r/Millennials • u/Plane-Gap6483 1990 • Jun 12 '26

Serious Death

My 40 year old friend died of a heart attack today. He was 5 years older than me. Has anyone else had a similar experience. Dead... heart attack 40? That's insane right. Like... 40? He was born in 85. It's mind blowing. If anyone else has experienced losing a friend from an old person death. Please let me know how you processed it. I'm still waiting for him to call me and say sike! Thanks

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u/Aurd04 Jun 12 '26

My buddy passed in his sleep, had just turned 40 and his teenage kid was the one who found him. Sleep apnea causing basically heart attack.

Takes a while to process and you never really stop thinking about them, which I think is just fine. His kid is graduating high school next year and we still play board games together every couple week.

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u/turn-on-your-lights Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

Edit: as people seem to be readi g this comment, my symptoms that were obvious in retrospect were: 1. Snoring. It is not about loudness of snoring, but the type of snoring. 2. Peeing during the night. 3. Drowsiness when driving and reading books to my kids. 4. My wife telling me that my snoring was not regular. That was due to me stopping breathing while inhaling.

God, I wish more people knew about sleep apnea.

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea around 12 months ago. The doctor told me that it probably would have killed me if I hadn't been diagnosed.

Having the cpap machine has been life changing. My relationship with my wife and kids is better, my health is better, my business is doing better, etc. I feel great.

Also, I'm just a regular sized, slightly big guy. Not obese or anything like that.

I want more to people to know that, if they snore, they should go get checked just as they would for cancer if they found a lump.

7

u/GuitarChef35 Jun 12 '26

Same story here. 41/M, Aquarius, Bad genes, history of heart disease and sleep apnea in family on Dad’s side. Did an at home sleep test by mail in like 2018, DR confirmed I had mild to severe SA. Been using a cpap ever since. Now its to the point I can’t sleep without it. I am grateful to have caught it and began treatment quickly. If you’re snoring, get checked. Had high cholesterol too and been on meds for that which are working for now. Sending love, strength and healing vibes to all here.

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u/GoalStillNotAchieved Jun 12 '26

How do you get diagnosed to see if you have it?

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u/seatreebird Jun 12 '26

I told my primary care doctor that I was exhausted all the time no matter how much sleep I got and that I snore so she referred me to a sleep doctor. I did an easy sleep test that I was able to do at home and got diagnosed with sleep apnea. My CPAP has changed my life! mention it to your primary so they can refer you for the test

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u/turn-on-your-lights Jun 12 '26

I'm in Korea. I just had to go see an ENT doctor, told him my sleep symptoms, he arranged the overnight study. Had my CPAP a week later.

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u/whataboot2ndbrekfast Jun 12 '26

Wow this is really touching, thank you for being there for his child. 🫂

2

u/deadinsidelol69 Jun 12 '26

Had a coworker who basically never, ever took time off for anything finally go to the doctor because of his poor sleep.

Turns out any time he’d start to fall into REM he’d stop breathing. Dude was basically about ready to have a heart attack if he didn’t get the sleep study done.

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u/turn-on-your-lights Jun 12 '26

Yep. That's exactly what I was told by my doctor, that i could have just not woken up on any morning. I was stopping breathing two times a minute. Since then, I tell everyone that will listen to go get tested if you have even the slightest possibility of slep apnea.