Life moves along
A few big things have happened recently that I thought I'd share with the world. First, I requested and then participated in a sleep study this last Friday. They hooked me up with literally 12 different wires and monitors, including pasting electrodes into my hair and beard, bands around my chest, a microphone taped to my Adam's apple and a clip in my nose... and then asked me to go to sleep. As impossible as it sounds, I actually went to sleep immediately. I'm just so damn tired all the time lately, but that's why I had the sleep study.
I tossed and turned until the tech turned on the lights. "It's been two hours," he said. It seemed like it had been 8 hours to me... I thought the test was over. He explained that they are required to watch me for at least two hours to see if they can determine if I have sleep apnea. He said it took about 5 minutes to determine that I had sleep apnea and then they just waited out the two hours.
So he hooked me up to a CPAP machine, which is basically a mask fitted snugly and air-tight over my nose with a hose to a machine that pushes air really hard through my nose. The air flow was so strong that it would blow out my mouth if I left my mouth open. This is supposed to stop snoring and sleep apnea? I really thought they were crazy to think I could sleep with that mask on. I resolved to give it a try since anything to help my sleeping would be welcome, and if I am going to have to get used to the mask, I might as well start that long, painful process as soon as possible.
So, I pretty much fell asleep again as soon as I hit the pillow. It seemed like moments later the tech turned on the lights again and congratulated me on 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep on the CPAP machine. I could hardly believe that I had actually slept that long. He said I had been in a type of sleep they call "rebound." When someone goes without restful REM sleep for too long, the body will take advantage of any good sleep sessions for extra REM sleep. So instead of the regular in and out cycles of REM sleep, he said I was pretty much in REM sleep for the full 5 hours. Wow.
Obviously I didn't have a real concept of REM sleep vs. non-REM sleep, but I know that I felt strangely rested and calm, but it felt so unfamiliar. It scares me to think how long it's been since I had a good night's sleep if it felt that weird to me. Any-hoo, I had a LOT more energy on Saturday than I normally do and I just felt "better." I think I just had a better outlook, if that makes sense. I was more positive... more optimistic. It was nice.
So, I want a CPAP machine for Christmas. My doctor is trying to get me diagnosed and get the machine in December so it will be on this year's tab (my deductible is full so it would be free.) Let's hope he does. I think it's really going to change my life.
Second thing lately is that I made some phone calls last week and singlehandedly collected over $1,000 in prizes for a charity raffle at work. The raffle was my idea so I thought it fitting for me to do the leg work. And it sounds cool but I didn't really do much... I just called roughly 20 businesses located here in downtown Indy that we folks at ExactTarget already use regularly. I asked each of the businesses if they would like to contribute a gift certificate or any other items that we might offer as prizes in our raffle (all proceeds go to the needy families we adopted.) I called so many businesses because I thought I wouldn't get many yeses, but almost everyone donated $50 dollars or so. It was pretty cool.
So I thought I'd just share those items to let you guys know that life is moving along.
I tossed and turned until the tech turned on the lights. "It's been two hours," he said. It seemed like it had been 8 hours to me... I thought the test was over. He explained that they are required to watch me for at least two hours to see if they can determine if I have sleep apnea. He said it took about 5 minutes to determine that I had sleep apnea and then they just waited out the two hours.
So he hooked me up to a CPAP machine, which is basically a mask fitted snugly and air-tight over my nose with a hose to a machine that pushes air really hard through my nose. The air flow was so strong that it would blow out my mouth if I left my mouth open. This is supposed to stop snoring and sleep apnea? I really thought they were crazy to think I could sleep with that mask on. I resolved to give it a try since anything to help my sleeping would be welcome, and if I am going to have to get used to the mask, I might as well start that long, painful process as soon as possible.
So, I pretty much fell asleep again as soon as I hit the pillow. It seemed like moments later the tech turned on the lights again and congratulated me on 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep on the CPAP machine. I could hardly believe that I had actually slept that long. He said I had been in a type of sleep they call "rebound." When someone goes without restful REM sleep for too long, the body will take advantage of any good sleep sessions for extra REM sleep. So instead of the regular in and out cycles of REM sleep, he said I was pretty much in REM sleep for the full 5 hours. Wow.
Obviously I didn't have a real concept of REM sleep vs. non-REM sleep, but I know that I felt strangely rested and calm, but it felt so unfamiliar. It scares me to think how long it's been since I had a good night's sleep if it felt that weird to me. Any-hoo, I had a LOT more energy on Saturday than I normally do and I just felt "better." I think I just had a better outlook, if that makes sense. I was more positive... more optimistic. It was nice.
So, I want a CPAP machine for Christmas. My doctor is trying to get me diagnosed and get the machine in December so it will be on this year's tab (my deductible is full so it would be free.) Let's hope he does. I think it's really going to change my life.
Second thing lately is that I made some phone calls last week and singlehandedly collected over $1,000 in prizes for a charity raffle at work. The raffle was my idea so I thought it fitting for me to do the leg work. And it sounds cool but I didn't really do much... I just called roughly 20 businesses located here in downtown Indy that we folks at ExactTarget already use regularly. I asked each of the businesses if they would like to contribute a gift certificate or any other items that we might offer as prizes in our raffle (all proceeds go to the needy families we adopted.) I called so many businesses because I thought I wouldn't get many yeses, but almost everyone donated $50 dollars or so. It was pretty cool.
So I thought I'd just share those items to let you guys know that life is moving along.
posted by Bif | 12/03/2007 01:20:00 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, sleep!!
It makes such a huge difference--really glad you'll be getting more and hopefully feeling the effects. Also glad to see youre blog up and running again!
B
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