I just got back from a visit with Oregon Sleep Associates. I've had a difficulty with having no energy, not being rested, being tired, snoring and jerky legs for way too many years. Sounds pleasant, no? I went to the doc a couple of weeks ago and he started the ball rolling by contacting Oregon Sleep Associates which is connected with the Oregon State Medical School. Today Dr. Fromherz asked me about 100 questions - and that was after filling out 7 pages of questions at home.
After all that and checking my vitals he thinks it is quite possible that I have Sleep Apnea , and Restless Leg Syndrome. The leg thing can be because of an iron deficiency; the other from an airway collapse while sleeping. There are several things that can be done but first they sucked some blood to test for the iron deficiency. I am scheduled for a sleep-study March 1. I check in at 8 p.m. and they hook me up to lots of different things to check me as I sleep.
If there is an iron problem, I guess I will be taking more pills. If not, it might take different pills to get my legs to relax.
If I show that I do have Sleep Apnea in the first three hours, they hook me up to a machine to help keep the air-passages open - a CPAP mask. If it shows up because of the results of all the data that was pumped in to the computer that night, I will have to come back to have the mask adjusted to make sure it has the lowest airflow to get the job done.
There are other options besides the CPAP mask -a tracheotomy which was the old way of taking care of the problem and would leave a permanent hole in my neck - not top any one's list; wearing a dental appliance that could make my tongue move forward; and a couple kinds of surgery - one is simpler but not as successful, the other more drastic but with a higher percentage of success which would move my jaw forward permanently. I'm thinking the mask sounds like it is where to start.
In the mean-time, I have some pills that are supposed to wake me up during the day. What an idea. The thought of not being exhausted from morning to night sounds like fun.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
In response to so many requests:
Earlier today I sat myself down to blog and life happened. Tonight I got home from our church's annual business meeting and discovered two of my blogging daughters were thinking the same thing - time for Mom to catch up a bit.
We took Aaron home from the meeting tonight because Becca had gotten sick (yuck!) and Tami needed to take the girls home early. He said he actually has his taxes done. Yea! We don't have a W-2 we need yet.
Bob has had to start radiation therapy because his PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) indicates that they didn't get all of the cancer. It was close to the outside of the prostate and apparently some migrated out. He will finish his second week tomorrow. He has appointments scheduled for Monday through Friday until March 12th, I believe. They made 36 more appointments on his
first treatment day and I believe that is what it comes to.
We go to a separate waiting room. I can go to watch the process if I want. It is interesting. It doesn't take much time once they call him in. Just long enough for him to slip off his shoes, drop his pants (modestly, with a cloth to cover him (and I complain about the skimpy things I get when I go to the doctor...)), lay down on this machine table, line up his tiny tattoos on the sides of his hips
and his abdomen with red X lights. Then everyone leaves the room then the radiation machine swings around his table and shoots him on top, bottom and both sides. It only takes about 15 minutes, tops. Once a week, I think he said, they do some monitoring procedures which does take more time.
What takes time, is talking to other people who are in for the same thing. It is good time. The reason for being there levels the field. Everyone knows the surprise and the pain that the C-word brings.
Afterwards, we run errands and go home. We've only gone straight home a couple of times. Yesterday we bought a new toaster oven. My much-loved first toaster oven spit a spring last week so the door can't stay shut. I've moved that to my studio-to-be for baking polymer clay since I can rig it shut for that. The new one is larger - can hold an 11" square pan - and has a warming tray on top. I put some Bugles in a pan and put them up there - wow! Believe it or not, you can really improve the taste of Bugles. It makes the warm bread Bob likes and the crunchier toast I prefer without much of a fuss.
Time for bed. Three-hour long meetings make me tired....
We took Aaron home from the meeting tonight because Becca had gotten sick (yuck!) and Tami needed to take the girls home early. He said he actually has his taxes done. Yea! We don't have a W-2 we need yet.
Bob has had to start radiation therapy because his PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) indicates that they didn't get all of the cancer. It was close to the outside of the prostate and apparently some migrated out. He will finish his second week tomorrow. He has appointments scheduled for Monday through Friday until March 12th, I believe. They made 36 more appointments on his
first treatment day and I believe that is what it comes to.We go to a separate waiting room. I can go to watch the process if I want. It is interesting. It doesn't take much time once they call him in. Just long enough for him to slip off his shoes, drop his pants (modestly, with a cloth to cover him (and I complain about the skimpy things I get when I go to the doctor...)), lay down on this machine table, line up his tiny tattoos on the sides of his hips
and his abdomen with red X lights. Then everyone leaves the room then the radiation machine swings around his table and shoots him on top, bottom and both sides. It only takes about 15 minutes, tops. Once a week, I think he said, they do some monitoring procedures which does take more time.What takes time, is talking to other people who are in for the same thing. It is good time. The reason for being there levels the field. Everyone knows the surprise and the pain that the C-word brings.
Afterwards, we run errands and go home. We've only gone straight home a couple of times. Yesterday we bought a new toaster oven. My much-loved first toaster oven spit a spring last week so the door can't stay shut. I've moved that to my studio-to-be for baking polymer clay since I can rig it shut for that. The new one is larger - can hold an 11" square pan - and has a warming tray on top. I put some Bugles in a pan and put them up there - wow! Believe it or not, you can really improve the taste of Bugles. It makes the warm bread Bob likes and the crunchier toast I prefer without much of a fuss.
Time for bed. Three-hour long meetings make me tired....
A little update please...
Mom I know you and I know you are on the computer at some part of the day. But you haven't updated your blog in over a month.... give us a little something to tide us over until you start again please!
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Christmas is coming...
We are in the home stretch towards Christmas. Bob and I went to see The Nativity Story yesterday. (It was the first time he has been to the theater for 19 years - the last thing we saw together was Stakeout - the original.)
This is a wonderful movie. The only things I thought were not quite right was that they compressed the time line - the Maggi arrived the night of Jesus' birth. And the heavenly host was on vacation during the announcement to the shepherds.
Beyond the obvious portrayal of the birth of Lord Jesus, it gave me a good look into the 'smallness' of life back then. Life revolved around life. There was one thing that was important and that was getting things done in proper order since the there were no shortcuts. You had to grind the grain to make the flour to make the bread to feed the family today and tomorrow you repeated the same things. I realize this is the way life is for many even today. The contrast in my life which has much choice in it with the life where when Caesar wanted you to do something an approaching birth meant nothing is unfathomable.
What you did was evident to everyone. One of my favorite parts was when a very pregnant Mary and Joseph were leaving Nazareth everyone was looking down their long noses at them. Joseph turned to Mary and said, "They're going to miss us." I still chuckle at the obvious. It was a 'filler' line but it was true. They would miss them. And there were no phones to call home and let everyone know what happened. Their leaving was open-ended and, until they returned years later, I doubt there were many opportunities for communication.
I recommend seeing it, especially now in this short season before we celebrate this birth.
This is a wonderful movie. The only things I thought were not quite right was that they compressed the time line - the Maggi arrived the night of Jesus' birth. And the heavenly host was on vacation during the announcement to the shepherds.
Beyond the obvious portrayal of the birth of Lord Jesus, it gave me a good look into the 'smallness' of life back then. Life revolved around life. There was one thing that was important and that was getting things done in proper order since the there were no shortcuts. You had to grind the grain to make the flour to make the bread to feed the family today and tomorrow you repeated the same things. I realize this is the way life is for many even today. The contrast in my life which has much choice in it with the life where when Caesar wanted you to do something an approaching birth meant nothing is unfathomable.
What you did was evident to everyone. One of my favorite parts was when a very pregnant Mary and Joseph were leaving Nazareth everyone was looking down their long noses at them. Joseph turned to Mary and said, "They're going to miss us." I still chuckle at the obvious. It was a 'filler' line but it was true. They would miss them. And there were no phones to call home and let everyone know what happened. Their leaving was open-ended and, until they returned years later, I doubt there were many opportunities for communication.
I recommend seeing it, especially now in this short season before we celebrate this birth.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
A Big Day After A Long Night
There are many times when I don’t get much sleep. That usually happens after an important or busy day or the night before an important or very busy day, when I have a project that needs finishing or when it is windy. Last night all of those things met and I ended up with about three hours of sleep.
Bob and I spent Saturday morning at our church preparing for today’s Christmas Potluck then headed out to Alyssa & Dan’s for Bob’s 60th Birthday Party at noon. It was a lot of fun – including, surprisingly, the gun-fight that raged around us for a while. I was looking at one of the dart-guns they were using and suddenly I was a target. I was just LOOKING! Fortunately, except for Tami's direct hit right on the spot where I broke my arm this summer, they really don’t hurt. I was surprised at what a weakling I was when I tried to cock the gun. – That right arm again….
We got home and 5 p.m. felt like 10. After a bite to eat so I could take some pills I still needed to pull some things together for today and got stuck trying to copy Christmas CDs for today’s ‘mood’ music. I didn’t want to bring originals in case I forgot them. My install of Roxio’s software wasn’t working so I tried a couple of other programs. Nothing would do what I needed. I finally got one copied but the next one didn’t work no matter what I did. I finally gave up.
I wanted to print labels and that was another struggle. If I had found the Roxio CD last night I probably would have been in bed by 10 but that didn’t happen. Finally about 1 a.m. I quit and went to bed. I had my heating pad snuggled around my arm and was quite drowsy when the South wind started up. I slept through it a couple of nights ago and it kept Bob awake but last night I wasn’t fortunate enough to get to sleep before it started. It howled so loud in the trees I was wide awake again.
I finally got up and went back to work on the CDs. I crawled under the covers around 5 and needed to be at church by 8:30. We were about 15 minutes late. I had my one copied CD and a couple more originals. I decided that I WOULD remember them.
At church, the room needed to be transformed from an adult Sunday School class to a festive place to eat. It is amazing what a bit of pre-planning and cooperation can do. What would have taken our little group an hour to do was done by a roomful of people in 20 minutes.
The dinner went well and it was all cleaned up and we were home by 3. We were both very tired but mostly resisted napping so we would sleep better tonight.
Oh, and tomorrow I need to stop by church to pick up my CDs.
Bob and I spent Saturday morning at our church preparing for today’s Christmas Potluck then headed out to Alyssa & Dan’s for Bob’s 60th Birthday Party at noon. It was a lot of fun – including, surprisingly, the gun-fight that raged around us for a while. I was looking at one of the dart-guns they were using and suddenly I was a target. I was just LOOKING! Fortunately, except for Tami's direct hit right on the spot where I broke my arm this summer, they really don’t hurt. I was surprised at what a weakling I was when I tried to cock the gun. – That right arm again….
We got home and 5 p.m. felt like 10. After a bite to eat so I could take some pills I still needed to pull some things together for today and got stuck trying to copy Christmas CDs for today’s ‘mood’ music. I didn’t want to bring originals in case I forgot them. My install of Roxio’s software wasn’t working so I tried a couple of other programs. Nothing would do what I needed. I finally got one copied but the next one didn’t work no matter what I did. I finally gave up.
I wanted to print labels and that was another struggle. If I had found the Roxio CD last night I probably would have been in bed by 10 but that didn’t happen. Finally about 1 a.m. I quit and went to bed. I had my heating pad snuggled around my arm and was quite drowsy when the South wind started up. I slept through it a couple of nights ago and it kept Bob awake but last night I wasn’t fortunate enough to get to sleep before it started. It howled so loud in the trees I was wide awake again.
I finally got up and went back to work on the CDs. I crawled under the covers around 5 and needed to be at church by 8:30. We were about 15 minutes late. I had my one copied CD and a couple more originals. I decided that I WOULD remember them.
At church, the room needed to be transformed from an adult Sunday School class to a festive place to eat. It is amazing what a bit of pre-planning and cooperation can do. What would have taken our little group an hour to do was done by a roomful of people in 20 minutes.
The dinner went well and it was all cleaned up and we were home by 3. We were both very tired but mostly resisted napping so we would sleep better tonight.
Oh, and tomorrow I need to stop by church to pick up my CDs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)