I’m back, or I feel like a new person. What has changed, because it is literally overnight. For the last few years I have put on a few pounds and then I noticed I was losing all motivation. I moods started to swing, I found myself depressed easily. I walk around in a fog and I couldn’t get enough sleep. I would drive for twenty minutes in the morning and start nodding off, in traffic! After three-four hours at the church I would drive home and I would have to pull over and take a nap to complete the drive. I always thought about food, I couldn’t eat enough…which mean more weight and the symptoms got worse. I decided to go the doctor after my wife threatened to move me out of the bedroom because my snoring had become ‘legendary’ in level. I mean the poor women was sleeping with pillows on her head and was very ‘grumpy’ in the morning…which I sleep through and that added fuel to the problem.
Well the doctor looked at me, looked down my throat. She put her hand around my neck, moved my head around and said you’re a good candidate for ‘sleep apnea’ and beat that is the problem. Now I knew a little about sleep apnea, I have a few friends who have had this problem. But I never thought much about it. So I went in for a sleep study--that is I went to the hospital to go to bed. I got there they wired me up, attached things allover my head, put two little prongs on the entrance to my nose, attached a few wires to my back and chest…two on my legs and to me to sleep. The technician told me before he left the room, “if you have ‘sleep apnea’ we’ll know within a few hours. If that is the case and I think you you’re a good candidate, we’ll wake you up and try the C-PAP machine.” No problem, out I went…with in three hours he is waking me up, with a smile, “let’s try the C-PAP”. So he puts this mask on me that covers my nose and mouth, no problem. The machine starts to hum softly and a gust of air hits my nose pushes air into my throat. Now there is a problem, because when I breath, there is not suppose to be air in my throat, panic sets in for a moment, claustrophobia starts to also rise. I asked the tech, “how to I get out of this if I have to”…I needed to know where the eject button was. He showed me to quick release straps and I was ok. I settled down and just concentrated on breathing, one breath at a time. Next thing I know four hours had passed and I had to use the restroom, very badly! So the tech came in and what a process, I’ll leave at that. 3:30 A.M. and I’m awake, time to go! I asked the tech if I could see the computer monitors, so I could see the difference before and after the C-PAP machine. Because right at that moment, I was fully awake, I mean my brain was ‘buzzing’. The first three hours without the mask I woke up over eight times (brain wise), my oxygen level went below 64 and that is bad…so in turn my brain would wake me up. My heartbeat was above 90 or higher the entire time, and I never fully entered into REM sleep. After the mask, my oxygen levels stayed above 90, my heart went into the low 80’s, high 70’s and my brain went into REM sleep for a normal cycle. I went to Wal-Mart to buy breakfast stuff, because this morning I was cooking…the works. Biscuits and gravy, bacon, eggs…all timed perfectly to when everyone woke up. At the table the boys are looking at me like I’m on something. I’m buzzing, I’m alive…I mean I can think, I got energy, I’m moving! This went on all day, no nap…12 hours later I finally come down. Needless to say, it was the first real sleep I have had in years.
So they ordered me a machine and I picked it up the day before, so last night was my second night. Yesterday, I was up for 16 hours without a nap and my brain was in high gear…I mean it was buzzing. Poor Gay and Cammille at the church probably thought I was high. All of the sudden I had plans and thoughts and at hundred mile hours I went. I stayed at the church all day, until 6:30 P.M. working on things.
This morning I’m up at 5:30 and I wanted to blog and read and cook breakfast for the kids before school. So I think this is the beginning of something special, I feel totally different. So if your out there and you have any of the symptoms I talked about, go get checked…it could change your life.
-ps
No comments:
Post a Comment