Sleep Test 2: Sleep Harder! (The MASK...)

I got the results of THE SLEEP TEST (again-all caps-because wow, what an experience) last friday and friends-they were NOT good. Which, if you are following along with me in this journey, you know is actually 'good' for my ultimate goal. I stopped breathing an average of 45 times an hour. This means that every time I stop breathing my brain goes--WHOA! She's not breathing! Wake her up!! It sends a message to make that happen and one of the results of this process is that acid builds up in the blood. Over time the acidity in the blood can lead to heart damage which is why this is one of those 'morbidity' things. My blood oxygen level was about 80% and from my brief research on the topic you want to keep your level over 90% to be healthy. I knew that things with me were not good...I'm tired all of the time..slightly grumpy...etc..but I didn't know it was this bad. They got me scheduled for another sleep test and this time it was for the following night..just how you want to spend your saturday night, right? Hooked up to some sensors? The bonus for this test though was that I would be attempting to sleep with a cpap machine mask on. The machine shoots air through a hose which is attached to a mask that's placed on your face. I prefer to sleep with my mouth closed so we tried a nasal only mask as the full mask made me feel claustrophobic (further confirming my suspicions that I'll never be able to scuba dive--that mask makes me feel trapped). My sleep tech this time was a guy named Will and there was only one other patient at the lab that night so..yeah. That's just weird. I never saw her. I was all sensored up and masked by 9:30 and he turned the lights out on me about 9:45. I watched an episode of Doctor Who on my iPad because I wasn't sleepy yet-and I bet I looked really funny. With the mask on I can't wear my glasses-but it was also difficult to move again because of the sensors and the mask impeding my mobility. So I kind of held the iPad to my left side and watched with just my left eye--the mask made it so that I'd have to hold the iPad out further to see with both eyes...and I'm so blind that I can't really hold it that far away and still see it clearly! lol. So, I was getting sleepy after the episode but when I went to turn it off I had another small burst of energy....I read for a few minutes but then I just got so sleepy! The air constantly pushing through the mask really forced me to breathe clearly and deeply and I found myself drifting off into never-never land. I woke up some time later--maybe around 2:30? And I was like..BAM. READY TO GO! I had slept very deeply and my body isn't really used to it so after about 3 and a half hours it was fully rested. Which was a problem though because I still had a few hours left in the lab. Will, who is monitoring my brain waves this whole time (so weird), can tell that I'm awake and suggests that I try to sleep on my side for a bit. I tried, but the mask wasn't really suited for it and kept blowing a little stream of air right onto my eye socket which is annoying. I got hot..threw off the covers...and turned back on my back...and next thing I know I'm having a dream about being COLD. I wake up and realize I want those covers back on..get them back on and then drift off again. Will woke me up at about 4:50am...he said they got enough for the sleep study and that we were good. So...if I thought I was ready to go at 2:30..I was even more ready at 5am. I can't even believe what a difference it made to sleep with the mask-and now that my body knows the difference it's like..hey, um..can we get that back? Pretty please?!? Will assured me that I did really well with the mask and that my body acclimated itself to it like a champ. Yay for me. I have a follow up appointment in a few weeks (couldn't fit into my schedule this week) and hopefully I'll be getting set up with a machine of my own.

It's kind of disconcerting on some level to know that from now on I'll have to sleep with a machine on in order to get a good night's sleep and I'm sure it'll take some adjustment to really get used to wearing the mask (it wasn't exactly comfortable)..but I felt so great on Sunday..so even keeled and level headed. I haven't felt like that in a long time-and I didn't even know what I was missing. My next step in the process is attending a weight loss surgery information session with Sentara..it's free (yay) and I've got it in about two weeks. But, we're really doing this. This is happening. Pretty crazy.