That connection happened pretty quick. 450 00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:43,360 And after I was diagnosed, because once I got on the CPAP machine and I found a mask 451 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:53,080 that fit and I found the right settings and I had learned how to sleep, it was like, it 452 00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:57,720 was quick, how fast my mental health improved. 453 00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:03,680 And you know, I was talking about it with my nurse practitioner of mental health and 454 00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:05,160 I said, it's insane. 455 00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:07,280 I feel like a different person. 456 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:08,720 I feel like a new person. 457 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:12,880 I'm thinking of ways I've never thought before in my life. 458 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:20,800 I mean, granted adulthood, but like just this ability to live without guilt or worrying 459 00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:23,560 about a coping mechanism. 460 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:30,440 And he said, you know, a lot of your mental brain healing happens in your sleep. 461 00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,320 It happens in your REM sleep. 462 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,520 That is when the brain has a chance to repair itself. 463 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:42,560 I was only averaging three minutes of REM sleep and you need 45 if I remember the numbers 464 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,400 correctly. 465 00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:51,640 He's like, imagine living with that for like 15 years, which is what you did. 466 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:56,040 No wonder you had it as bad as you did. 467 00:31:56,040 --> 00:32:04,640 And I was like, oh, that makes sense compared to how I'm feeling now. 468 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:11,160 And not how quick the fix was, but just like how fast that I improved because it was like, 469 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:15,920 I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in like June of 2017. 470 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,840 I was ready to go back to college that following fall semester. 471 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:20,840 Wow. 472 00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:21,840 That is fast. 473 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:22,840 Yeah. 474 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:23,840 Yeah. 475 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:30,840 And then I just, I went to like fall, winter, did summer, fall, winter, summer, graduate. 476 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:33,520 Like I, it went fast. 477 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:37,160 And you know, hindsight is a beautiful thing. 478 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:41,960 And there's also something he said that, you know, when you get older, you start to see 479 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:47,960 things more clear and start to make more sense. 480 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:53,800 But when I kind of figured out that it was the airways, I was always kind of satisfied 481 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:57,800 and suspicious because I have a really long skinny neck. 482 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,480 My nose is pretty small. 483 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:09,320 And I always had a hard time swallowing certain things like like pasta, bread. 484 00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:13,720 I had to be careful like how big of bites I would take because if I did, it would have 485 00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,360 a really hard time going down. 486 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:21,720 Medic medications had to be careful with the different pills I take because if they were 487 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:25,200 too big, it would be really hard for me to get them down. 488 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:30,320 And then also with exercising, it always felt like I was out of breath way too fast than 489 00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:33,200 what I looked physically capable of. 490 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:34,200 Right. 491 00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:35,200 Right. 492 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:43,280 And when I was a kid, like an elementary, like I had to use an inhaler for a minute 493 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:46,800 for like exercise induced asthma, they call it. 494 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:52,240 So I always, it was always kind of like in the back of my head, but there's something 495 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:56,800 goofy going on here. 496 00:33:56,800 --> 00:34:07,000 And when it came to getting that confirmed with the narrow airways, it was actually because 497 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:14,200 I went to an ENT a couple of years after I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. 498 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:15,680 So like 2019. 499 00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:16,680 Okay. 500 00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:23,600 Um, because what happened is, is we needed to increase my pressure, which my doctor was 501 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:30,360 kind of worried about because when it comes to increasing your pressure on the CPAP, like 502 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:32,320 that should be years down the road. 503 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,880 And I was already needing it. 504 00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:37,000 Like, yeah, exactly. 505 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:41,440 Like my dad has had sleep apnea for 10 years on the same setting. 506 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:44,960 And here I was like needing more. 507 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:50,120 And I started doing this thing where I take my mask off in the middle of the night. 508 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:56,840 So we were trying to figure out why, why, why am I doing that? 509 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:05,240 And you know, one treatment for sleep apnea is to have your tonsils removed. 510 00:35:05,240 --> 00:35:08,400 Just to make more room and more room. 511 00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:09,400 Open things up. 512 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:10,400 Sure. 513 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:11,400 Yep. 514 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:18,480 And then I went to ENT and he took one look at my tonsils and he said, Hey, listen, your 515 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:21,560 tonsils are not like big. 516 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:24,440 They're not like, they're just average tonsils. 517 00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,760 I don't really see the reason to remove them. 518 00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:32,880 Um, come back in a few years and then maybe we'll evaluate it. 519 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:36,040 Like keep trying to make the CPAP work. 520 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,240 And I was like, okay. 521 00:35:38,240 --> 00:35:44,400 And so I told my sleep doctor this and he's like, I think we need to get a second opinion. 522 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:46,520 And I was like, yeah, I am in my gut. 523 00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:49,240 I feel like that's a good thing to do. 524 00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:50,240 Of course. 525 00:35:50,240 --> 00:35:59,080 So I went to a second ENT and she didn't just check my throat and she checked my nose too. 526 00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:02,680 And she said, the first ENT is right. 527 00:36:02,680 --> 00:36:05,560 Your tonsils are not above average. 528 00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:11,720 They're just regular good old tonsils, but your airways are too small. 529 00:36:11,720 --> 00:36:14,160 So they're in the way. 530 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,560 I think we should remove them definitely. 531 00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:22,600 And I think we should remove your adenoids as well because they're doing the same thing 532 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,200 just in your nose. 533 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:29,800 And I'm like, Oh, okay, let's do that then. 534 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:40,480 So it was even just last year in June, I believe that I got my tonsils and my adenoids removed. 535 00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:46,760 And even during surgery, the ENT did have permission to do this, but she took out some 536 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:52,440 extra tissue in my throat and my nose to make even more room. 537 00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:58,040 And the results from that have, did it cure my sleep apnea? 538 00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:02,560 No, that's not what we were after, but just to open the airway. 539 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:08,400 Yeah, but it cut my breathing incidents per hour down like in half. 540 00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:11,880 So I was no longer in the 60s or 50s. 541 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:18,080 I was now somewhere in the 30s, which is still considered severe sleep apnea. 542 00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:24,720 And my air pressure for my CPAP went down from 14 to somewhere in between eight and 543 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:25,720 11. 544 00:37:25,720 --> 00:37:26,720 Wow. 545 00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:28,720 That's huge. 546 00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:33,200 And then I started being able to keep my mask on in the middle of the night, like all night 547 00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:34,200 long. 548 00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:40,800 And it has improved anything as far as being able to take pills or eating? 549 00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:41,800 Yeah. 550 00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:42,800 Yep. 551 00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:43,800 Yep. 552 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:44,800 Definitely. 553 00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:51,000 And also allergies, like had allergies and now that's not getting in the way either. 554 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:52,960 So yeah. 555 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:57,440 So it was like a pretty big, pretty big thing. 556 00:37:57,440 --> 00:38:05,800 And then after that surgery and seeing the differences, like just like being man, that's 557 00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:09,880 something I've had my whole life, like the narrow airway that you don't just develop 558 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:10,880 that. 559 00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:11,880 No, no. 560 00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,520 Now, and in strue, and did you have signs? 561 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:19,880 I mean, obviously, besides what you people didn't know, this is not your parents fault. 562 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:21,160 Let's just be very clear. 563 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:24,600 People did not know, people still don't know that's why we're here. 564 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:28,120 But you know, swallowing that's having trouble swallowing. 565 00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:29,240 That's one of the signs. 566 00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:35,440 Did you have any of the others as far as snoring or mouth breathing or any of the other? 567 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:39,920 Obviously ADHD is one of the signs, but did you have any of the others? 568 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:42,080 I'm not, I don't snore. 569 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:43,080 Nope. 570 00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:44,400 I, nope. 571 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:50,360 I, that's, I think that's another reason why I kind of slipped under the radar too. 572 00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:54,280 It's because I breathe very quiet and I just stop. 573 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:59,600 And one of the biggest things to see it all happen is that you hear the person stop breathing. 574 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:03,560 And I've always been able to breathe very, very quiet. 575 00:39:03,560 --> 00:39:04,560 Makes sense. 576 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:05,560 Narrow airways. 577 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:09,760 And I was actually going to say this. 578 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:16,240 I remember my dad drive me home from my surgery after my tonsils, add noise, all that stuff 579 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:17,240 was removed. 580 00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:22,840 I was getting light headed because of how much air, air I was able to take in. 581 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,000 I was like, getting a headache from it. 582 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:29,440 I was just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you guys breathe like this. 583 00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:30,440 Like oxygen. 584 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:31,440 Yeah. 585 00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:34,560 Who knew it was so necessary. 586 00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:44,440 Um, but yeah, it's just, yeah, it was just all of these pieces were, were starting to, 587 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:48,640 were starting to come together and I was like, Oh, Oh, 588 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:50,680 And there it is. 589 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,440 And again, you know, people still don't know. 590 00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:59,600 So there's no way they would have known, but knowing what you know now, you know, as you've 591 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:05,760 gone along your journey with your blog and, and everything else that you're doing and 592 00:40:05,760 --> 00:40:11,640 the airway studying that you've done and mental health, how do you think that could have impacted 593 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:12,640 you? 594 00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:21,520 Like, had anyone had known and addressed your airway in your early teens? 595 00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:27,800 I don't think I would be the person I am sitting here to be honest. 596 00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:34,600 Um, you know, I have played this, this thought game with myself, like, you know, the what 597 00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:36,480 if, right? 598 00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:42,400 And it's like, well, you know, if you didn't have all of these airway problems, if you 599 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:49,440 didn't feel the nothingness of depression, if you didn't feel the anxiety, if you didn't 600 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:58,880 have the ADHD, like how would I have created this resilience, this strength, this superpower 601 00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:05,400 that I've had to learn just from coping with it all. 602 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:11,480 And I say it quite frequently on the blog that, you know, I don't see these things that 603 00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:14,400 happen to me as necessarily a bad thing. 604 00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:21,520 I see them as hard things, but I don't see them as something to, you know, have a chip 605 00:41:21,520 --> 00:41:23,000 on my shoulder about. 606 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:30,400 I don't see them as, oh, my parents screwed me over, you know, or, you know, the world 607 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:37,040 is so cruel to people who are different or have problems that people don't understand. 608 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:42,240 It's more of a way for me that, you know, I've become more compassionate. 609 00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:43,840 I had to make the 360. 610 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:52,480 I had to believe in depression first, you know, I had to be willing to forego my stubbornness 611 00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:53,760 and get help. 612 00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:56,480 I had to learn how to receive help through all of this. 613 00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:58,840 And be your own advocate. 614 00:41:58,840 --> 00:41:59,840 Yep. 615 00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:07,320 And I think that's something that a lot of people struggle with, I think, they're just 616 00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:13,840 too okay with just leaving things how they are. 617 00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:21,480 And like, man, I think about the different people I've butted heads with over the years. 618 00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:24,320 And they're like, well, it's just who you are. 619 00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:28,720 I'm like, I refuse to let anything tell me who I am. 620 00:42:28,720 --> 00:42:36,880 That is just how I see the depression and the anxiety and all this stuff with sleep apnea. 621 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:38,880 So yeah. 622 00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:45,960 And now you're out helping others and spreading the message about mental health and airways. 623 00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:47,720 Yep. 624 00:42:47,720 --> 00:42:49,120 Which is amazing. 625 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:55,520 And I want to open it up to you to leave it, you know, the final thought is yours. 626 00:42:55,520 --> 00:43:01,000 But another thing that you have said on your blog, I think it was your blog, it might have 627 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:08,880 been in another podcast, but you said it and it really struck me for somebody your age, 628 00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:09,880 especially. 629 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:12,280 So I hope you take that for what it's worth. 630 00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:20,080 But for me, it was just, however grim it might appear, I am a firm believer that life is full 631 00:43:20,080 --> 00:43:22,000 of happy endings. 632 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:23,480 Yep. 633 00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:30,160 And I will just say to me that spoke volumes. 634 00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:31,160 Yeah. 635 00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:40,920 So yeah, I love that you've been able to take this and turn this into something that is 636 00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:46,000 so profound and helping others and into such a positive thing. 637 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:48,240 Yeah. 638 00:43:48,240 --> 00:43:56,320 And just to kind of go off of that when I was in the very thick of it, when I was very 639 00:43:56,320 --> 00:44:02,040 confused, when I was angry, when I felt ashamed, when I was embarrassed, when people would 640 00:44:02,040 --> 00:44:07,880 make the off comments to me, when doctors made me feel crazy. 641 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:13,880 I just, I just kept in the back of my head. 642 00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:16,480 I'm going to have a happy ending. 643 00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:24,520 I, I'm going to get my life to a place where I'm happy. 644 00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:27,360 I understand what society is saying. 645 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:29,680 I understand how society works. 646 00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:37,560 I understand how it's not nice to me, but that doesn't mean that I have to be what it 647 00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:41,080 tells me and be unhappy about it. 648 00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:48,920 And with that particular quote, it was just something, you know, that's how I would help 649 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:53,120 myself when I felt really, really like lost and down. 650 00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:56,000 Like why am I even doing all of this? 651 00:44:56,000 --> 00:45:06,200 Why am I going through the ups and the downs and all of the diagnosis and all of the, yeah, 652 00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:09,600 just all of this extra noise. 653 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:13,800 And it's like life is way too short. 654 00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:21,960 And you know, I'm 28 now and I feel like my brain is so much older than me physically. 655 00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:25,760 And you know, it's, it is what it is. 656 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:31,000 And I just, I just didn't want to let it all define me. 657 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,200 I wanted to, I wanted to write it myself. 658 00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:35,600 And so that's what I'm doing. 659 00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:37,600 Which is amazing. 660 00:45:37,600 --> 00:45:49,120 And if you could just one final thought to anyone that is somewhere where you were on 661 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:52,520 the spectrum of this journey as far as, you know, they know something's wrong. 662 00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:53,760 They know something's different. 663 00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:57,480 They can't put their finger on it. 664 00:45:57,480 --> 00:45:59,920 What would you say to them? 665 00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:01,800 I would say keep trying. 666 00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:04,080 Keep going. 667 00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:07,240 They don't know you like you know you. 668 00:46:07,240 --> 00:46:18,200 And you know, people, they don't take the time to understand you the way that you understand 669 00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:19,680 you. 670 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:26,600 And you know, sometimes people when they pass their judgments has nothing to do with you. 671 00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:29,840 It has everything to do with them. 672 00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:36,200 And when you're going through something that's so hard and so complicated at the end of the 673 00:46:36,200 --> 00:46:40,240 day, if you're not there for yourself, who's there for you? 674 00:46:40,240 --> 00:46:47,880 Like even though I had a very amazing family and friends who have supported me through 675 00:46:47,880 --> 00:46:51,320 this, it was me who went to all the doctor's appointments. 676 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:58,320 It was me who went to bed every night and wrote something in my notebook, my brain that 677 00:46:58,320 --> 00:46:59,680 I called it. 678 00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:07,240 It was me who had to, you know, think about, okay, how are things in the past? 679 00:47:07,240 --> 00:47:09,000 How are things now? 680 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:10,000 Where do we want? 681 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:12,560 Where do I want to be in the future? 682 00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:15,920 That's me, you know. 683 00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,640 And give yourself credit. 684 00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:26,520 Give yourself credit for knowing you because you're the one that's there for you every 685 00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:31,080 day from the beginning to the end. 686 00:47:31,080 --> 00:47:37,520 And so that's just something that I would tell anybody else or I would tell my younger 687 00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:42,640 self like, do I, would I have removed everything from my younger self? 688 00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:46,320 No, would I have helped myself catch it sooner? 689 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:49,080 Yeah, definitely. 690 00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:54,720 But you know, it's up to you to be who you want to be. 691 00:47:54,720 --> 00:47:59,280 And you know, I have these problems. 692 00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:00,560 I have them. 693 00:48:00,560 --> 00:48:02,120 I have these issues. 694 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:03,840 I have dyslexia. 695 00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:05,080 I have depression. 696 00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:06,280 I have anxiety. 697 00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:07,680 I have sleep apnea. 698 00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:12,800 I have narrow airways. 699 00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:14,440 But they're not called Kaiser. 700 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,440 I'm called Kaiser. 701 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:17,440 I love that. 702 00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:18,440 I love that. 703 00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:23,600 And I would just like to leave it there if I just, I love that. 704 00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:24,600 Yeah. 705 00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:25,600 Thank you. 706 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:26,600 Thank you so much. 707 00:48:26,600 --> 00:48:33,480 I mean, just genuinely thank you for being on our show and for your bravery and your 708 00:48:33,480 --> 00:48:39,640 honesty on your blog and social media sharing your story and an effort to help others. 709 00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:40,640 Thank you. 710 00:48:40,640 --> 00:48:42,000 You're welcome. 711 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,240 And thank you for inviting me. 712 00:48:44,240 --> 00:48:45,240 Absolutely. 713 00:48:45,240 --> 00:48:46,240 Absolutely. 714 00:48:46,240 --> 00:48:53,000 Thanks again to today's guest, Kaisa Bradley, for sharing her story and to each of you for 715 00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:55,040 listening to today's episode. 716 00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:58,320 If you're new to our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe. 717 00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:02,200 And if you enjoyed today's episode, please remember to leave us a review or comment about 718 00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:04,000 what you enjoyed most. 719 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:08,000 You can stay connected with the Children's Airway First Foundation by following us on 720 00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,600 Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 721 00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:15,920 If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode, shoot us a note via the contact page 722 00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:22,440 on our website or send us an email directly at info at children'sairwayfirst.org. 723 00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:27,160 And finally, thanks to all the parents and medical professionals out there that are working 724 00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:31,360 to help make the lives of kids around the globe just a little bit better. 725 00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:56,640 Take care, stay safe, and happy breeding, everyone.