I survived the 'sleep' test, but it was one of the top 10 worst nights of my life. I'm very exhausted today, I actually feel sick. I took a 2 hour nap when I got home, but that almost made me feel worse. I've cancelled my day.
But, at least it's done. As you can see my Fitbit tracked my night of very little sleep, I actually think Fitbit thought I was sleeping when I was laying very quiet for hours trying to sleep.
It will be interesting to see the results in 2 weeks.
Everything kicked off on kind of a bad note for this event. I arrived at the emergency room check in at 8pm sharp, as instructed, and did my check in. Then was told to sit on a bench in the hallway up against the windows. So I turn to walk over to the bench to see a short bench already inhabited by two men, one of which had a pillow leaning up against the wall so it was clear we were there all there for the same purpose. I plopped myself down in between them but it felt so very awkward and kind of felt like it was not very confidential for some reason. I'm not sure confidential as the right word but there was a different awkwardness to this setup.
Then the technicians came to escort the four of us back to the sleep lab rooms. Once in my room, the technician asked what time did I normally go to bed and I said between 11 and 12. , she then said that she would be back in a while to do my hookup which would include measuring my head for the brain Monitoring leads as well as attaching a band around my waist and chest. I guess I knew there were going to be wires hooked up to me but her presentation of this material was upsetting to me and I truthfully thought about walking out the door. But of course I did not. I had my Kindle along with a new book on it and so I set down in the recliner and started to read. The recliner was not comfortable as it is so large that it stressed my back to sit in it and the footrest didn't come up high enough to be comfortable. So for the next 2 plus hours I switched from the recliner to the bed and back again while I read and watched a little TV. At about 10:30 the technician reappears and asks if I'm ready to get going. I was about wondering if they had forgotten I was even there.
During the attachment of the many electrodes to my head area the technician rarely spoke. There was no friendly conversation nor any explanation of what she was doing. Once she had attached all the wires she said okay you can go to bed. It would have been nice if I could have had a bedside lamp to read a little to ease into a sleep state but that was not to be. Once I laid down, she turned out the lights and went out to the monitoring station where she watched me through a few movements to test all of the leads that she had attached to me. There was one thing she asked me to do that I was sort of puzzled by, she told me to make snoring sounds and I didn't even know how to do that. A minor detail but just one more thing that was awkward between us. Once she was done with the test mode I was told to just call out if I needed to go to the bathroom and she would respond and that she was right outside the door. This proved to be exactly true. The first time I set up and said out loud, I guess I need to go to the bathroom, within seconds the door flew open and the lights were turned on in the room. It startled me, I jumped and said my usual exclamation "jeezuz!" There was no apology for startling me or any comment at all from my technician
Everything kicked off on kind of a bad note for this event. I arrived at the emergency room check in at 8pm sharp, as instructed, and did my check in. Then was told to sit on a bench in the hallway up against the windows. So I turn to walk over to the bench to see a short bench already inhabited by two men, one of which had a pillow leaning up against the wall so it was clear we were there all there for the same purpose. I plopped myself down in between them but it felt so very awkward and kind of felt like it was not very confidential for some reason. I'm not sure confidential as the right word but there was a different awkwardness to this setup.
Then the technicians came to escort the four of us back to the sleep lab rooms. Once in my room, the technician asked what time did I normally go to bed and I said between 11 and 12. , she then said that she would be back in a while to do my hookup which would include measuring my head for the brain Monitoring leads as well as attaching a band around my waist and chest. I guess I knew there were going to be wires hooked up to me but her presentation of this material was upsetting to me and I truthfully thought about walking out the door. But of course I did not. I had my Kindle along with a new book on it and so I set down in the recliner and started to read. The recliner was not comfortable as it is so large that it stressed my back to sit in it and the footrest didn't come up high enough to be comfortable. So for the next 2 plus hours I switched from the recliner to the bed and back again while I read and watched a little TV. At about 10:30 the technician reappears and asks if I'm ready to get going. I was about wondering if they had forgotten I was even there.
During the attachment of the many electrodes to my head area the technician rarely spoke. There was no friendly conversation nor any explanation of what she was doing. Once she had attached all the wires she said okay you can go to bed. It would have been nice if I could have had a bedside lamp to read a little to ease into a sleep state but that was not to be. Once I laid down, she turned out the lights and went out to the monitoring station where she watched me through a few movements to test all of the leads that she had attached to me. There was one thing she asked me to do that I was sort of puzzled by, she told me to make snoring sounds and I didn't even know how to do that. A minor detail but just one more thing that was awkward between us. Once she was done with the test mode I was told to just call out if I needed to go to the bathroom and she would respond and that she was right outside the door. This proved to be exactly true. The first time I set up and said out loud, I guess I need to go to the bathroom, within seconds the door flew open and the lights were turned on in the room. It startled me, I jumped and said my usual exclamation "jeezuz!" There was no apology for startling me or any comment at all from my technician
In my opinion, my technician lacked bedside manner, we got off on the wrong foot from the start. I was further annoyed by the slamming of doors I could hear all night, the insanely loud toilet flush in my bathroom that actually hurt my ears, the way the technician came crashing in when I asked for bathroom priviledge, there was no effort to try to keep the patient in sleep mode, turning on bright lights & letting door slam. The leads/wires attached on my head and body were less bothersome than all the human interaction stuff. The icing on the cake was when I finally did sleep soundly sometime after 5am, and woke up at 6:15am and asked for bathroom (they have to unplug you and hand you the electronic box) she came in and said let's unhook some of these wires. She took the Oxygen meter off my finger and then, without warning, ripped a big piece of tape off my arm. It made me jump and say "JEEZUZ". Then she says, "that tape is not fun in the morning".
The good part was...the bed was very comfortable and the blanket was soft and snuggly.
And she did NOT pop in to put a Cpap on me during the night, which she warned me she would do if she observed a level of apnea.
And she did NOT pop in to put a Cpap on me during the night, which she warned me she would do if she observed a level of apnea.
During the night I got very emotional remembering that Dad had a sleep study when he was in his late 80s. It made me sad to think he had to go through this. And I got doubly sad remembering that Glenn stayed at the clinic all night while Dad 'slept'. It is not good when you lay for hours without sleeping, it makes a person lose their grip on sanity.
This test was the last link in the chain of events that started with my Rapid Ventricular Response & Afib on March 6th. There is strong correlation, according to my doctor, between afib & sleep apnea. I've had no further problems, although I was worried last night that the anxiety might affect my heart rate. For the next 6 months, I'm still on Diltiazem, which slows down my heart rate, but on half the dosage now than was first prescribed. For now, I also take 1 aspirin per day.
I'm ready for this chapter to end.
I'm ready for this chapter to end.
I think I'll go take a nap now.
+++
After a long afternoon nap, I am re-reading this, and I'm not changing, in fact I am adding to, my commentary. In my opinion this could have been a much more positive experience had the human interaction been better.
Oh well, she was just doing her job probably to the best of her ability. Maybe the technician who took care of Dad had a kinder, more supportive approach, I sure hope so.
+++
After a long afternoon nap, I am re-reading this, and I'm not changing, in fact I am adding to, my commentary. In my opinion this could have been a much more positive experience had the human interaction been better.
Oh well, she was just doing her job probably to the best of her ability. Maybe the technician who took care of Dad had a kinder, more supportive approach, I sure hope so.
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