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!