I’m about to head into a specialist clinic to get looked at for possible Sleep Apnoea. Which I’m pretty much 100% sure I have, but they need to go through a process, you know.
Anyway, one of the prerequisites for this clinical trial is that I have to have a complete set of blood tests and skin allergy tests and glucose tolerance tests, which I spent most of today having done. I am, along with most people, allergic to Dust Mites. And nothing else. So that’s cool.
The glucose tolerance test involves not eating for 10 or so hours, then they take blood samples, give you a big drink of mostly sugar .. wait a bit .. take more blood .. wait a bit .. take more blood, etc. The idea being they can see over time how you process and use the sugar, and thus if you’re producing enough insulin, etc. I don’t mind taking this test, because I’m the poster child for “At Risk Of Diabetes”, but damn it’s tedious. You just have to sit there waiting for the next blood test. I’m glad I brought an ipod.
And they took SO MUCH BLOOD – My arms look like I’m the singer for an overrated britpop band.
Treatment for Sleep Apnoea ranges from a positive pressure mask to wear at night which makes sure you actually get oxygen while you sleep (which I will certainly wear, along with a cape, and fight .. or do .. crime.) through to surgery where they core your head out like an apple to clear a path from your nose backwards.
At this stage, I don’t care what they do – I just want to wake up refreshed, instead of slightly less tired than I was when I went to sleep.
November 27, 2007 at 7:47 am
Having heard you sleep (albeit a LONG time ago) I’d say apnoea is a good thing for you to get tested for.
I’ve had a few GTTs and it has got to be the VILEST test ever. I tend to feel queasy during and then shakey on the come-down – the shakes were a very very bad thing when in sole charge of a six-week-old baby.
Hope you get healthy results and peaceful sleep out of it all.
November 27, 2007 at 8:06 am
And in THOSE days, it was impact-free enough that people would go “Hey, you stop breathing when you sleep.” and I’d be like “Huh.” because I still woke up feelin’ fine.
NOW, I literally wake up on a good day, feeling a little bit less tired than when I went to bed. On a bad day, about the same as when I went to bed. I’m never ever rested. SUCKS. Hence: doctorbs, tests, etc.
November 27, 2007 at 9:47 am
Okay _I_ remember hearing you sleep through like walls and stuff back in the day. So dude, if you’ve got worse I am seriously impressed.
November 27, 2007 at 8:12 am
He’s much worse now than when I met him 🙁
I am super glad he’s finally going to get this sorted out.
November 27, 2007 at 8:29 am
Sounds like a very good plan…….
November 27, 2007 at 8:33 am
I was looked at by a respiratory specialist a while ago for possible sleep apnoea (this “waking up feeling refreshed” thing is a foreign concept to me, too). His disgnosis was that I have almost none of the signs that people with it have, but we could investigate further by sticking electrodes to me and recording me while I sleep. I declined, as my insurance doesn’t cover it (as part of their “people don’t actually need sleep – just harden up” plan), and I didn’t feel like going through the hassle on the basis of a “probaby not”.
I’m interested to hear about all your prodding and poking, though – there was no talk of that when I got looked at. Nor was there talk of any sort of treatment other than sleeping with a tube in my mouth gently blowing air down my throat (which might have cured the apnoea, but would not have agreed with the insomnia..) Maybe my guy wasn’t covering all the bases.
November 27, 2007 at 10:13 pm
this “waking up feeling refreshed” thing is a foreign concept to me
I don’t think I’ve experienced this wonderful thing that apparently happens since I was a child. When I got electroded they couldn’t find anything wrong either, but my boyfriend at the time swore that I would freak him out by completely stopping breathing in my sleep.
I think having my sinuses drilled and my deviated septum fixed has helped considerably but I’m still constantly tired and find waking up almost impossible some days.
November 27, 2007 at 9:03 am
I’ve a vague suspicion that I should get myself checked out for that,
I have many of the symptoms. (Bad sleep, snoring, stopping breathing, etc)
I’ll be interested to hear how it goes for you.
– MugginsM
November 27, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Both my brother and father and friend Noel and Cat have this (hey I probably do too, but I’ve convinced myself I don’t need one), and have to sleep with machines, after talking with Noel about the machines I realised A: how expensive they are and B: why you don’t want the cheap ones, the good ones are about 5K and this is money well spent for something you will need to use every night for the rest of your life, also a trick for new players, wrap the tube in polar fleece otherwise you will experience waking up because chilled condensate has splashed in your face.
Oh and I have tried the cheap machines and I just couldn’t fall asleep with it on, the good ones cover your entire face not just your nose.
November 27, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Oh and I have the snoring but as far as I know not the stop breathing but apprently they say even a 4% loss of oxygen while you sleep is significant, so who knows, maybe I will tape myself while I sleep and that will allow me to make a judgement as to how bad the problem is.
November 27, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I recommend the sinus-coring-system (it’s almost as good as the papoose-system). I had too have had the sleep tests for sleep apnea some time ago now despite *not* being the poster child for it.
Hope everything is ok blood-glucose-diabetes-wise
November 27, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Last time I had a blood test, it was all good. In fact, it went like this:
Doctor: “Do you drink a lot of soft drink? It’s terribly sugary.”
JSR: “Not more than one or two per day.”
Doctor: “Two cans a day? EVERY day?”
JSR: “Two bottles. Two 1.5l bottles.”
Doctor: “You are going to get a blood sugar test NOW.”
Results: JSR’s blood sugar precisely in the middle of the “Normal” range.
The doctor was giving me all kinds of accusing looks over that.
This last batch, however, is far more precise because it’s not a one-off measurement, it’s seeing how you _manage_ sugars.
November 27, 2007 at 11:58 pm
my body doesn’t handle sugar too well which is why I tend to avoid it. Mind you, my body doesn’t tend to handle anything to well… but I’ve come to accept that I’m genetically flawed and structurally inferior and shouldn’t breed.
November 28, 2007 at 1:53 am
..and a ginga.
November 27, 2007 at 11:39 pm
Ohh I’ve had the glucose tests. Fun fun. I hope you took a good book with you!
Good luck with the tests and everything. I guess either result will be a good one. Nice to know that you don’t have a problem with sleep apnoea and if you do, then great to get started on the track to sorting it out.
November 28, 2007 at 1:54 am
I’ll be gobsmacked if it’s not. In fact, it’ll be a real pain because there’s all sorts of ways to treat/cure sleep apnoea. If it’s something ELSE however, then I might just be fucked.
November 29, 2007 at 2:33 am
I’m on the semi-urgent wait list for these tests … not looking forward to the process at all but hoping for an improvement in the current situation. A bit like wanting to be able to drive but not wanting to go through the process of learning.
I’d be keen to hear how it all goes for you.
November 29, 2007 at 3:01 am
I will post regular updates!