Jeanne Legault, a successful and energetic paralegal living in Beacon Hill, had always taken good care of herself, staying physically fit and working out from the time she was a teenager.  So when a number of worrisome symptoms descended on her in her early 50s, it took her by surprise.  She was experiencing fatigue, depression, extreme hypertension, weight gain, even hair loss.

“I grew up in a medical family, with a doctor for a father and a mother who was a nurse, so I recognized that something was wrong,” explained Jeanne.  She’d been receiving good care at a Seattle clinic for most of her adult life, but when her physician left to conduct research, she found herself visiting a new physician at the clinic when she went in for a check-up.

“I went in for a physical and explained my symptoms and how concerned I was, and he just said ‘Welcome to middle age.’  I felt I was being brushed off – that my symptoms were all being blamed on menopause – but it was getting worse and worse.  It got to the point where it took an hour just to get out of bed.  I knew that wasn’t right.”

Jeanne had been working with a trainer for 15 years, and she found she couldn’t do wind sprints any more.  Finally one day he said “There’s something wrong with you,” and she knew he was right.  He recommended his nutritionist who tested her for nutritional deficiencies and also checked her thyroid.  When tests indicated a low thyroid level, she was advised to see an endocrinologist – specifically Dr. Shannon Heitritter at The Polyclinic, and that started her on a journey that she now says saved her life.

She worked with Dr. Heitritter on her thyroid issue and saw improvement, losing 10 pounds of her 20-pound weight gain.  “Dr. Heitritter is a wonderful, fabulous physician,” said Jeanne.  She also discovered that she had developed an iron deficiency and vitamin D depletion because she had been starving herself in an effort to lose weight prior to seeing Dr. Heitritter.  She also started gaining weight again without explanation.

“I asked her if she could recommend a primary care doctor, and that’s when I met Milah Frownfelter.  The first thing she does when I walk in her office is ask how my life is – and she really wants to know.  She knew I was having a hard time dealing with the loss of my brother the previous year – he was my age and died in his sleep unexpectedly – and she would ask me how I was dealing with it.  She’s an amazing doctor.”

Jeanne said she never felt that her symptoms were being dismissed by her Polyclinic doctors.  “I think many women in middle age do get brushed off. You’re told this is just how it is, this is just how it’s supposed to be.  But Dr. Frownfelter did not treat me that way.  She was concerned about my continued high blood pressure, despite the weight loss and improved nutrition.  We couldn’t figure out my hypertension, so she just kept trying new things - an echocardiogram, renal doppler, every possible explanation.  She told me ‘Something is going on.  This doesn’t make sense.’ And she never, ever gave up.”

Dr. Frownfelter decided to send Jeanne for a rheumatology study, which is when she met Dr. Jennifer Gorman.   “I could tell right away that she really did care about me as a whole person.  She went over my whole history and reviewed all the work that had already been done, then she paused, and told me ‘We’re going to have to think outside the box.  She stopped and actually sat there thinking.  And thinking.  Then she said ‘I want you to have a sleep study.’  I didn’t understand that at the time.  I felt like I slept all the time, but I trusted her.”

She met Dr. David Chang when she went in for her sleep study.  “I thought it all seemed a little silly, but I did the thing,” Jeanne recalled.  “I had a follow-up appointment scheduled for three days later, so I was surprised when he called me the next morning and said to come back in that day.  He said it was one of the worst sleep apnea he had ever seen – I’d stop breathing every minute of every hour.  It was truly dangerous, and he was really concerned.”

Jeanne was set up with a CPAP mask which keeps the airway open, and the very first night she felt better.  “My weight stabilized, my depression lifted, and people comment all the time on how much better I look!  I used to feel like I looked really old – now I realize I just looked tired!  I was back to doing wind sprints at the gym in no time, tearing around,” she said.

Dr. Chang explained to her that sleep apnea can get worse with age as muscles loosen, and that the effects can be devastating.  “Before this, I didn’t understand apnea could cause so many things, but not getting enough oxygen can cause all kinds of problems – everything from my hypertension to hair loss,” explained Jeanne.  “We need sleep for the body and mind to heal.”

As Jeanne learned more about the effects of sleep apnea, she came to a realization.  “I now think that this is what actually killed my brother.  They said his heart just stopped, but I’m sure he just stopped breathing because of the apnea.  He was just a few days past 57.  I just turned 59.  As far as I’m concerned, they saved my life.”

Jeanne said she’s incredibly grateful to the doctors who helped her at The Polyclinic, and their persistence in determining what was wrong.  “They really took me seriously.  They kept trying ‘til they found the answers.”  She went back to Dr. Gorman to thank her for all she’d done.  “I told her I knew she saved my life.  I started crying, then she started crying…”  Jeanne said all the doctors at The Polyclinic really care about her welfare.  “Everyone I go to seems even better than the last.  I just don’t know who I love more!”