All wired up.

I just thought I'd share some of the photo's I took when I had my sleep study done. I look kind of funny. I was sure to have my head freshly shaven, but didn't bother with the beard. Wouldn't you know they had to stick two on each cheek and a strip under my nose, that only stuck for about three hour's.

It was kind of neat. They can tell which way your eye's are pointing. Which way your feet are pointing.

I got to the hospital to take the test at 8 PM. It took about an hour before they where ready for me, but these room where ok, and had an alright bed in them. And a TV. I did come prepared with my iTouch, and even made some bid's on ebay, and sent out some e-mail's while I was waiting.

Some the the electrode's, wouldn't stick very well, so they had to use this glue stuff that takes a bit to get off. But they had me all hooked up and ready to go about 10:30. I watched TV for a little while and then fell asleep, till about 3:30. They could tell when I woke up and ask it I would try to sleep on my back instead of my side. I laid there till about 4:30, and I think they knew by then I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again, so they ended it about 2 hour's early.






We as still waiting on the result's yet. But again, I thought the picture's I took of me where kind of funny. I'm hoping that they find something with this test, and I can go back to work. I've been off work for too long!!!

Parabola

Insomnia

I think over the past week I finally reached my breaking point. The frustration of having insomnia can be very overwhelming. For the past two and a half year's it has slowly gotten worse. At first it was pretty easy to deal with since I have anxiety attack's, and the med I take for those usually make me tired. And for some reason I only have an attack in the evening when I don't really have anything going on.

I have found or figured out I've never had an attack while out caching. Not sure if hiking and exploring an area takes my mind off of thing's or what. But this has finally progressed to the point to where I was lucky if I could get two hour's of sleep a night, and this was on prescribed medication for sleeping. I think I've about tried all of them on the market at some point. Which it can be very hard on a person cause they usually start you off with a very low dose, and increase it, but when they pull you off it, they pull you off it, leaving you with withdrawal.



I was on one med for about a year that worked, but it literally turned me into a walking zombie and wiping out my ambition to do much. Which has gotten worse as well. Then here a while back I thought I finally found something that worked. Lunesta. But we switched insurance company's and for a person to be on that they have to try the generic first. Well, that was the one than made me a zombie. They assured me at the parmacy, it would take about a week to ge the paper work done and they could do a refill or I could pay for it out of my own pocket, which was like 10 buck a pill or something like that. So I figured I'd ruff it and wait it out.

Two week's went by and still nothing. We called our Doctor and they had faxed the paperwork twice. Another week went by and my wife was picking up something else and asked about it, and they said yes it was approved about 4 day's ago. Thanks for letting us no.

But then when I started taking it again, it didn't work. Not sure why. So after a couple of week's we talked to the doctor again and she put me on something else, and that went on for a few different med's, until last week when I was eating Tylenol PM like candy and taking the prescribed med's. It would be enough to knock me out for just a few hour's and that's it. After a couple of week's of that, I found myslef getting two to three hour's of sleep a night but by the time the weekend rolled around I would just completely crash.

I had been put on this last prescription and it made my eye's look like I was hanging out with Cheech and Chong. My motor skills where not good and even was having trouble walking at times. I called in sick to work cause I wasn't comfortable driving to work.

I'll finally call it my breaking point but we went and say the doctor today, and she gave me a "knock your ass off, see ya next week" pill's. But the best part she thought it was time to have a sleep study done. Which I am wondering why this was recommended two year's ago, but hey at least it's going to happen now. We had a couple of choices of where to go, U of I, The PCI building (which I've said I'd bleed to death before I go back there due to their shady business practices, and for some reason they charge 12 % interest rate, even if you set up a payment plan and pay as agreed. I figured out my credit card had a cheaper interest rate. And then the last choice was the mayo clinic in Rochester, Minn. After hearing about how they do some extra thing's with sleeping test's we choose to set it up there, so now we are just waiting to hear from them.

I was hoping my accidental insurance (hey I have that policy cause me and the boy are accident prone) would cover some of my lost wages, but nope. We haven't gotten that far but I hope we will figure it out.

So I guess this is good news for a change and they are leaning towards sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome. Not really sure what those are but the sleep apnea, I know is you don't get enough oxygen when you sleep and you quite breathing from time to time, and you never make it into REM sleep. I have no idea what the restless leg syndrome is, and haven't looked it up on the net yet.

Just the bad part is my boss is on vacation and i would really like to talk to him about this, so he knows what's going on, and to make sure it's all ok. we are in our busy season, so this is kind of bad timing.

I've got one other major thing to talk about but am getting sleepy (YEAH!!!!) So I'll try and get another post up on it in the next few day's.


Parabola