Almost anyone who knows me also knows that I am always tired. Even when I was young and lived in the barracks in the late 1960’s I would often come home from work and take a nap – and it wasn’t always because I had been out until 2 in the morning. A few weeks ago I went to Dr. Blessing about several things and he decided I need to have a sleep study done. It had been suggested before by someone else I had seen but with Dr. Blessing it wasn’t a suggestion. He made arrangements for me to be seen before I left the office.
I went to see Dr. Fromherz, the sleep specialist, and after a long question and answer time and reading the questionnaire I had filled out at home he scheduled me for a night’s sleep study. Thursday night was the night.
It was quite an experience. Two other women were also there. One was expecting her first-born in April and the other was probably about my age. We were each sent to our rooms and a technician explained the process. Since my ‘normal’ bed time was the latest, I was wired up last. They gave me some juice and popcorn and I had a TV in my windowless room to watch while I waited. The bed was adjustable but that wasn’t very comfortable even for watching TV. Next to the TV was an infrared camera focused down to tape and watch me through the night.
Hooking us up took at least 20 minutes each. They first marked me with a non-permanent red felt pen then they began attaching the wires. I had wires taped on my neck, my chest, my face, my legs, gelled onto my head and one that glowed red was slipped on one of my fingers – shades of ET phone home. All these wires were plugged into a terminal that hung around my neck until bed time. I was so cute. I thought of bringing my camera but didn’t. What a missed photo opp!
A bit before 11 they came in to hook it all up to the computer. It wouldn’t read all of the connections so they spent quite a while trying to fix that. They had already unplugged the heating pad I use on my shoulder every night because they knew that would cause a problem. They finally discovered the lamp that was usually on the other side of the bed was causing the problem. Lights were out and I tried to snuggle on my pillow. That wasn’t really possible since the head where all of the wires connected was tucked under it. They wanted me to lie on my back and really had no choice.
After the lights were finally out again I had to do some testing – move my eyes up and down, side to side, breath, hold my breath, curl my toes and a few more. I hadn’t taken my wake-up pills for a couple of days so I was very tired. It wasn’t hard to get to sleep. I did wake up a couple of times during the night. I thought about making a trip to the bathroom but I would have had to wake up enough to find the button to call my tech so she could come and unhook me.
Before I knew it, it was 7 in the morning and they were waking me up. She took all of the wires off and I went to see myself in the mirror. Pretty – not! Red marks from the felt pen and red marks from where the tape had been on my neck decorated me. My hair, well, it had been gelled with stuff and I didn’t fully comprehend it. I was too slow, or so I thought, to take a shower before I came home so tried brushing it the best I could.
By that time, the doc was in to see me with some preliminary results. He showed me some of the graphs that had been produced during the night. He said that I was fine for an hour here and there but the rest of the time my breathing slowed way down and occasionally stopped. This was on an average of once a minute for about 30 seconds at a time. I didn’t really snore very often and that wasn’t the problem.
The chart is 5 minutes worth from the polysomnogram. On the bottom you can
see the SAO2 which is the oxygen level. It should be in the high 90's but it slips down below 90 when my breathing slows down. You can see all of the things they had me wired for. The arrows point to where things slow down.I do have Sleep Apnea, with apneas (when breathing stops) and hypopneas (when it slows down) and will have to come back to be fitted for a CPAP which helps keep you breathing. Under some circumstances they do that the first time you come but that didn’t happen. I am also going to be checked to see if I need something done to enlarge my upper nasal passages that would make it more effective.
I came home, planning to hop into the shower but I was too tired. Andrea came over and let us know the baby is breach and that they will try to turn h/she Sunday Morning. It was then time to take Bob to get zapped. I had forgotten about the gel in my hair and was so tired I didn’t really care. He started chuckling on our way to the radiation lab and said, “Do you remember the movie, “There’s Something About Mary?””
