I don’t recall being a snorer when I was a normal weight. As I gained weight my snoring got worse and to the point where it really has effected my quality of life the last couple of years. It’s not just the snoring, it’s the tossing and turning, the waking in the middle of the night and the overall impact all of that had on my wife’s sleep - not to mention the wear and tear on the couch!
Over the last couple of years I have been reading a little about sleep apnea and have taken a few online quizzes that ask question likes “do you ever feel yourself unable to breath at night”, “are you sleepy during the day even after a long night sleep”, etc. Almost invariably my answers to these questions were YES, YES and YES.
I started thinking about it a little more last year when someone who worked for me went through a sleep study and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. He spoke highly of how much better he felt once he was put on a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine that allows for a restful sleep.
Lately I’ve been hearing ads on the radio for a sleep center and I finally bit the bullet during my annual physical, and talked to my doctor about what I thought I had. He concurred and referred me to a specialist.
Yesterday afternoon I met with the specialist, which really amounted to nothing more than watching a little video on sleep apnea and what I could expect by visiting a sleep clinic for an overnight observation, and going over a survey that I completed. At the conclusion of that meeting we setup an overnight sleep study, where coincidentally enough the first opening was that night!
So last night I packed up an overnight bag and headed over to the sleep clinic, which was a nice new building with what appeared to be pretty good security. I met the technician at the front desk, went through some paperwork and then was shown to my room, which was a very nice hotel-style room with private toilet and shower, tv and a wonderful Sleep Number bed. It also had a bedside CPAP machine all setup.
Once I got into my PJs (they don’t allow just undergarments so I just wore shorts and a t-shirt) she started to get me all wired up. She must have applied 20 sensors to various parts of my body. I counted 12 on my head alone. Once I got all wired up we went back to the room and she tested the CPAP machine on me but we started off without it. She would put that on me in the middle of the night if I needed it.
I had to wait for awhile until she got another patient wired up and I started to get pretty sleepy just reading a book. Finally, just when I thought I might fall asleep before it was time, she came in to finish her work, which was to get all my sensors and wires hooked up to the machine and test from her control station (there was a camera videotaping me) that all the sensors were working.
Once everything was working she wished me good night and I no doubt fell asleep right away, which is another sleep apnea M.O.
I didn’t see her again until sometime in the middle of the night when she put the CPAP nosepiece on me so that I was getting oxygen from the machine. She had to come in a couple of times during the night to adjust some sensors but that’s all I really remember.
In the morning we had to walk through all the tests again, I guess to make sure the equipment was working normally, and then I got unwired, cleaned off, fed, and waited for the doctor to talk to me about the initial results.
All in all it was a pretty uneventful night, and not much different than staying at a nice clean hotel, albeit without most of the amenities. If you are nervous about going to a sleep study, don’t be - it was a piece of cake and it could save your life!
Want to know how it turned out? You’ll have to tune in tomorrow - I’m saving that up for another post. (and here it is: Results of my Sleep Study)
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