So, yeah, that happened.

[bzarcher]

Got to the sleep study place around 7:30 after food, traffic, and did I mention traffic?

Gave them my paperwork I'd already filled out, filled out more paperwork, then I was shown to my test room, changed, and generally prepared myself. I mostly watched TV (GO CREW!) and read a bit. Around 10, the nurses came in and wired me up. I will admit that having my head, neck, and torso rubbed down with conductive-whatever-the-hell-that-was goop by two pretty young ladies was the absolute highlight of the night. The actual wiring, less so.

After getting wired up, I was lead to bed while they did final hookups (Dear sleep study equipment manufacturers - why 3 different types of leads that had to go into my nostrils? Is this not 2008? Can't we design a single piece of equipment that might provide the needed diagnostic data?) They had me just lie there with my eyes open for about 10 minutes to do baselines and diagnostics, then a few tests with eye movement, deep breaths, shallow breaths, etc.

Trying to get to sleep was, honestly, pretty difficult. The monitoring gear on my head, chest, legs, and neck weren't too bad, but the aforementioned crap stuffed up my nose was really irritating and tended to pop out if I moved my head too much.

Once I was close enough to comfortable to fall asleep, I got woken back up. (I think this was around 1am or so, but I'm not 100% sure - no clocks in the study room, and I turned my cell phone off per their instructions so I didn't have it on my nightstand.) They eased me up, removed the hated nasal monitors, and put a CPAP nose mask on me. After the fit and finish were settled, they helped me lower back down onto the bed without popping any of my remaining leads, fired up the machine, and I passed out pretty quickly. Then I was woken up again (I don't think it was very much later) and they adjusted the mask a bit on me. I don't honestly recall much of that until all of the sudden they were turning the lights up and telling me it was time to get up (5am - ish).

They can't officially tell me the results without the doctor looking at it and sending me a report, but the nurse who'd been monitoring me did say I slept "much, much better" once the CPAP was tuned in for me, so yeaaaaah....

They asked me to fill out yet more paperwork (an evaluation of how I slept plus a customer satisfaction survey for my experience during the study, which I found pretty funny), and I have to admit that for having my sleep interrupted several times in the night + being awakened way earlier than I normally would, I feel surprisingly good, so there may just be something to this after all.

After a shower and scrubbing all the electrode goo off of me and out of my hair, I was free to go at about 5:30, so I decided to go get some breakfast and go into work - just didn't seem worth going back to the house just to turn around and go back.

For breakfast, I went to Bob Evans. They have pumpkin griddle bread. This is a very mundane and surprisingly undescriptive name for rapturous tasty baked goodness, lightly grilled and covered in cinnamon butter and whipped cream.

Comments

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

Yep.

That's about how it went for me. Minus the pumpkin bread. After you get the machine, you'll get a much better experience sleeping because the mask is different for at home use.

Glad you're feeling better today.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad to hear it was pretty consistent. Sorry about the lack of pumpkin bread, tho. :)

The only thing I may ask (if I get a choice) is if I can bring in my own machine - Alex has apparently decided not to use his, so if I could get fitted for my own mask and just have his reprogrammed, that might be nice. Otherwise, I'll just roll with whatever the plan is.

Thank you! I am too. :) Hopefully it survives a full day at work.

[ardaniel]

Alex might like to know that the last two folks I know about from LJ who had serious strokes under the age of 45 were both sleep apneic.

Serious business, getting enough oxygen while you sleep.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I may well tell him that.

Unfortunately, I think part of the decision was issues with his back and not being able to sleep in a way that didn't inflame the pinched nerves with the CPAP...

[felislachesis.livejournal.com]

I have two conditions that affect me. I have sleep apnea, which in turn put me on a CPAP machine. I also have had two surgeries on my lower back in the last 5 years, which forces me to move my back turning the night, or I absolutely can not physically get out of bed.

Unfortunately, these two conditions made sleeping with my CPAP virtually impossible because I couldn't move with it on. So I went with Plan B and that was to say "to heck with the CPAP, I'd like to get up in the morning, even if it's a little groggier."

[felislachesis.livejournal.com]

Edit1) I am the aforementioned roommate, in case you didn't already get that :D

Edit2) with the CPAP, yes, I felt GREAT in the morning, I just couldn't move my legs, which meant I was alert, but virtually immobile. So it was a choice of waking as a morning stiff, or waking as stiffly alert.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

....

Alex, I think we need to sit down and talk about your word choices in item 2.

[felislachesis.livejournal.com]

I meant my legs not my... never mind.

[ardaniel]

Hi! I know you're Alex, and I'd say the same thing to you on person. Getting back to where you can reconsider the CPAP after your back rehab probably isn't a bad idea. I've got a blown L5 disc myself, so I sympathize with the sleep issues.

Belkar strikes me as the kind of dude who probably has apnea from his naturally smaller demihuman jaw structure. Would certainly explain his bad temper.

[felislachesis.livejournal.com]

Mine are blown L3-L4 and L4-L5 disks, which both required a laminectomy to remove the herniation.

Big problem... if I fully rehabbed after the surgery in 2003, I wouldn't have been forced to have a re-do 3 weeks ago.

[jennekirby.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I'm surprised they're trying to compare to sleeping with a strange and uncomfortable set of tubes up your nose--but now that I think about it I assume they're not just checking if you sleep better but for sleep apnea during the tubes-in-nose part, and those are the results they're interested in.

The people I know who've had sleep apnea problems dealt with one way or another seem to have had a major upswing in quality of life. Hope this works out that way for you, too. :)

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

I think one set of nose tubes was to monitor the airflow in and out of my nose and the other was to....man, I don't know. Nostril hair irritaton levels? Photosynthesis? Something. It's not like I couldn't get to sleep - it just really wasn't comfortable at first and it took time to find a good sleeping position.

I'm pretty hopeful it will. :) Thank you!

[las.livejournal.com]

I have some friends who have to sleep with CPAP gear, and they say it's not too bad, and they do sleep a whole lot better. And they can pretend to be Darth Vader!

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Yeah, once we got the mask fit properly, I really didn't have much problem sleeping - I drifted off pretty quick.

Behold my grim meathook sleepwear!

[flaggerx.livejournal.com]

My best friend had a sleep study, and sleeps with the machine after his wife (an ER nurse) suggested he get the sleep study.

He and I shared a motel room at a Milleniacon a few years ago, he swears by the gear, and how much difference it makes.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Yeah, everyone seems to be pretty positive about how it helps.