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!

A Study in Snoozin’ - Part Deux

(Note: The following was actually written post sleep study, but due to being tired, busy, and the return of Jack Bauer and Lost, I only just now got around to downloading the pics Saturday. So enjoy.)

Last night was my sleep study. I was excited and nervous and about an hour before I was to leave for the hospital, I came down with a horrible headache. After downing some 5 year old Naprosin and a couple of Benadryls and sitting under a hot shower until the water ran cold, it eased enough that I could function and I drove off into the night for my study, leaving the livestock staring at me from the window as if to question my sanity (it being below zero outside).

I arrived at the sleep center about 7 pm and sat in the waiting room with a cute little boy named Keegan and his mother. Keegan has spina bifida (and I keep thinking I need to Google that and see what that entails) and even though he’s only 4 he’s had this done several times and he got to tell me all about what to expect, as translated from kid-speak to English by his mother! It mostly involved “Goop!”

My room was a very nice room, could’ve been a hotel room but for the bedside table with a bunch of electronic equipment on it. I got in my pj’s and watched some Food Network until Bob came in to hook me up. Keegan was right, there was a lot of Goop involved. Mostly in sticking electrodes to my scalp and face, and then there were EKG thingees stuck to my chest, and electrodes stuck to my shins. So by the time he had me all hooked up, there had to be at least 25 different wires plugged into the blue box that connected me to Mission Control.

Once I was all hooked up, I could just hang and be comfy, if that were possible, until I was ready to go to sleep. Well, not having had a nap either Saturday or Sunday afternoons, and having taken those Benedryl, I was tired so I told Bob I was ready to go to sleep about 9.

Before actually going to sleep, I had to run thru a bunch of motions at Bob’s direction, so he could get control levels for later on when I did them for real in my sleep. I had to do about everything but juggle. Then finally, on came the (not one, but TWO) breathing thingees that had to go in my nose. Sigh. As you can imagine I was exhausted. But could I roll over onto my tum and go to sleep? NO. Bob told me I had to sleep on my back. I told Bob that I can’t sleep on my back. He told me to try and if it didn’t look like I could sleep on my back, I could turn on my side. Well, as I TOLD Bob, I couldn’t sleep on my back, so after what seemed like hours, he beeped in and told me I could turn onto my side.

Oh, did I mention that there was video and noise activated sound monitoring? All I can say is that if that video ends up on You Tube, me and Bob’s gonna have some words! Where was I? Oh, yeah, so each time Bob would speak to me, like the disembodied, mighty and powerful OZ, it would scare me to death. But I did manage to get to sleep. Unfortunately, this lovely room I was sleeping in had a Memory Foam mattress. Now, I’m very warm natured and sleeping on foam didn’t help. So along about 1am, I wake up, burning up, and Bob announces that some of my electrodes have come off. Well, I can tell you it was because I sweated the goop off. After reapplying new goop and electrodes, Bob cranked the AC, found me a fan, and left me to go back to sleep… on my back. Sigh. Again, after a long time, Bob beeped in and told me I could turn. So I felt like I tossed and turned and couldn’t quite get comfy – another side effect of the Memory Foam mattress – it’s almost impossible to turn over or move in general while on it. But finally, I managed to get to sleep and the next thing I know, Bob was at my side waking me up. The study was over.

It must be noted that it took almost just as long to remove all those electrodes as it took to put them on! But once I was electricity free, I was able to hop in the shower where miraculously, the goop disintegrated and my head was once again goop free. I must admit that I was concerned because about 20 years ago, I had an EEG done, and that involved a bunch of electrodes glued to my head with stuff that was supposed to wash out, but in fact took about a week to pick off my head because it felt like they’d affixed the things to my head with cement!

Anyway, I left the sleep center to find about an inch of snow on the ground and the world looked lovely. I hit a Micky D’s for some breakfast and sweet tea and then went to work. I’m not sure I remember much of the day, but I got home with myself and the car both intact, so nothing too bad couldn’t happened, right? I still need to download my pics, but for now, I’m going to hop into bed and watch Days of Our Lives then go to sleep. I know, Jack Bauer is on tonight, but I’d hate to fall asleep while he’s on, so my new best friend, Tivo, will cover for me tonight.

Healthy Rose in 2009

So 2009 is starting off to be the year of health/medical related things for Rose. Well, either that or January is the month of …you get the point.

Saturday, I had CPR training. Our church was giving free training thru the local Red Cross for anyone who wanted it, but people who have anything to do with the children’s ministry were especially encouraged to do it. Well, I am in the Toddler’s Nursery for an hour each month, so I guess technically I qualify. But frankly, I have to say I didn’t take it because of my concern for the toddler’s in my care for that hour (and I realize that maybe that isn’t exactly the most Christian like attitude to have, but..) I took it in case I’m out in Wadesville with the ‘Rents and something happens to Dad (or Mom, I’m impartial). Living in the boonies, it could take a bit for the EMS to get there. Although as my mother pointed out, the odds of anything happening during the exact time frame of when I’m out there are slim, but still better safe than sorry. Plus I figure it was a good thing to do and highly recommend getting trained.

Next, yesterday I had allergy testing. For years, I’ve figured I have all sorts of allergies. I mean, I go outside and work in the ‘Rents’ yard and I get the hives or some strange poison ivy like rash all over me. Plus, year round, I’m snotting and snorting all over the place. Disgusting, I know. Then recently there’s the whole eye thing, with all the eye boogs and crusties. The ophthalmologist decided it was probably an allergy, maybe even to my cats. :( So, I did like I was instructed and took a week off of my antihistamines – which was very difficult because of the extra snotting and snorting – and showed up yesterday for my tests. They poked me with the usual 62 reactants and the two controls and I sat there with my arms stretched out for 15 minutes, itching. Good news! – I’m not allergic to ANYTHING, including my kitty-poos. Bad news – no answer to the eye boogs and snotting and snorting. Sigh.

So the doctor’s suggestion is that I flush out my sinuses with warm saline water – gave me a packet of stuff to use – and gave me a Rx for Nasonex. I did the flushing thing this AM and it was interesting to say the least. I had blown my nose before doing it, and I was amazed at what still came out! And as I’m sitting here breathing, there’s no snottiness present, despite my last blow being about 7:30. Too cool!

My next brush with the medical world will be a sleep study that I have this coming Sunday night. Over Thanksgiving, my sister Haley slept at my place, with the teenage girls, and lucky her, she got to sleep in my bed with me and the cats. Ok, she didn’t think of herself as being too lucky because I gather I snore and she said I’d stop breathing and then when I resumed, I’d be gasping for breath. Plus, for the past 6 months or so, I’ve just been exhausted. Even when I wake up from a good night’s sleep, I’m tired. So I figured it was time to investigate to see if I have sleep apnea and see if something could be done. So as I said, my study is Sunday night. I have to be there at 7:30 pm, I get to bring my teddy bear along, and it should all be over by 7 am Monday morning – which means I can still be at work on time… definitely a mixed blessing, that one.

So my theory is that after the sleep study next week, I’ll peruse the health insurance brochure and see what other kinds of specialists there are that maybe I’d like to try out!