Tuesday, August 15, 2006

To sleep, perchance to breath: It's hard to strike a pose in your jammies and electrodes.



As I prepared to go for the latest sleep study, I mentioned to Paul that I was considering bringing the camera to get a picture of me wired up. I asked him if he thought that would be weird. "No way!" he replied. He is also planning on taking pictures of me as I sleep with the CPAP on. I didn't take pictures of me the morning after because I was too tired but you would have seen the hair that is looking okay in this picture all squished up and mussed every which way. It's worse than normal morning hair because there is about six globs of electrode paste in there. Also, there would be red marks on my face and neck because I am apparently allergic to the tape they used this time.

So, here I am, in all my sleep study glory, ready to embark on my full night with the CPAP. When I saw this picture, I decided that it doesn't actually look that bad because you can't see the electrodes that are in my hair and behind my ears and on my legs. Still though, you get an idea. At this point in the evening, I had watched Cold Case while waiting for the technician to finish with another patient. The technician was the same one I had for the previous study so in the hour it took to hook me up we caught up on old times. Around 11 p.m., it was lights out and time for business.

I won't go into all the details because they are boring. It wasn't a fun night, but better than the first study. It was successful in that I finally achieved the REM sleep necessary for the titration to be successful. I did actually sleep a little about this much. While there some near panic moments, I beat the claustrophobia down. In the next 2 - 5 days, I'll get my equipment and we'll be off on the next leg of my sleep apnea adventures.

On a side note, it is funny to me, and a little sad, that every time I say I'm cranky now, my daughter bursts into a sing-song voice and announces: "Sleep AP-neaaaaa!" I'm looking forward to no longer being necessary!

3 comments:

Lindsey said...

Oh! Even with all that stuff on your look cute! Especially in your jammies. My dad had the same testing procedure a few years ago. He actually had to travel somewhere out west (I live in MI) to have the testing. Anyway, good luck with the results of this one!

Cristina said...

Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comment!

I must say that I would NOT look as cute as you do with all those electrodes pasted to my face. LOL Can you really sleep like that? :)

Unknown said...

Thanks l-girl and MOTR. It was definitely not so pretty come morning!