Post assessment

[billeyler]

This morning's appt for the sleep clinic was (as I figured it would be) just the initial assessement by a sleep doctor.

Was a bit annoyed that although I was there on time for my 8:40 appt, and it was dead quiet there, the doc was 35 minutes late seeing me. I did hear him next door, and it turns out he was trying to do an assessment on an 85 year old woman with acute dementia, and it took him 40 minutes to get a basic assessment done. I didn't mention that I saw him at the check in window at 8:30 getting some water for his teapot, 10 minutes before my own appointment was scheduled. Nothing like getting off on the wrong foot.

Anyway, Dec 28 is my actual sleep test...called a Split Sleep test, because they hook you up to all these wires and gauges for 4 hours, then wake you up and put you on a CPAP machine, if warranted.

So, we'll see! Back at work and being productive!

Comments

[allanh.livejournal.com]

WARNING: Don't expect to get a restful night's sleep during your sleep test. This specifically means, don't schedule anything meaningful that will require alertness the following morning. If possible, take the following day off so you can go home and sleep in.

No, I only WISH I was kidding.

There are two possible outcomes to a sleep study:

- they leave you alone for 8 hours' worth of crappy sleep

- they let you sleep for up to 4 hours then wake up you to strap on a breathing mask - which you've probably never used before - and leave you to get used to the weird sounds of the mask WHOOSHing air all over the place. As they step up the pressure in the mask to see how you respond, the WHOOSHing gets louder and wakes you up ever 15 minutes or so, because you feel like the mask has sprung a leak. Panicking, you wake up and push the call button, and they come in and look at everything and say "No, it's supposed to have air coming out like that; it's just the exhaust; go back to sleep" and leave the room. at this point, you've been not quite sleeping for the better part of an hour. After an hour of wondering howthefuck does anybody SLEEP with one of these freaking things on ... you fall asleep, and have 2 hours of blissful, oxygen-drenched, lifegiving sleep. And just as your body is at it's most relaxed ... THE LIGHTS GO ON and they wake you up, because your 8 hours is over. Getting dressed, you feel both wretched and cheated, because for just two hours, you experienced a rich and restful sleep the quality of which you haven't known for you don't know HOW many years -- and they snatched it away just as you were enjoying it. Grumbling, you go to work, and find out that you really didn't get quite enough sleep, and you wish in retrospect that you'd taken the day off.

Of course, that's just how my sleep test went. And the sleep tests of about six other people on LJ who wrote to me to tell me what THEIR sleep tests went like. Your Mileage May Vary.

;)

(Sleeping with a CPAP isn't that terrible. Really. Except for the first time in the sleep lab, when everything seems absolutely terrifying.)