My Sleep Study

How did I get there

A sleep study!

Why in the world would anyone want to subject them selves to a night (or more) “under the microscope?”

Well, in my case,  1) Even though I sleep (granted only an avg. of 4 hours/night) I walk around tired and very rarely refreshed.

2)  Often times I wake up with a headache, which I have come to understand could be due to a lack of O2 to the brain, due to sleep apnea

3) I wake up on occasion to find my wife gone from the bed!  Why?  She’s out sleeping on the sofa (leaving me alone in our rather large and nice, warm bed that I  would rather NOT have to sleep in by myself).

4) After my wife kept telling me that I should probably participate in a sleep study (and I kept shrugging if off) I feel asleep on the commuter bus (not at all uncommon) next to a lady who witnessed my sleep behavior and who had participated in a sleep study… and, further more, who had the same insurance provider that I do.  Her testimony that the sleep study and then use of the CPAP machine (not to mention that sleep apnea is what killed a famous football player) was enough to finally sell me.

So, armed with all of this, I called my Primary Care Physician (because you can’t do ANYTHING in the Kaiser health plan system without the blessing of your PCP) who was only too glad to give me a referral to the sleep center.

Step 1 — Qualifying

The sleep information class…. now there was an experience.  All patience who participate eventually end up as part of a sleep study, I found.  The first visit is a screening to see if you even need to be considered for sleep testing.  Well, based on my “scores” I passed that one with (I guess you could say) flying colors.   But I’m always so special that I can’t do things the easy way.  There were a few others there who I was sure would also make it to the study stage.  We had to watch a video as part of the class.  They dimmed the lights and played it.  Many of the participants slept right through it.  Made me wonder if I was really a candidate!  Where as many other people would get a device that you could take home with you to monitor your sleeping and give them the necessary results, I had to go into the Sleep Center to be observed because of possible complications with my epilepsy.  So the Sleep Center called me and we set up the appointment for as soon as I could conveniently arrange it ( 1 month out).

The packet of information that they sent for me to fill was massive!  Think War and Peace and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how many pages of questions that I had to answer!  OK, so maybe that is a “slight” exaggeration.  Suffice it to say that it took me two evenings to fill everything out.  Falling asleep in the process on the first night (how ironic, huh?) did not help matters any.  On the second night I found that I only had two pages left that had to be filled  out.  The rest of the massive pack was for my “reading pleasure” and information.  Talk about dry reading.

The Study

The bright, cheerful “receptionist” (who, in my opinion had no business working alone for an entire

Me all wired up and no place to go.

night shift) I found out was also the sleep therapist.  Her bedside manner was great.  Inside of no time (while she was busy attaching wires hither and yon on my person) she knew my whole life story, my hobbies, my likes and dislikes and the names of each of my seven children and what they were currently doing.  I brought a few things with me to do (opting the leave the laptop at home) but scarcely had time to read only 1 short chapter in a book before turning in for the night.  I was fitted with a CPAP device before testing began, in the event that I would have to use it at some point during the evening.  I, of  course knew that it would not be  necessary.  NOT!

The technician  had to get her “preliminary readings” and make sure that the equipment was OK and that I did not have to use the rest room.  I of course let her know that I had already taken care of the restroom business and that once I go to sleep I don’t usually get up until the morning– not even to go to the bathroom!  So, I settled in for the preliminaries:

“Open your eyes.”

“Close your eyes.”

“With your eyes open, look left to right.”

With your eyes open look up and down.”

“Clench your teeth”

“Hold your breath for 10 seconds”

“Blink 10 times”

“While holding your breath, move your stomach in and out.”

“Move your left foot.”

“Move your right foot.”

When that was all done, I was ready to be studied!  It took me all of 2 minutes to fall asleep.  It may have taken longer under normal conditions, but I was asked to make sure I did not take any naps at all before the tests (so much for the morning and evening naps on the commuter bus ride).  Now that  I was asleep, the technician set to work.  I woke up a little over an hour later.  If I needed to signal her I was told to take the blood/oxygen sensor off of my finger, would bring her in immediately.  Well, it was time to  try it out.  I took the sensor off and she was in the room inside of 5 seconds.  Rather sheepishly I let her know that I had to use the bathroom. 🙂  She did her magic and wrapped my wires around me and off I went.  I soon came back and she was there waiting for me.  Took 30 seconds and got me all plugged back in.  Then asked if I thought the room temperature was comfortable.  It was a bit chilly to me.  She agreed.  Soon after she exited the room I heard what I assume was the heater come on.  The room warmed up to a comfortable temperature in no time.  Some time after realizing that the room was warm now, I fell asleep.  That was 11ish.

Next thing I knew it was 2:12 AM and the sleep technologist (her name was Jean, by the way) was back in the room and informed me that she was going to (as she said) administer the CPAP apparatus.  Upon hearing that my only question was… “how bad?”  Her one word answer was, “Severe!”  Then as she hooked up the breathing device she went into more detail about how I snored constantly and continued to wake myself up.  She was amazed that I could get to  a state of deep sleep so quickly without the CPAP.  But up to this point she was able to record ALL stages of sleep.  I’m such a good patient!  😀  After getting me all hooked up with the full face mask she activated the machine from her workstation in the other room.   Inside of 15 minutes she was back in the room.  The full face mask was giving me some problems making the necessary seal.  We went with just the nose apparatus and that worked much better.  Aside from numbness in my arm (probably due to the sensor on my finger) every thing went just fine.  But in my estimation, everything had been fine to begin with.

When Jean came in at around 5:28, (I had been laying there awake since 5:00-ish) she did inform me that the snoring stopped immediately and that I did not have any more abnormal breathing problems while connected to the CPAP.  She had to go back to her station to finish things up.  The e same readings that she got for the preliminary readings she had to do again for the end of the study.  Mine was a double study because the diagnosis and the administration of the CPAP are supposed to be two different visits.  Apparently, for the last 6 months, they have been providing this in the same session.  Praise the Lord… one less session.

So, to make an already too long blog post not much longer, after the “official” analysis of my results, it looks like I am going to be the proud owner of a CPAP device for home.  She indicated that she thought my insurance would cover the entire price, but I have been told that they will pay for half.  If they do cover it all, what a blessing!  But they also told me that I would have a co-pay for the sleep center visit and I did not get charged anything!  Who knows, I might be getting a bill in the mail.

Well, that’s my experience thus far, expect to see more once I have the CPAP machine that I am almost certain to acquire.  Stay tuned  right here… Same Bat time…. Same Bat Channel  (Boy, showing my age on that one)