Tennessee veteran finds sleep apnea relief with Inspire® therapy

Nathan Uglow snored so loudly as a teenager that family and friends noticed it. He knew something might be wrong but didn’t receive his first obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) diagnosis until his mid-20s.

Nathan uses Inspire^® therapy to treat his OSA today. The first treatment option didn’t work though. Nathan’s doctor prescribed a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine after his diagnosis. He couldn’t tolerate it. The pressure level he needed was too high. This made it uncomfortable to use. He constantly removed the mask at night because of it. And this made him vulnerable to sleep apnea episodes.

“I was waking up with these really intense stomach pains because I was having over pressurization of my whole gastric system – my stomach, my intestines, everything,” Nathan said. “They were just filling up with air, and it really sucked.”

He joined the military as a medic when he was 35. He had concerns about overnight trips and what might happen during deployment. He knew it may be difficult to drag a CPAP machine around. He also didn’t want to keep others awake with his loud snoring.

“Basic training, everybody snores, and no one cares because we are all so tired,” he said. “But getting through that without any sleep was even harder, definitely not fun.”

Nathan went back to his sleep doctor. The next options were trying a different type of CPAP machine and a Bi-lateral Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) machine. The airflow still bothered him, though. He also began to have gastric inflation issues from the high pressure. He stopped treatment again.

“I would wake up in tears because it was so painful, and I would just have to wait for it to pass,” he said. Nathan did everything he could to get his health problems under control.

He ran 30 miles a day and lost weight. That did nothing. He tried oral appliances. None seemed like a good fit and challenges remained. Nathan worked at a fire department when not deployed with his military unit. Those coworkers also noticed his loud snoring.

Hope came when he first learned about Inspire therapy in the beginning of 2020. He began the qualification process and had surgery in the spring of 2021 after dealing with COVID-19 delays. His provider turned the therapy on right before he left for regular summer military training. That’s when he noticed improvement.

“That was some of the best sleep that I ever had,” he said. “It was great. Sleeping on a cot, I slept five to six hours every night. And I was waking up feeling amazing.”

He finished his military service in 2024 and never had problems while wearing armor or shooting a gun. He continues to lead an active lifestyle. He goes hiking and running and travels often. Nathan now works as a paramedic in an emergency room, on an ambulance and on a ship in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Even for the nights where I don’t sleep as well, I still sleep better than I ever did before,” he said.