Second sleep study update

[beowabbit]

Subtitle: Oh, man, I’m zonked!

In most ways, the sleep study I had last night went a lot better than my first one. I got to sleep quickly and didn’t get woken up very much, while the first time I took a long time to get to sleep and kept waking up, both on my own and because the technician needed to adjust the mask.

I got woken up at 6:00am, which is an unholy, inhuman hour of the morning for me, but I had gotten a good solid seven hours’ sleep, perhaps more. But I feel cruddy. After I post this I’m going to try to take a nap.

The technician told me this morning that the pressure I’ve been using did a fine job of keeping my airway open, and that my mask (I’d brought my own) didn’t leak. Which is, well, good and bad. Because what I’d been expecting was to discover that my apnea was much worse and I needed a higher pressure or a different approach to treating the apnea. Instead, we discover that my apnea’s pretty much under control, but I’m still barely doing better than I was when I started treatment. Disquieting.

In some ways, I think I’m doing a lot better. I think my physical coordination and spatial orientation problems are a lot better (feel free to chime in and correct or confirm), and I don’t have the head-hanging, can-barely-walk exhaustion I used to have pretty regularly, or at least I don’t have it nearly as often. My energy level is up a bit. But I think my memory problems and my ability to focus are probably worse than they’ve ever been at this point. (And remember that for a few months when I started CPAP, I was well, and my memory and energy level and ability to concentrate and get things done improved drastically.) And I’ve got some other mild physical oddnesses going on (like a lot more “floaters” in my eyes than I’m used to having, for one example). So I’m disappointed that there isn’t a simple direct way forward, and I’m starting to think maybe sleep apnea isn’t all there is to it.

I do certainly need to try to get more sleep (in terms of clock-hours, not just quality) than I’m getting, and I need to start losing weight again. But I have this feeling that there’s something else wrong that’s interfering with both those things.

(I have started going to the gym again, and am having a great time with that.)

And now, speaking of clock-hours, maybe a nap... I need to be fresh and rested to pick up plumtreeblossom for our date tonight.

PS — Apologies to all the people I owe email to. I’m really bad about keeping up with my email these days.

Comments

[spacechicken.livejournal.com]

I've started going to the gym at 6AM twice during the work week and on Saturdays and Sundays as close to "before noon" as I can manage to try to combat a gradual upward trend that my weight has been taking. The theory, so I'm told, is that if you start your day like that your body will continue to burn calories and at a faster rate all day long. At any rate, it gets the gym trip out of the way while I'm still half asleep so I don;t have to try to summon the energy to do that after working all day. The only trick is actually getting out of bed that early.