I have been away from the internet world, but my medical appointments have still rolled on in the past couple months.
One of the happenings last month was my first Sleep Study. I have gone in for 2 so far. I'll be the first to say that I was a bit nervous about going in and sleeping in a random place by myself; Yet, I have to say the fact that you know you're every move is being watched (and very closely) is kind of creepy.
That may have been one reason I was having a hard time sleeping.
I arrived at the deserted medical center at precisely 9pm (no earlier), to have someone meet me at the door and walk me to the lab. Most of the lights were out in the building since it is comprised of other medical suites as well as the sleep lab. When we got into the lab, I was brought into a room similar to a small hotel room, with a bed, tv, chair, even redundant scenery to make the place homier.The person running the lab (the respiratory tech) gave me some paperwork, told me to change into my pajamas, and said he would be back in a few.
The paperwork was mostly routine stuff like medications, etc.. It also asked me how my day was and if anything unusual happened that day or the night before that could affect the results. In fact, at the time, I was coming off a bad bout of Bronchitis, so I scribbled it down. I was done with my paperwork, so I turned the TV on and waited.
20-30 minutes later the respiratory tech came back and started to hook me up. This takes a little bit. Nodes are attached all around your body including, but not limited to: 4 on the legs, at least 4 on the face and surrounding areas, 4 on the cheat area. Belts with monitors were secured around my upper chest and around my stomach (this one measures the rise and fall of your stomach when you're breathing). I also had many (at least 8 I think) wires attached to my head all throughout my hair. Let me say, the gunk they use sucks to get out of your hair; though they did tell me sometimes they have to use some type of glue which is even worse: yikes! A microphone that measures any vibration (such as snoring) was taped to my throat. Last but not least, a monitor was also attached to my finger.
With everything hooked up I went to lay in bed (which some sort of video camera on the wall that was up and running). Let me tell you, unless you normally sleep on your back, and don't move much throughout the night: you're about to go through an uncomfortable experience. They try to make everything as comfortable as possible, but when you're hooked up to all those cords and wires: you can only move so much. You can even sleep on your side (again providing you don't move very much)...
However, I'm a stomach sleeper; I also toss and turn a lot. To top that even further, I NEVER go to bed before 10PM. Therefore, not only could I not sleep for 2-3 hours, I tossed and turned so much in that time that I actually ended up pulling a lot of the cords off of my body. Around 12:30 I took a bathroom break (everything is hooked to a machine that you can carry with you), and then the tech hooked everything back up.
What I've failed to mention was that the bed in question was a tempurpedic that was adjustable (as in the head and feet raised up. The tech begged me to put the head up at an angle, and the feet up as well to take pressure off of my back, and try to sleep that way. I did eventually fall asleep that way although it didn't feel very natural. I slept until a bit before 5am (when the study is scheduled to end). At that time, I was unhooked (which is actually very easy, they pretty much just yank everything off, and you can take the stickers off on your own). I filled out some more paperwork about how I slept and how awake I felt, etc, as I was given some juice and nutrigrain bar to snack on. When I was finished, I was escorted back downstairs where my husband was waiting outside for me.
A few days later I received a call saying that I indeed do have mild sleep apnea (oh joy) and have to come back for another sleep study (double joy) where they will determine what pressure my CPAP machine should be set at.
I was also told by the technician that my sleep apnea is as mild as it can be to receive a diagnosis. 0-5 on whatever scale they use to measure is considered normal, and I received a 5.3.
However, its still serious enough to treat on a normal basis, but I'm told that if I travel, I don't have to worry about bringing the machine with me.
Stay tuned for more updates from Sleep Study 2 (and 3 as I hae to go back this week), as well as my Cardiac Stress Test, and my first group meeting at the Bariatric Surgery Center!
