Monday, June 15, 2009
Sleeping on Demand
I am off to the sleep clinic where I am to spend the night sleeping under watchful eyes while hooked up to a bunch of electrodes. Hope I will not awake to find I am transformed to Frankenstein. the whole idea of "lights out" and no flashlight under the covers seems weird to me....but it is only one night. Perhaps a poem will come out of it.
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7 comments:
Hi Jude,
That reminds me of being tested for sleep apnea, they hook you up with clumps of wires all over the place, and air blowing into you face, and expect you to sleep.
Yours,
Rus
Exactly! That is what they thought I might have. I slept quite well considering.
The tech told me that there were "criteria" for judging my likelihood of apnea. That if they observed me stop breathing" after 1 a. m. they would wake me, put on the oxygen mask and tell me to go back to sleep. I guess if you stop breathiing before 1 a. m. you are on your own. LOL
They never woke up. So the next day I asked if that meant I didn't have apnea. I was told I had "shallow bearthing" but no true apnea.
Then today I get a call the doctor wants me to come back an do another night with the oxygen mask.
I think I may tell them to forget it. If I get sleepy in the daytime, I'll take anap as Ernie suggested in the first place. LOL
Trust Ernie to see right thru the bullshit :-)
Hi Judy,
But why would the doctor want you to have another test? I wonder if there is something that can be done for the shallow breathing or something. But that doesn't sound right either. Or was he trying to be sure it was not apnea, was there something that might have gone wrong or have been inconclusive with the data?
Anyway. When I was tested, I was observed all night through. My throat closes approximately every two minutes, shutting off all oxygen to my lungs. And so I have to come to enough to grab a breath or two, then fall off for another two minutes until my throat closes again. This is called severe sleep apnea, and it began right after my heart attack. As we looked at why I could not recover, and was always tired, it was a stroke of genius, or at least an aha moment on my doctor's part to send me for the test.
Yours,
Rus
Judy! How is it I have not seen all these posts? I read every one with interest, but this is the one that needs attention most. Go back to the doctor if you have to--a good night's sleep is restorative. (You don't need me to tell you.)
Carol (Saba)
Well, I am told I misunderstood. The criteria is that you stop breathing "before" 1:00 a,m. so that they will then have a full 4 hours to complete the breathing test.
I will go back...but not right away . I still have a colonoscopy to get through....yuck ...and I am changing doctors for my arthritis because my doctor of 8 years finally pissed me off beyond acceptance,
Ernie is making me do all this stuff...plus all the regular GYN things that I have been neglecting.
Anyway.
Sounds like a fun summer, hahaha.
Actually I may be a bit envious--that you have MADE your appointments where I have failed to.
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