STILLWATER — For nearly 25 years, Stillwater Medical Center employee Shyla Eggers has helped tell the stories of patients, physicians and new advancements in healthcare technology throughout the community. Recently, however, Eggers found herself on the other side of the story — as a patient navigating her own health journey with obstructive sleep apnea.
Eggers, who joined Stillwater Medical in 1999 as a public relations and marketing director, said her struggle with sleep apnea began more than a decade ago. But after years of worsening fatigue and concerns from her family about her breathing during sleep, she realized she could no longer ignore the condition.
“You know what? It's time,” Eggers said. “I have a reason to want to make sure I'm around for a very long time.”
After undergoing sleep studies years ago, both she and her husband were diagnosed with sleep apnea. At the time, Eggers described her condition as mild and said she initially tried using a CPAP machine before deciding against longterm use and modifying her sleep habits.
Over time, however, her symptoms worsened. “I just noticed that I was tired all the time,” Eggers said. “My mental clarity seemed like it was suffering a little bit. I just couldn't get over the feeling of being tired all the time.”
Her perspective shifted further after traveling with her daughter, who noticed concerning breathing interruptions during the night.
“She said, ‘Mom, you're not breathing in the night. You stop breathing, and it's very scary,’” Eggers recalled.
Around the same period, Eggers had already been helping promote a newer treatment option available at Stillwater Medical called Inspire therapy. Designed for patients with obstructive sleep apnea who struggle with CPAP therapy, Inspire uses a small, implanted device to help keep the airway open during sleep.
“I can tell you the minute that the team at Inspire walked in my office and started telling me about this technology, I was intrigued, I was hopeful, and I was just thinking this might be the answer for me,” she said.
Within the last year, Eggers completed another sleep study, which confirmed her sleep apnea had progressed. After further attempts with CPAP therapy, she was still left experiencing breathing interruptions throughout the night. She met with sleep specialists at Stillwater Medical to determine whether she qualified for Inspire.
The process included a sleep endoscopy to evaluate how her airway behaved during sleep.
“He said, ‘You're a great candidate. Let's get this on the books,’” Eggers said.
Two months ago, she underwent the Inspire implant procedure.
The treatment involves two small incisions — one near the neck and another in the upper chest — where the device is implanted beneath the skin. The system senses breathing patterns during sleep and delivers gentle stimulation to help move the tongue forward, keeping the airway open.
Eggers said the first several weeks focused on recovery before the device was activated.
“I call it my garage door opener because that's exactly what it looks like,” she joked, referring to the handheld remote used to turn the device on each night.
Since activation, Eggers said she has experienced significant improvements in her sleep and energy levels.
“I feel like the first time I really got up and went, ‘This is working,’ was two weeks after it was activated,” she said.
She described improvements in daily life that extend beyond simply feeling rested.
“It's just a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning,” Eggers said. “It's a lot easier to focus.”
For Eggers, the experience has also reinforced the importance of addressing sleep apnea and maintaining routine healthcare visits.
“If this is something that you're suffering from, there is an option,” she said. “Having sleep apnea and undiagnosed sleep apnea leads to many, many other health conditions.”
She encouraged people to prioritize annual visits with a primary care physician and to seek medical attention when something feels wrong.
“If you know something isn't right, if you feel something and you just know it's not right, get it checked out,” Eggers said. “Because early detection of anything, whether it's cancer, or sleep apnea, or a colon issue — is the key to everything.”
Eggers also reflected on what it meant to personally experience the care she spent years promoting professionally.
“To be able to go in and have the procedure and see and be cared for by people that I didn't know one-on-one, to get the care that I received, the recovery and the support after I went home has been just amazing,” she said.
Stillwater Medical Center will host an Inspire therapy informational event on June 2 for community members interested in learning more about the procedure directly from medical experts. Additional information and details can be found by visiting www.stillwatermedical.com.