Well, I went to the sleep disorder clinic. They said I had to go to sleep by 11:00 pm. Have you ever been under stress to go to sleep, especially in a strange bed and in a strange environment? Well, I said "Okay." But since it was only 7:00 when I got there it was only about 8:00 when I got done filling out my paperwork. Of course I was supposed to have the paperwork all done and sent in weeks ago, but.... I lost it after it arrived in the mail.
But after I finished my paperwork, a nice older lady nurse showed me to my very own private bedroom. I had no idea how the sleep clinic test was supposed to work. But guess what.... there is a very nice short video tape that tells you exactly what they are going to do and how testing proceeds.
After I watched the video, I sat on the bed. It felt quite comfortable. I had brought my own pillow. If you ever do go for a sleep test, be sure to bring your own pillow. It makes all the difference between getting sleep and staying awake. At least for some people.
The nice nurse came in and showed me how to operate the cable television. Wow!! I have not seen television in almost a year. Well, maybe a few local channels, but not CABLE television. I was excited. I found a couple of old Star Trek episodes with Captain Kirk. Somewhere around 10:30 the nurse came in and woke me up. Apparently I had already fallen asleep.
Now this is where things get interesting. They glue about 20 leads all over your body. Two to each leg, a couple on the chest, and most of them around your head. And they use this very sticky goo that keeps the leads attached. Fortunately several months ago I had elected to do the very short haircut thing for two reasons. I'll get into the reasons in a moment. But first I have to tell you, there are these really strange wire sensors that literally go part way into your nose to see if you are breathing though your nose. They partially restrict your nose breathing so that makes life more challenging from then on. But I had cut my hair very short now for about a year. Why???
First, I am going bald. No!!! I don't want to go bald, but I don't have the money to buy Rogaine or some other medication to use every day to regrow my hair. The other reason was a matter of cost. Some time in the last year or so haircuts have climbed up in cost at the local hair cutting place in the mall. So I elected to buy my own electric razor with all those length attachements. I now give myself a haircut (free) in about 20 minutes. I use attachement #3 which gives me about 3/8 inch hair.
Any way the nice nurse glued all these electrodes all over my head. I guess that is to determine what type of sleep you are enjoying. She even had me put a couple of leads down each pant leg and glued leads on my calves. These are to see if I move my feet in my sleep. I thought I would never fall asleep again as I was experiencing some difficulty breathing since I got this amazing cold last week. It was a doozy. Any way, I felt some very real congestion in my chest and had difficulty in breathing in enough air to relax and go to sleep. But eventually I guess I drifted off.
Now when you awake, they warn you not to hardly move, or you will disturb all these wires from the leads all over your body. I awoke at about 12:15 and had to go pee. The bathroom is down the hall. So I said "Hey, I got to go to the bathroom" and immediately a voice out of nowhere said, "I'll be right there." The nice nurse came in and disconnected the leads from the recording machine. Then she wrapped all these leads around my neck and tied them in a knot. And I went off to the bathroom down the hall.
And after a few minutes I came back and she reattached me to the recording machine. I went back to sleep experiencing the same difficulty breathing. Then I woke up again at 1:30. Same routine.
Except after she had reattached all my cables she said, "let's try this" and pulled out what was obviously a mask to put over my nose. I asked, "do you think I need this?" The nurse replied, "Does the pope live at Rome? Do bears sleep in the woods?" Remember now, my sinuses are clogged to the max from this amazing cold I am experiencing. After hooking up what looked a whole lot like a miniature vacuum cleaner hose to this machine, she turned it on. Air was pumped under pressure to the mask, where I was supposed to breath it in. But... no go. So I asked for a mask to cover both nose and mouth. At first the nurse said, "It isn't going to work, because you have a beard." But after realizing I could not breath at all, she relented and brought me a bigger mask. It worked great. The air was slightly pressurized and it made breathing a whole lot easier.
I fell asleep almost instantly. As I was drifting off I thought, "this is what Darth Vader uses too!"
I almost woke up several times, but simply continued breathing and went back to sleep." Then the urge of nature woke me up. I spoke "Luke, I am your father." But inside the mask, no one could hear me. So I pulled off the mask and said, "Hey, I gotta go to the bathroom again." The nurse came in and started pulling off all the leads. I said, "wait a minute. I thought this study was supposed to go till 6:00 am and it is only 5:30." She said, "by the time you go potty, come back and get all hooked up again, it will be almost 6:00. Your study is over."
When I got to my feet, I had the most incredible sensation I have had in years. No... it wasn't pee running down my leg. It was energy. I had energy upon waking. It felt like I was back in college again. I went to the bathroom and then came back. The nurse was of course gone. So I went to her station and told her... "Hey, I have energy!! This CPAP machine really works." "She grinned mischieviously and said, "you think so huh?" Then she told me that I had stopped breathing repeatedly before she put the mask on me. She said, "if there ever was a candidate for the CPAP machine, it is you."
But I did not get one right then. Noooo!!! I had to wait for a medical doctor to interpret the results of my repeatedly stopping breathing while sleeping, and then compare it to the data collected after the CPAP machine was hooked up. But she assured me that they would definitely find in my favor (I would get a CPAP machine.) But it would take time. She then warned me that I would "hit the wall" when I tried to sleep again that night.
She was absolutely right. It was very hard to sleep. I slept restlessly and awoke so groggy I went back to sleep. Almost the whole day went by before I started to feel awake. I thought, "I can't wait for my very own CPAP machine."
If you snore loudly, go get a sleep study at a sleep disorder clinic. Perhaps you need a CPAP machine too.
David Youngs
http://polybids.blogspot.com
