The Greenman's Grove

So, a number of you were aware that I went and did a sleep study a couple of weeks ago, as my doctor prescribed. He seemed to think that I may have sleep apnea. The sleep study was perhaps one of the least restful nights of sleep that I've EVER gotten. They attach electrodes and such to you, hook those up to a mass of wires, and tell you "Most people can't sleep on their backs, so go ahead and sleep on your side. However, if you dislodge any of the connections, we'll have to wake you up to get them hooked up again. So, I slept lightly, and woke up every time I shifted position so that I wouldn't dislodge the connections. I went to work the next day feeling like I hadn't sleep at all.

I got the results back last night. From the Wikipedia entry:
"Clinically significant levels of sleep apnea are defined as 5 events of any type or greater per hour of sleep time (from the polysomnogram)."

During the sleep study, I would apparently stop breathing about 39 times per hour, or just over once every couple of minutes. That doesn't mean that I wake up... But it does keep me from sleeping soundly, or at least achieving the kind of sleep that I need to be fully rested.

I actually find this to be a good thing. Sleep apnea is actually reasonably easily treated, in the short term, and essentially curable in the long term. Not fun to get the treatment started, but hey. First, I've got to go back for another sleep study. Normally, the study is done in two parts in the same night, but because I was having so much trouble sleeping, they only got the first part done, which was a reading of how many events occured while I slept. The second part of the study, they put a mask on you and slowly turn up the pressure on the mask until they see how much pressure is needed to keep me breathing regularly. I'll have to go back and have that one done this time, and I'm going to TRY and schedule it for a Friday, so that I'm not crashed out the next day. Once that's done, I'll get a sleep mask (essentially a set of noseplugs that blow air up my nose to keep me breathing) to sleep with. The mask should allow me to get a good night's sleep (once I get used to sleeping with it). And that's the short term treatment.

The longer term treatment is to get my ass to the gym (which I should be able to do once I've got more energy) and lose about 50 pounds or so. That weight loss should bring the apnea under control, which will allow me to get good sleep without the mask. I've been meaning to get to our gym to work out, I just haven't had the energy to do so, and getting up in the morning to do it was painful. So the mask will help with that, and then I will be able to lose the weight and get good sleep without the mask.

I'm hopeful. It's possible that I've had sleep apnea for years without knowing it. I'm looking forward to seeing what I'm like when I'm not so tired that I can literally fall asleep on the floor in the middle of a party.

Snagged from dek9, it's all her fault.

( The 32-type dating test )

I want to thank all of the people that sent me Valentines or other messages. It definately reiterated to me that I am loved.

And Brad? No offense, you're a great guy... I never, ever want to go there. :)

So, thanks to dek9 & daddy_guido, I now know that


And apparently, I'm modest, too!

Have you ever noticed that meme is really ME!ME!?

( Read more... )

If you've posted the accent meme to your LJ, or you are going to do so in the near (or far flung) future, please remember to put it behind an LJ cut. Apparently it's breaking a number of people's LJ page views (such as mine...)

My aunt Dolores is in the hospital. I was called by my mom earlier this morning. She was taken to the hospital for something (not clear what) and it was determined while she was being examined that she was bleeding into her brain. She's been emergency transferred to a hospital in St. Paul (she lives in Minneapolis), where a brain surgeon should be working on her right now, or should have been working on her for a while.

I don't know what's happening. I'm waiting for my mom to call back. There isn't anything that I can do yet but pray to anything and anyone that I hope can help. These few hours are apparently critical for how or even if she'll recover. It is quite likely that I will be taking off at a moment's notice to the Twin Cities, either to see her while she's recovering, or to... But I'm not even going to think about that just yet.

This is not good. She's a wonderful woman, who's done so much for her family and the people around her. She was the head cook in a public school cafeteria for many, many years, and she actually made the food there tasty, to the delight and wonder of the kids in the school. For many of those years, she also taught a Christmas cookie baking class that was so popular that the waiting list to get into the class was 3 years long, or longer.

I'm not going to get morbid. I'm going to go try and distract myself, until I know more. And I have to make a couple of calls, to make sure that a couple of other people know at least as much as I do.

So, Friday morning, I chipped a tooth. Not badly, just the enamel. No exposed anything.

But things were crazy on Friday, and Saturday, and I knew that I wasn't going to have a chance to get to a dentist to get it taken care of until Monday. So I came in this morning, and very specifically sat down to find a dentist in the downtown area.
( Cut for those who don't care, or who have dental phobias )

So overall, I found a dentist that I actually like, and will recommend. And that means that maybe I will go to him more often.

And amusingly enough, his office is right next door to the office of the dentist that I went to way back when, before and during my childhood tooth trauma. Turns out that he's retiring when his office lease ends. So I don't have to feel guilty about not going back to him.

So, I got a VOX invitation. I know that starstraf and alymid have accounts. Anyone else I know have one?