Thursday morning, I woke up, showered, and went to work. Knowing I had a sleep study to attend that night (checking for sleep apnea), I read about how to prepare for it. I was requested to shower "right before" coming in. I got off work, showered, did a couple of other things, then headed out to my sleep study at 9 (had to report there by 9:30).
I had been to the place before, and only saw about 2 or 3 beds. To my surprise, I was instructed (by a very boisterous sign) to have a seat and wait for someone to come get me. After being the last name called, I entered this Alice in Wondersleepland place and was put in about the 10th "bedroom" I saw. I was hooked up with wires in my hair, on my face, in my nose, and even a couple on my legs that had to be fed through my shirt and shorts.
We then tried out a couple of CPAP masks to pick the one that worked best for me, if I showed enough signs to need it by 2am. Those things are terrifying at first, btw. Totally took my breath away about the first 5 times. And the ones that only cover your nose allow air to escape from your mouth when the machine is on, making it very hard to talk. I had problems getting one single word out. Very trippy.
Anyway, she set those aside, shoved a set of tubes up my nose in addition to the wires already up there and then I'm left to relax and sleep.
I'm a sleep roller. If number of sleep turns were an Olympic maneuver, I'd get the gold for my quintuple lux, if we were to put a label on it. I started on my back, rolled to my left side, attempted to go to stomach, but to no avail. More sleep-inducing comfort.
Somehow, someway (Actually, just as I had predicted) I fell asleep. I was additionally told that I fell asleep very quickly. What a strange compliment, but I took it. I woke up a couple of times to change positions or adjust my blanket coverage.
At about 2am, my sleep technician (sandwoman?) came in the room and flipped the light on. I asked if I met the criteria and was greeted with a nearly sadistic-sounding, "Oh yeah!" We try on a nose-only CPAP mask. I try for 5-10 minutes to fall asleep with it on, but it hurts my teeth. It also took a few minutes to make sure it was set up correctly before I even tried to sleep...overall, it wasn't a good fit for me. After air-speaking my technician's name 3 times (it sounded like half air/half talking and I couldn't speak any louder or more than one word), she came into my room and we swapped out for a full face mask (nose and mouth both covered). After I got that bad boy on, I fell asleep rather quickly and don't think I woke up once. In fact, the sleep technician said she came in the room at one point to adjust the mask and I didn't remember that at all! Kinda freaked me out, really. Someone was literally messing with my face and I didn't wake up. *eeby jeebies*
I get booted at 6am (after detaching me and leaving glue/tape residue all over me) and head home. I thought I would get a nap in before having to be at another dr appointment at 9am, but I wasn't able to. And I had to shower for the 3rd time in 24 hours.
The 9am appointment is funny because I didn't even know what it was for before getting there. And apparently still didn't know after reading what the doctor specialized in (I thought "endocrinology" meant something else...didn't figure out I was wrong until a few days later...thanks Mom...). I don't think I made myself out to be too much of an idiot, but you never know, right? Here, I learned that I am still in the running for having a syndrome that I thought another test ruled out. We'll do a different kind of test to find out. Awesome! It was also here that Doctor played my favorite game "Let's look at you and say all the bad things we see!" It turns out that I am a "big girl" (say that in an Indian <dot, not feather> accent) and I have bad acne. How much did I pay you again? Anyway, now I'm supposed to tell her how I'm going to lose weight. Like, the exact plan. Lady, if I were that exact of a planner, don't you think I wouldn't have gotten this big? I said generic stuff and left feeling pretty down on myself.
The next day (Saturday) I decide to mow the backyard at like 1pm because I'm a moron. Didn't realize we were scheduled for 100+ temperatures that day. Actually, I think I didn't look because I knew it just had to be done. The dogs were starting to have a hard time walking around. My cell phone rings at about 1:15 and it's an idiot and wouldn't let me answer it. This isn't the first time, nor I assume the last time that it teases me with phone calls. I can see who is calling, but it won't let me use the touchscreen to answer it. And the screen is the only way to answer. I listen to the voicemail and it's the sleep study doc. He leaves the office number to call back, but he had called on a different number. I try to call both back, but to no avail.
On Tuesday (today), I am in the shower at 7:30am and my phone rings. Obviously couldn't answer it. A few minutes later, I hear my husband up. Apparently, doc couldn't reach me so he called my husband...at 7:45am. The morning after a holiday weekend. By the way, I was planning on calling after I got to work...at 8:30am. He tells my husband to have me call him after 1pm today. At 10am, my work phone rings and flashes the number I know all-too-well at this point. I pick it up and am greeted by a different doctor. He somewhat fumbles around, mentioned that he "wanted to tell me the news by phone" and finally got to the point: I have severe sleep apnea. I stopped breathing over 120 times per hour. The good news was that the CPAP mask returned my sleep to "normal," not just decreased my symptoms. My doctor from Friday 9am had told me that weight loss gets rid of sleep apnea, so I asked this doctor if that was true. He said not for my severity of sleep apnea. The CPAP mask people will be contacting me soon. I will need a machine to sleep presumably for the rest of my life.
I have so many conflicting thoughts over this. I am relieved to have finally found something unusual about me. A possible source of my constant tiredness. A possible solution to what I was convinced was laziness, yet couldn't shake it. That makes me excited to try it. On the other hand, I detest the idea of requiring a machine in order to sleep. Literally burst into tears when I think about it. My husband is very very VERY supportive about all of this, but I can't help but feel like less of a woman for having to wear a Darth Vader-like mask to bed. I've thought about how terrifying it would be to be falling to Sandmanland and in blinking one last time seeing this plastic monster next to you...and it's your wife. But as I've been told, it's got to beat my snoring. And this is Jon's view on it: he just wants me to feel better. I know it will help, and I know I will do it, but I just want to get it in the rearview mirror of life. Yes, I will wear a mask to sleep and yes, I will sleep fantastic. Let's just get this over with.
I had been to the place before, and only saw about 2 or 3 beds. To my surprise, I was instructed (by a very boisterous sign) to have a seat and wait for someone to come get me. After being the last name called, I entered this Alice in Wondersleepland place and was put in about the 10th "bedroom" I saw. I was hooked up with wires in my hair, on my face, in my nose, and even a couple on my legs that had to be fed through my shirt and shorts.
We then tried out a couple of CPAP masks to pick the one that worked best for me, if I showed enough signs to need it by 2am. Those things are terrifying at first, btw. Totally took my breath away about the first 5 times. And the ones that only cover your nose allow air to escape from your mouth when the machine is on, making it very hard to talk. I had problems getting one single word out. Very trippy.
Anyway, she set those aside, shoved a set of tubes up my nose in addition to the wires already up there and then I'm left to relax and sleep.
 |
| "Relaxed" and ready to sleep. |
 |
| Excuse my fat, but I was pretty stoked that I decided to go ahead and shave my legs right before heading out! They were checking for restless leg syndrome/night kicking. |
Somehow, someway (Actually, just as I had predicted) I fell asleep. I was additionally told that I fell asleep very quickly. What a strange compliment, but I took it. I woke up a couple of times to change positions or adjust my blanket coverage.
At about 2am, my sleep technician (sandwoman?) came in the room and flipped the light on. I asked if I met the criteria and was greeted with a nearly sadistic-sounding, "Oh yeah!" We try on a nose-only CPAP mask. I try for 5-10 minutes to fall asleep with it on, but it hurts my teeth. It also took a few minutes to make sure it was set up correctly before I even tried to sleep...overall, it wasn't a good fit for me. After air-speaking my technician's name 3 times (it sounded like half air/half talking and I couldn't speak any louder or more than one word), she came into my room and we swapped out for a full face mask (nose and mouth both covered). After I got that bad boy on, I fell asleep rather quickly and don't think I woke up once. In fact, the sleep technician said she came in the room at one point to adjust the mask and I didn't remember that at all! Kinda freaked me out, really. Someone was literally messing with my face and I didn't wake up. *eeby jeebies*
I get booted at 6am (after detaching me and leaving glue/tape residue all over me) and head home. I thought I would get a nap in before having to be at another dr appointment at 9am, but I wasn't able to. And I had to shower for the 3rd time in 24 hours.
The 9am appointment is funny because I didn't even know what it was for before getting there. And apparently still didn't know after reading what the doctor specialized in (I thought "endocrinology" meant something else...didn't figure out I was wrong until a few days later...thanks Mom...). I don't think I made myself out to be too much of an idiot, but you never know, right? Here, I learned that I am still in the running for having a syndrome that I thought another test ruled out. We'll do a different kind of test to find out. Awesome! It was also here that Doctor played my favorite game "Let's look at you and say all the bad things we see!" It turns out that I am a "big girl" (say that in an Indian <dot, not feather> accent) and I have bad acne. How much did I pay you again? Anyway, now I'm supposed to tell her how I'm going to lose weight. Like, the exact plan. Lady, if I were that exact of a planner, don't you think I wouldn't have gotten this big? I said generic stuff and left feeling pretty down on myself.
The next day (Saturday) I decide to mow the backyard at like 1pm because I'm a moron. Didn't realize we were scheduled for 100+ temperatures that day. Actually, I think I didn't look because I knew it just had to be done. The dogs were starting to have a hard time walking around. My cell phone rings at about 1:15 and it's an idiot and wouldn't let me answer it. This isn't the first time, nor I assume the last time that it teases me with phone calls. I can see who is calling, but it won't let me use the touchscreen to answer it. And the screen is the only way to answer. I listen to the voicemail and it's the sleep study doc. He leaves the office number to call back, but he had called on a different number. I try to call both back, but to no avail.
On Tuesday (today), I am in the shower at 7:30am and my phone rings. Obviously couldn't answer it. A few minutes later, I hear my husband up. Apparently, doc couldn't reach me so he called my husband...at 7:45am. The morning after a holiday weekend. By the way, I was planning on calling after I got to work...at 8:30am. He tells my husband to have me call him after 1pm today. At 10am, my work phone rings and flashes the number I know all-too-well at this point. I pick it up and am greeted by a different doctor. He somewhat fumbles around, mentioned that he "wanted to tell me the news by phone" and finally got to the point: I have severe sleep apnea. I stopped breathing over 120 times per hour. The good news was that the CPAP mask returned my sleep to "normal," not just decreased my symptoms. My doctor from Friday 9am had told me that weight loss gets rid of sleep apnea, so I asked this doctor if that was true. He said not for my severity of sleep apnea. The CPAP mask people will be contacting me soon. I will need a machine to sleep presumably for the rest of my life.
I have so many conflicting thoughts over this. I am relieved to have finally found something unusual about me. A possible source of my constant tiredness. A possible solution to what I was convinced was laziness, yet couldn't shake it. That makes me excited to try it. On the other hand, I detest the idea of requiring a machine in order to sleep. Literally burst into tears when I think about it. My husband is very very VERY supportive about all of this, but I can't help but feel like less of a woman for having to wear a Darth Vader-like mask to bed. I've thought about how terrifying it would be to be falling to Sandmanland and in blinking one last time seeing this plastic monster next to you...and it's your wife. But as I've been told, it's got to beat my snoring. And this is Jon's view on it: he just wants me to feel better. I know it will help, and I know I will do it, but I just want to get it in the rearview mirror of life. Yes, I will wear a mask to sleep and yes, I will sleep fantastic. Let's just get this over with.
Glad they found something! Here's to many sleep-filled nights for you!
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of information to process! I'm glad you have something to work with, though. :-) Come over sometime!
ReplyDelete