Midweek Miscellany

Last week I volunteered to chaperone Rosie's 3rd grade field trip. We went on a hike in Provo Canyon and to the BYU Bean Life Sciences Museum. I wish that I'd had my good camera, but I snapped this pic on my Blackberry at Bridal Veil Falls. I had forgotten how beautiful the canyons are here in Utah. I live practically at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon and need to take advantage of the early autumn beauty.

This morning I dropped Taylor off at the airport. We had to wake up at 4:30 am to get him to the airport on time, so I feel like a zombie today. It was so nice to have him here for five whole days. Sunday evening we had a birthday get-together in Lehi with friends and family. We caught (500) Days of Summer on his birthday, and I think it's one of my favorites of 2009. We also watched a few other random movies courtesy of the local library. It was very much-needed spouse time.

I've been experimenting with my banana bread recipe lately. Some batches have turned out awesome, some have been mediocre. It's definitely better with butterscotch chips than chocolate chips. I've been using cocoa powder in some, substituting different pudding flavors, adding this and that. Once I think I've got the revised recipe perfected, I'll post it.

Today I had an appointment with my sleep specialist in SLC. Dr. Farney is the first sleep specialist I ever met with, and the best out of the 4 that I've worked with. I got him caught up on the last five years of my health and sleep history and discussed details of my finally successful CPAP therapy. I told him how my ongoing complaint continues to be excessive daytime sleepiness, regardless of how many hours of sleep I get at night. I'm going to give Nuvigil a try, if only because the website makes me laugh. He also suggested I follow up with another doctor about some pesky symptoms that may point to a condition I'm pretty sure I have (which consequently exacerbates sleep apnea). Good thing I've got great insurance for the rest of the year.

I found my Ipod that had been missing for three weeks. I had searched high and low, through every room of my house and the car. Where did I find it? In the purse pocket that I usually stash it...folded between a piece of paper. Just my luck.

Didgeridoo for Sleep Apnea???

Ever heard of a didgeridoo? I read a very crazy news article from Reuters this weekend that talked about how regular didgeridoo playing can help with sleep apnea:



Regular didgeridoo playing reduces snoring and daytime sleepiness, finds a study published by the British Medical Journal. Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome are common sleep disorders caused by the collapse of the upper airways.

Reports of didgeridoo players experiencing reduced daytime sleepiness and snoring after practicing, led experts in Switzerland to test the theory that training of the upper airways by didgeridoo playing can improve these disorders. They identified 25 patients with moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and who complained about snoring. Patients were randomly allocated to an intervention group (didgeridoo lessons and daily practice at home for four months) or a control group (remained on a waiting list for lessons). Compared with the control group, daytime sleepiness and apnea scores improved significantly in the didgeridoo group. Partners of patients in the didgeridoo group also reported much less sleep disturbance.

The authors conclude that regular training of the upper airways by didgeridoo playing reduces daytime sleepiness and snoring in people with moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and also improves the sleep quality of partners.

I'm sure some of you are sick of reading about the sleep problems that I've had for so many years, but how could I not share this bizarre nugget of medical research? I've been using the CPAP machine for the last 5 nights, and so far haven't had much relief for my daytime sleepiness. According to my sleep tech friend Lori, it'll be at least two weeks before I have a real marked difference in my sleep/wake cycle. I am dedicated to finding a way to finally have restful sleep, and I wonder if I'd have any luck with the didge. Course, I'm not sure I'd want to invest in the very strange instrument without renting one first, and I have no idea where I'd rent a didgeridoo. Maybe I could join an Australian Club, or hang out at the Australian Consulate's office. What do you think, does this seem like craziness, or do you thing there's something to it? One thing's for sure, I could totally pull off the Aboriginal hair...after a night of the CPAP headgear, my hair look like a banchee!

Sleepin' Sexxxy Part II

Today my CPAP mask came in the mail, and I'll be able to try it out tonight. Prior masks have only covered my nose...this "full face" mask covers my mouth and nose. I tried it out for about 10 minutes, and it's really uncomfortable. Most people say they can't stand it at first, but adapt to it once they see the benefits. I'm trying to have my happiest and excited expression on my face, but the mask pretty much covers it all. It also does a number on my hair. But if it means I finally get restful sleep after 6 years, it'll be worth it.

Wish me luck!

Sleepin' Sexxxy

I met with Dr. I today to discuss the results of my last sleep study. He said my daytime sleepiness is caused by sleep apnea, pure and simple. No narcolepsy, just obstructive sleep apnea. When I had the nose mask on a low airflow (6) I had about 10 disturbances per hour with snoring. When I had a full face mask on medium airflow (9) I had only 2 disturbances over several hours with no snoring. He said if I stick with this mask with a chinstrap, I should have marked improvement in a few weeks. So now I get to put on this lovely mask along with my bedtime attire. Sexy, eh?

What the doctor said

All hooked up last week

Yesterday afternoon I had the quickest doctor appointment of my life. I arrived at the office about 4:10, and I was back to my car by 4:25. Seriously??? When does that ever happen. I only had to pay $1 for parking instead of the usual $5 (which by the way is really lame to be forced to pay for parking when you're already paying your doctors. The joys of living in an urban metro area)

The bad news is that there wasn't a lot for the sleep doctor to report about my polysomnography test from last week. He had ordered the CPAP version; but even after a clearly marked written order (and a lot of arguing on my part), the sleep tech only gave me an NPSG test (for new patients). Dr. I said that he hadn't yet dictated my whole report, but that my sleep structure was almost identical to my last test in 2007. Approximately 10 disruptions per hour, similar oxygenation, similar REM sleep time, mild-to-moderate snoring (which Taylor doesn't agree with. haha) Dr. I was really upset that I basically had the test for nothing, and he promptly got on the phone with the director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Piedmont Hospital to make sure that I don't get billed for the erroneous study. Dr. I apologized to me profusely, he waived my copay, and set me up for the CPAP study in his VIP suite at Georgia Lung Center in Austell in March (longer drive, but nicer facility and it includes breakfast)

I wonder if I had refused the study the night of, which I was tempted to do, if I wouldn't have gotten in my car accident last week.

Recurring Dreams

For the last 6 years, I've been dealing with a variety of sleep disorders. One of the byproducts of my unpredictible sleep has been extremely vivid dreams. There are two dreams that I typically have:

Teeth: I dream that I'm in "normal" life situations and all my teeth fall out. Sometimes I'm speaking in front of large audiences and hit my front teeth on the microphone and all teeth come out. Sometimes I sneeze and propel them across the room. I have had four teeth (in real life) that have crumbled while eating foods like soft white bread and fruit snacks, but I've never actually had a tooth completely fall out. I've had enough dental work in my life that sometimes these nightmares feel more like reality. According a website I was reading about tooth loss dreams, it signals the fear of transitioning from youth to adult to old age. Also, "Losing teeth in dreams can also point to insecurity about finances." I guess I shouldn't be suprised.

Earthquakes: I have never been in a significant earthquake, but I've alway been fascinated by earthquakes. In the dreams, I am typically naked in the shower when the quake hits. I am forced to run outside either naked or only in a towel. Most recently, my earthquake dream happened when I was having my sleep study last week. I dreamed that an earthquake hit while I was hooked up to all the polysomnography equipment on a high floor of a high-rise hospital. I fell out of bed, was being choked by the equipment, and Chandler (from Friends) sensed my dire situation from a carwash next to the hospital. He ran up multiple flights of stairs to rescue me from strangulation.

For earthquake dream interpretation, one website says, "Unlike some of the other dreams about natural disasters, earthquakes usually symbolize parts of the dreamer's physical reality rather than his emotional life. The earthquake in the dream may be representing financial difficulties, health issues, or any number of other problems that could occur in daily life. An experience that is "shaking" you up, and changing your daily life, could be creeping into your dream state and showing up as an earthquake."

Another website says, "Dreaming of an earthquake is a warning: if you can withstand disturbances in life, you will find a new place or starting point. Earthquakes usually stand for sudden changes which take place in our personal or social lives. This dream does not mean that you can prevent these changes, but tells you to be firm and true to yourself if you want a positive outcome."

As for being nude, the info is all here...

WHAT DO YOU DREAM ABOUT?

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty

As most of you know, I've made my career working in healthcare. Spending 8 hours a day in a hospital seems normal to me. I've always had a morbid fascination with the internal processes of the body, especially surgical procedures. So what do I do on my day off? Research surgeries! I know, I'm insane.

I've only had surgery once, but I've had a long history of less invasive procedures. I had my sleep study last week, and I meet with my sleep specialist on Thursday to discuss the best treatment options for my sleep-disordered breathing. At my initial visit with him, he had listed a variety of surgical options that may be of value to my health (including Lap Band for weight loss, as my sleep issues will not subside until I lose at least 80 pounds).

This morning I've been researching UPPP - Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty. It's a procedure where my tonsils, uvula and part of my soft palate would be removed to remedy my very constricted airway. I have been wavering for a few years whether I would get a tonsillectomy because I have large tonsils and frequently get tonsillitis, but I know the recovery time and pain level is horrible as an adult. But since my breathing has been so labored since October, and my snoring (caused by a constricted air passageway) is out of control...it really may be time for surgery.

As I read about it on Wiki, I was freaked out by the following side effect:
Patients who have had the uvula removed will become unable to correctly speak French or any other language that has a uvular 'r' phoneme.

If I get the UPPP, I might have to give up on Le Français and take up Español.

Picked up the paper, it was more bad news...

Now that I have a bit of time to blog, I'll give you the gory details on my last 24 hours. I got to the sleep center at 8:30, registered, filled out questionnaires, and told the sleep tech that I'd like to get to bed around 10:30. She said that it wasn't likely, but she'd get me to bed as soon as she could. I sat around for a while and enjoyed the hospital's sporadic, yet complimentary wifi. I watched a terribly outdated video about sleep apnea, and was told by the tech that she'd come to hook me up around 11:00. I wasn't happy about this because I remembered from previous sleep studies that it takes over a half hour to get all hooked up to the monitors and electrodes. When she came back in, she took a sharp red marking pen and marked a variety of spots on my head and neck. Then she roughly scrubbed cleanser over these spots to take the natural oils away so the electrodes would stick. Next, she put freezing cold gobs of sticky electrode gel on each spot, and jammed on each electrode with her thumb. Each electrode had a colored wire that connected to a control box.

After the head, neck, and face electrodes, she repeated the process on my abdomen and calves (luckily she let me guide the wires through my clothes myself). Then she clippped two different monitor bands around my midsection. Once I got in bed, the two sets of nasal cannulas were stuck up my nostrils, and I was told that I must sleep on my back for at least 3 hours. I know that my doctor ordered a CPAP test, but the paperwork confused the tech and she decided to be "safe" and go with a baseline study (which I've done twice already) I allowed to go off into camera-monitored dreamland around 12:00 am.

Six hours of sleep time was required for the full study, but I was wide awake just around 4:00 am (just like usual). I sat up, streched, and was told that they needed at least 90 more minutes of sleep time. I layed around for about 30 minutes before dozing back to sleep. I dreamed that I was having my sleep study in a high-rise hospital in California during an earthquake, and it made me fall off of my bed. I nearly choked to death on the cords around my neck. Luckily, Chandler from Friends (and I don't even watch Friends) saw the whole thing happen from the car wash next door to the hospital, and he came to my room to save the day. Bizarre.

At 6:00 am, my Blackberry alarm clock went off, despite the device being turned off. It was across the room, so I couldn't reach over and turn it off. It blared on for about two minute before the tech came to the room to turn it off for me. At this point, she said I needed 15 more minutes of sleep time. Luckily, I fell back asleep immediately, and I got up around 6:45. The tech removed all of the wires, monitors, and electrodes, and then scrubbed all the spots with acetone to remove the electrode goo, and I was sent on my way at 7:40.

I was driving home from the hospital down LaVista, and the sun was blaring in my eyes. I was driving in a school zone at about 20 MPH, and the lady in front of me slammed on her brakes when the crossing guard walked into the croswalk. (My guess is that the driver I hit wasn't paying attention, and had to brake immediately) Even though I was going an acceptable speed with an acceptable following distance, I skidded into a shiny new Volvo. Her hard plastic bumper had very minimal scuffing on the bumper, but the whole front of my hood was crunched (although my bumper remained completely intact) We pulled into the neighborhood to exchange information, and she was a lot more difficult with me than she needed to be. She asked if I worked for Emory, and I told her I did, and she told me people she knew from my division. She repeated, in a menacing tone, "I really want to trust you" about 40 times. She wanted to leave so she could drop her kid off at school, and threatened "If you try to throw this situation around, and make it seem like it was my fault, my attorney will be after you." I've tried to call her twice today to give her more of my info, but she hasn't returned my calls.

So now I have a car that needs to be repaired, and a $500 deductible I honestly can't pay. It will drive, but I know it won't pass the state inspection that needs to happen before my Michigan car registration expires on Thursday (happy birthday to me). And since I haven't been able to get in touch with the "victim" of the accident yet, I can't complete filing my claim nor get my car repair started. At least I opted for the rental car reimbursement.

To top off the horriblenes of the day, Taylor and I had a meeting with a credit counselor today. We have been drowning in our student loan debt and wanted to see if we had any options available to relieve our financial stress. The rep checked our credit scores, reviewed all or our monthly expenses and consumer debt. We were told that they have no pull with the student loan companies, and we were basically left on our own to try applying for more consolidation loans. As for our consumer debt, he offered a credit card consolidation plan that would RAISE our monthly payment. And as for the deficit of our income vs bills..he suggested we both look into supplementing our income with part time jobs. We're screwed.

Sleep Study Number Five

I'm just finishing up packing for my overnight sleep study over at Piedmont Hospital Sleep Lab. This will be my fourth overnight sleep study since 2004, and fifth if you include my daytime multiple sleep latency nap test. I'm deciding on what comfortable, yet accessible pajamas I can wear so the sleep lab tech doesn't see too much (yes, there are cameras in the room and someone watches you sleep all night. Almost voyeuristic). It's time to figure out how to fix my sleep apnea and daytime hypersomnia. Is anyone interested in a silly photo narrative of what it's like to be the patient in a sleep lab?

Destined to NOT be a ZOMBIE

Today is the sleepiest I've been on a workday in ages. I have two explanations. One is that I haven't been taking one of my meds to keep me awake during the day. I'm in prescription stimulant withdrawl. I have my sleep oximitery test tonight. Had to take a long lunch to drive to Alta View Hospital sleep lab to pick up the machine. I'll have to use PTO this week. GRRRR

The other reason is that right after my head hit the pillow last night, my cell phone rang. I toyed with the idea of leting it be and just attempting to sleep, but I was not tired enough to sleep as "Robotica" (my ring tone) pulsed and vibrated next to my feet. I answered the phone and it was Tim Fritz. About 10 seconds into the conversation my smoke alarm beeped. It has been beeping anywhere from every 3 minutes to every hour since February. Yes, I know that I could have avoided a lot of insanity-causing sound effects had I just gone to the neighbor's house and borrowed a ladder (It was on my vaulted ceiling, not quite low enough to use a chair)

SO anyways...Fritz insisted on a after-midnight maintenence run to fix my smoke alarm. Kinda silly to be the damsel in auditory-distress, rescued by a mechanically-minded hotty. He has complained everytime that I have talked to him about his annoyance of the beeping. So now I can rest easy, and he won't have to complain when he calls me. Funny that he decided to show up at 1 am.

So...that said...once I actually fell asleep, I was out like a log. With no beeping. Just only got 5 hours of sleep. Goin' to bed early tonight with the pusle-ox in my finger. If any of you catch me up past 10 pm tonight....scold me and send my to my bedroom.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: Avril Lavigne, The BEEEESS, Black-Eyed Peas, Eclipse