I Am a New Woman

Last night was my first night using my new CPAP (Continued Positive Airway Pressure) machine and I awoke this morning feeling like a new woman! Well for one thing, when I woke up this morning, a couple of minutes before the first alarm, I was AWAKE. I know, you’re saying “DUH,” but it was such a strange sensation that I literally sat there in bed trying to name it for several minutes.

I picked the machine up Monday afternoon and upon getting home with my new toy, I got ready for bed, plugged it in, put distilled water in the humidifier thingee and popped the mask on my face. I was ready for sleep. Of course I first had to suffer through the investigation of my two roommates. Both Sophie and Gizmo had to sniff and analyze the strange alien-like thing that appeared to be digesting my nose. After I passed inspection, I tried to go to sleep, but I think I was so excited that it took me a while to calm down. After getting myself into a position that was both conducive to sleep and did not smudge my mask out of place, I went to sleep.

My normal mornings were like this: 6:30 - alarm goes off; 6:40 - the sound finally penetrates the depths of my sleep and I turn off the alarm and start the long-winding journey toward consciousness; 7:00 - the second alarm goes off and I turn off the alarm, but turn on the TV and I again journey toward consciousness, but since I’d only had 15-20 minutes of sleep this time, the journey isn’t so long, but is equally arduous; 7:00 to7:15 - I snuggle and cuddle with my babies and watch either V-H1 (because mornings are the ONLY time they actually air music videos anymore) or the first few minutes of the Today Show (until I get sick of either the news or the interplay between the hosts); 7:15 to7:20 - I start telling the cats that I HAVE to get up; 7:20 to7:45 - I get up and hobble into the bathroom to shower, brush the teeth, put on the contacts, etc.; 7:45 - get dressed, sit down to put on socks and shoes; 7:55 - wake up when one of the cats pounces on the bed; 8:00 - wobble outside to the car and drive to work (I start work at 8:15).

But today, again, I was awake BEFORE the alarm. I sat there and cuddled with the cats and watched the local news morning show until I was sick of the news and/or the interplay between the hosts and I turned over the V-H1. When the second alarm went off at 7, I told the kids that I had to get up. I got up, did the whole bathroom thing, got dressed, skirmished a couple of times on World Domination in Facebook, then got to work early. I was SO perky at work, I think people thought that I’d been kidnapped and replaced by a pod person. I was all “Good Morning!” and “Howdy!” and I was smiling! (Those who know me know that although I’m ambulatory, I don’t really wake up until 10 and even then I’m not perky.) AND, if that weren’t crazy enough, I actually took the stairs between our office floors … not once, but SEVEN times!!! Oh, and normally I’m yawning all day because I’m just tired. But the first yawn didn’t come until about 5:30! It was incredible.

All this perky awakeness is tiring though, so I’m ready to go to bed.

Sleep Study Strikes Back

Last night, Monday, was my second sleep study. Have I mentioned that I received my EOB from my insurance company and these studies are like $3,000!?? Yikes! Fortunately, the insurance covers it all. Where was I? I packed my pj's and my fuzzy bunny slippers (forgot my hairbrush, BTW) and trekked over to the hospital. One pleasant surprise was that I got to watch 24 before the tech came in to hook me up to all the electrodes. That way, if I dreamed, I got to dream about Jack Bauer saving my personal world!

Now, the plan was that if the results from the sleep study from the night didn't show definitive results, then I would stay on for a nap test during the day today. I was awoken (?) at 6 am, and told that I'd be staying for the nap test, which I took to mean that I flunked the sleep study. :(

It was nigh unto impossible to stay awake until 8 am and I welcomed that nap, even if it was only for 20 minutes. After the nap, I got to have breakfast and I was happily watching Monday's episode of Days of Our Lives on SoapNet when someone came in to announce that my nap test was done and that Dr. Pope could see me now if I didn't mind tromping around in my pj's. I said I didn't mind if they didn't mind, so I'm waddling around in my pj's and bunny slippers anticipating good news... and I wasn't disappointed. I had an average of 8.8 apnea events per hour over the night, and since insurance required a minimum of 5 per hour in order to cover the machine. whoo hoo!

Then after talking to the doctor, the woman who could fit me for my machine was free, so me and the bunny slippers (not to mention the atrocious hair) flopped into another office and we fit me for a machine. It'll take about a week for the machine to get here and I'll have another appointment wherein they run me through the operation of the machine and then I can finally look forward to a decent night's sleep.

I had originally thought that if I didn't have the nap test, I'd come home and sleep the day away. But I was so psyched about the results I didn't nap. Of course I'm now regretting that decision and think I'll be going to sleep now. Sweet dreams

Healthier Rose in ’09, Part II

You will recall that I have been steadily attempting to find out what’s wrong with me. Ok, that’s too broad of an opening for smarmy comments there, let’s try that again. You will recall that I have this mysterious eye-goo issue and I went to an allergist because I just knew I was allergic to my kitty-poos, but turns out I wasn’t? Well, so it was time for my annual visit to the eye doctor this past Tuesday and since I’m still having eye goo issues, I brought it up. And I ‘fessed up that I’d been unfaithful to him and gone to an ophthalmologist during the summer, but he wasn’t too upset with me. I told him about the allergist and how everyone’s suggestions were helping, but nothing was solving the issue. He agreed that I have floppy eyelids and he explained that when I’m asleep and my muscles relax, my floppy eyelids open just a wee bit and as a result of being exposed to the ambient air and the crap floating around therein, my eyes dry out, and in reaction to the dry eyeballs, my body produces the mucus to keep the eyes moist. Knowing why it’s doing it doesn’t make it less annoying, but it does reassure me that my eyes aren’t going to fall out due to some dread disease. So that’s good.

We discussed the ideas that previous professionals had had about the sitch – sleeping in an eye mask and using Pataday (or “Liquid Gold” as I like to call it) and flushing out the sinuses and their rates of success. This doctor suggested that I could do something else and not have to sell my kidneys to pay for the Pataday – I can use some over the counter stuff, Refresh PM – a tube of goop to put in my eyes to help keep the eye balls moist at night, so it doesn’t have to produce the goo, and Refresh Tears eye drops during the day to keep them moist in the day. I told him I didn’t seem to have a problem with dry eyes during the day, but since I got the eye drops and started using them, my eyes have felt GREAT, so obviously I did. Anyway, turns out that not only are these products over the counter, but CVS had generic versions, so I paid under $20 for both rather than the $106 I’ve been paying for the Pataday. Plus, the eye drops are a normal size bottle instead of the doll-sized bottle that Pataday comes in.

Still at the eye doctor, I’d mentioned that I’d accidentally put a contact for my left eye prescription in my right eye at the beginning of the month and that I’d been able to see so well that I’d left it there. As predicted, my Rx for the right eye, which was -8.00, was now closer to that of the left eye, which was -8.50. But my Rx in my left eye was off between when tested with and without the contact. This mystery perplexed him and we talked anew. He noticed that my eye lashes were super long, and in fact, they curled up toward the inside, scraping against my eye balls when I blinked. After another test involving yellow eye drops and very bright light, he said that he could see that my eye lashes were scraping my cornea… (or whatever the outside layer of eye is – I don’t know, my last Bio class was in 1988!) Again we chat about things to do – he suggested plucking my eyelashes and I said OUCH! I suggested trimming my eyelashes and he cringed, I suppose, at the thought of me using scissors near my eyes. So he offered, as a friend, not as my eye doctor (although legally speaking, I don’t know if that would have absolved him from liability… hmmm… something to think about..), to trim them. I said sure and that I had manicure scissors in my purse. Long story slightly less long story, he trimmed my eye lashes and not only is the world slightly clearer, but also sort of brighter. One very successful doctors trip for the day!

Sleep Study, Cont’d (Again)

I finally got the results of my sleep study and they were (drum roll, please) inconclusive… unconclusive? I slept 53% of the night, and when I slept on my back, I had 9 apnea episodes per hour. When I slept on my tum, I had 1 apnea episode per hour, for an average of 2 per hour. Insurance won’t pay for the machine (that you just know EVERYONE is anxiously wanting to use) unless you have an average of 5 per hour. Sigh. So the decision is for me to do the whole stinking thing again. This time, though, he wrote on the orders that I can sleep on my tum and he said that if I’d like to take a couple Tylenol PM, that’s okay, too.

Now the best part is that if the results are still inconclusive, I’m going to stay and do a nap test. What’s a nap test? you ask. Well, I’ll wake up at 6 am from the sleep study, they’ll feed me breakfast, and about 8 am I’ll lay down for a nap. Then up and at 10 am, I’ll lay down for a nap. And so on for the rest of the day. Very exciting. What for? you ask. Well he said that I have symptoms of sleeping problems, so if it isn’t apnea, it may be some other sleeping disorder, such as narcolepsy. And narcolepsy does run in the family – an uncle, an aunt, and a cousin all have it. Although if I have it, I wouldn’t think it would be much more than a mild case.

So on Monday night, the 16th, I’ll pack my bag, pillow, and bear again and trek off to the Sleep Center. Of course Monday night is the night 24 is on, but I don’t think I’ll get to watch, since I’ll be being hooked up to all my wires. Thank God for Tivo!

Dad and the Big D (dunh, dunh, duh...)

So this past couple of weeks has been rough. Dad has been having weekly chemo treatments starting about Jan 12rh. He gets Taxotere and with each treatment he gets some "feel good" drugs to help counteract side effects. The feel good drugs last about 48 hours, but for the first week or so, he was doing pretty good afterwards. But then after the third treatment he wasn't feeling so hot. Now, I've been told not to blog too in depth about the consistency of his bowel movements, so let's just say he was battling the Big D.

Meanwhile, our area was hit with a bad ice storm/snow storm. I'm thinking they said it was the worst winter storm for 26 years. Lots of people, even entire counties, lost their power. Thank God I didn't lose my power because since Mom and Dad lost theirs, they came in to stay with me, along with Winifred. So Dad was sick, mom and I were taking care of him, Winifred was enjoying my place and, unintentionally, I'm sure, terrorizing Sophie and Gizmo.

The weather was bad enough that my office closed for Wednesday, Jan 28th, and because Mom and Dad were here, I took the rest of the week off. On Thursday, Mom and I had to go back to Wadesville and get a few things they'd forgotten, and on Friday, I drove back out to Wadesville and me and my uncle Doug attacked the front porch and sidewalk at Chez 'Rents so when they went home, they could safely get into the house. Doug had a pick axe, I had a shovel. It took about an hour, but we got it cleaned off.

Despite the fact that he really wanted to go home, Mom and I convinced Dad to stay at my house until Saturday, even though their power came back on on Thursday night. The Big D was still very present but we were feeding Dad well and I had bought a bunch of Gatorade. But we weren't doing enough because when we got out to Wadesville, Dad wasn't strong enough to take more than a couple of steps and he collapsed in the snow. We had to have some guys from the Volunteer Fire Department come out to help us get him inside and even then he was so weak. A couple hours after, I was sitting there talking to him, but he wasn't responding well if at all - Mom and I were afraid that the stress of the fall and the ice and everything had brought on a stroke. Thank God it wasn't. He had very low blood pressure and low blood sugar, though, so the EMT's took him to St. Mary's and after 3 hours in very uncomfortable chairs in his room in the ER, they finally admitted him for dehydration. The 3 hours in the uncomfy chairs were made up for, though because he was put in a private room in the clean wing where they put chemo patients. There was a couch and comfy chairs, a big flat screen TV, and this was Super Bowl weekend! (I jest - we don't really care about football. But, I'd have to admit that we did watch some of it.)

He was in the hospital about 36 years, err, hours. They pumped him full of liquids and worked hard to stabilize his blood sugar, and he was released Monday morning. I think he could have stayed, but he really wanted to be home. He was weak and tired easily, but he had an Rx for the Big D, and Carrie (Boss #2) told me about the BRAT diet that doctors prescribe for kids with the Big D, so I called mom and told her to feed him nothing but Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce, and Toast, so along with the threat of returning to the hospital if he didn't drink lots of liquids, Mom got him around the corner and starting about Wednesday, he improved visibly each day. It didn't hurt that Monday's chemo treatment was pushed off a week.

Frankly, I was afraid there. The man even called me in to his bedside one evening to tell me he wants to be cremated if it isn't too expensive, but if we don't and have a funeral with him in a casket, we are NOT to have an open casket funeral because if we do, he'll come back and haunt us. Well, knowing from the movies and tv that there's nothing worse than a vengeful ghost, we don't want that. Joking aside, I'm glad we had that talk, it made me feel better, and although I'm sure there'll be tons of tears when the time comes, I don't think I'll be a total basket case like I figured I would be.

Holly came down this weekend with Duncan and Haley is coming down next weekend with Hollian (or so that's the plan as I've heard it.) I have the feeling that on the grand scale of things, we have less time with Dad than we'd like, so it's good that they are able to come down and visit with him some here. I know Dad really was excited when I told him on the phone that they were coming down.

Today, Monday Feb 9th, Dad resumes his chemo. He'll get the "feel good" drugs and hopefully we'll have 48 hours of feeling good. And even more hopefully, the Big D, which had reduced itself to a small d and then even to a silent "d", won't return so he'll be able to continue regaining some strength. Although Mom has promised to continue the Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce and Toast vigorously... much to Dad's dismay that it doesn't include cheese or cookies.

May I Introduce to You...

So my sister pointed out that the world was demanding photos of our newest star, so here she is: Weighing in at a fighting weight of 3.7 lbs... The newest member of our cast - Winifred Magdalena! (yeah!)

Here Winifred is lounging on her favorite daytime place, on the sofa with Dad. Since Dad's been sick here lately, she is his shadow. Taking her naps on the couch with him and sleeping in his bed at night.

She's a sweety and has certainly added some pizzazz to Chez 'Rents.

Here is Winifred with Duncan.