Thursday, July 17, 2008

Sleep Study


I just got home from my "sleep study". My sleeping is being monitored because of my sleep apnea. I had an appointment with my referring Pulmonary Specialist on Monday, but they called me yesterday and said that appointment was too soon and they wouldn't have the results back by then. Their next available appointment wasn't until after the first week of September! I think that's a long time for someone who stops breathing at night, but whatever!

So, I checked in at 8:30 PM. They pasted a lot of sensors to various areas of my body, face, and scalp. They did a little test through the intercom, having me do certain movements and whatnot. That was kind of fun. Then I went to sleep.

At Midnight they woke me up. She said my case is considered an "emergency" and that she has to give me oxygen because I drop below 60 on oxygen. So they put a mask on me and I went back to sleep. They came back in at 5 AM to wake me up (this is the time I was told would get woken up to go home because they close at 6 AM).

They said I did much better with the mask. What they told me was that I stopped breathing and woke up gasping for air on average 90 times per hour without the mask. With the mask I was averaging less than 20 times waking up gasping for air per hour.

No wonder I feel "whooped" all the time!

I knew I had a problem. I had NO idea it was that bad. I was afraid (before the appointment) that they wouldn't detect my sleeping problem!

So I told them my complaint with my DR scheduling me way out for September and she said they will notify them that it is more urgent and I should get squeezed in sooner.

They were really nice and the bed and pillows were super duper comfy.

2 comments:

C. M. said...

How crazy!! I'm so glad they were able to detect it and hopefully they can get you in and treated much sooner than September.

andreawilliams said...

Oh my goodness! They NEED to get you in sooner! Thats nuts!!