Saturday, September 13, 2008

I Slept, They Studied.


I was so excited yesterday, because finally, I was getting my sleep study done to determine whether I have sleep apnea, and if so, how bad it is. That excitement quickly turned to concern when I realized that the only people in the building were me and Larry the Sleep Study Guy. Now I'm not a wuss, don't get me wrong, but to know that I'd be sleeping in a strange place with just Larry the Sleep Study Guy watching and listening to me all night was a bit disconcerting. But yeah! A little while later another employee came in and it was a female! Sort of. If I had to guess at her name, I'd call her Butch. But anyway, soon after another patient came in too, so I was way more comfortable with the whole sleeping in a strange place by myself thing.



I did have some free time before I was going to get wired up, so I mostly spent that time reading and avidly watching the Weather Channel as Ike pummeled through Texas, where my good friends Buffie and Janet were riding it out.


I really wanted to take a bunch of silly pictures of myself with all the leads and wires hooked up to me, but Larry was not the most talkative, fun person I've ever been around. Basically he had the personality of wet sand. He did say he'd take some pictures of me once he had me all wired up, but it never happened. He automatically guided me to the bed, and that was that. Once the wires were all plugged in, it was either lay down and try to sleep or mess up the whole test. Felt kind of odd being tucked in by some strange guy too. Where's my bedtime story dammit?

Bloggers, I really am sorry that I've probably devastated you by not having pictures of me in all my wired glory. I have failed you and I know it. But I did get two silly pictures of the room. First, here's my bed after I took off the mountain of pillows they had it decorated with, and turned down to go nite nite. If this picture was posted on RMS, I can already hear the comments. "The pictures are up too high and too far apart. You need to move them down." "Lamps! Ambient lighting is so important in a bedroom!"

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And here is one of the two cameras that would be watching me all throughout the night. At this point I hadn't found the infrared camera, so I didn't get a picture of it for you.

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Ooh, fun bloggers!!!!!!!! I just went to Google Images and looky what I found! Here's a pic of the machine that all my wires were hooked up to.



Now this next one is a real trip, because I found a picture of a woman taking her own picture in the bathroom mirror, all trussed up like a turkey! She's a Sexy Sleep Study Diva! Heeheeheeeeee!




Yep, I really had that many wires coming off of me. I had either 4 or 5 in my hair alone, and having those put in really sucked because Larry the Sleep Study Guy obviously doesn't realize his own strength. He used some sort of pen to mark the spots on my head, but I swear, it felt like he was going to slice right through my scalp. Not just one or two swipes with the ink, but over and over again, pressing down hard. It only got worse from there. Then he had to "de-oil" the hair and scalp with some sort of solution on a "cloth" that felt like high grit sandpaper with rock salt stuck to it. Oh my, he rubbed that shit so hard I thought I was going to cry. Then, while sticking the leads to my head, he felt the need to squeeze each one to my skull until I was worried of a skull fracture or brain swelling. I swear, I wanted nothing better than to turn around and punch him in the balls!

The rest of the wires were painless, thank goodness, but they were all over me! On my face, under my ears, on the top of my chest, the top of my back, and one on each shin. Then he taped an oxygen meter to my middle finger. Hmph. What I could have done with THAT! Last, he put an oxygen thingy up my nose. Kind of like the kind you see in the hospital but skinnier, and I don't think it was releasing oxygen, but instead monitoring my breathing through my nose. All of this and I'm supposed to have a restful night's sleep!

I woke up quite a few times. The first at 11:40, to go Potty. "Oh Larryyyyyyyyyyy"! Then not including all the tossing and turning I did, careful not to pull out wires, I woke up at 3:15 having to pee again, but I didn't want to get up, so I forced myself back to sleep. Woke up again at 4:20 (I was checking the time on my cell phone by the way) and realized the test was almost over and I felt like I'd barely slept at all. Larry the Sleep Study Guy woke me up at precisely 5:00 a.m. and my sleep study was over. Whew! I was home by 5:30 and chugging down coffee while catching up on blogs. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.




29 "Sister" Lovin' Friends Said:

  • Lisa (aka) French

    Well I hope they figure it out and get you feeling better;) French

  • Raxx - A day in the life

    Girl you had an adventure!! Sounds like fuuun! Poor Larry, no clue he would become famous or infamous in blogland!

    Look on the bright side, it's over!! You dont have to see Larry the Charming anymore.

    Oh and the pic of the lady all wired up is downright scary!!

    Hope the results are what you want!

  • nikkicrumpet

    Oh MAN...none of that sounds even the teeniest bit fun! I don't blame you for being uncomfortable about sleeping alone with Larry. That would have freaked me out. I hope everything goes well with the tests. And the bathroom Diva shot has got to make you QUEEN OF ALL DIVAS Too funny that you took that one in the middle of your ordeal.

  • mrsben

    OMGoodness what an experience! I am actually at a loss for words. I know, that's unusual for me :)
    Hmmmmmm, at least they let you watch some T.V. Hugs -Brenda-

  • Nikki via The Scarlett Rose Garden

    Oh how awful! I don't know how they expect to get a true reading, I could never sleep normally like that.

    How long till you get results?
    What's going on with your acid peel??

  • Linda - Behind My Red Door

    LOL - oh boy, yes that pulse ox meter on your middle finger could have done some nasty damage! I don't think I would have slept 10 minutes after that!! I hope the test show you can go through with your procedure! Good luck.

  • SmilingSally

    Interesting. I always wondered how anyone can sleep in a strange place with people watching and a zillon wires attached.

  • bj

    oh, my...what a time you must have had...it would be really, really hard to sleep, knowing they were watching you! Hope you will share the results with us.
    love,bj

  • squawmama

    VERY FUNNY! I can relate to this so much.. had a sleep study several years ago and it was a real trip... I turned over all night long and popped the little connections off... Ahywho it turned out I had a sleep disorder but not sleep apnea... According to the doctor my brain wakes up every few minutes so I never go into a deep sleep... figures I have never liked missing out on anything so I guess even subconsciously I am afraind I'll miss out on something good...

    hope all goes well for you
    Donna

  • imjacobsmom

    I don't know how they can determine how you sleep in a sleep study because I don't think that anyybody gets a decent nights sleep during them. I had a hysterectomy a few years ago and during the night they had to call a code blue! The next night they hooked me up to a monitor, but not as elaborate as yours and my Doctor came to visit me at 9 PM and stayed with me past midnight. That was weird. (My Mom asked if he was single.) We watched HGTV and Food Network and then the movie An Officer and a Gentleman (with commercials -no less). The next night he came back and we watched the same, plus Larry King Live and Court TV. Both nights I don't think I slept a wink! Finally, they just let me go home. BTW, the Doc was married and he wasn't that cute. ~ Robyn

  • Alexandra MacVean

    I've not known anyone having to go through a sleep study. I've learned alot reading your blog. I hope all turns out well for you. And I hope the rest of your weekend goes well. :)

  • nikkicrumpet

    Ok...I'll admit I am a goober...actually that was a kinder way to describe me than I probably deserve...But I have an excuse...I was at work and for some stupid reason people think I should actually BE WORKING! It's so annoying when they come and interrupt me and want me to actually do stuff...sheeesh. I read the part about you finding the picture of the machine on the internet...but what other crazy ladies take pictures of themselves in the potty except you bathroom divas lol. Who knew it was a world wide epidemic!

  • Bridget

    It sounds like Larry really likes his job.
    I like the "sort of" comment! LOL

  • Naz

    I can see why Larry has his job. Apparently the only kind of interaction he gets with people are those that are sleeping. What a bore!
    Poor Justine in going thru that. I do hope you were able to "wash that man right out" of your hair. As the old song goes.
    When do you get the results?

  • Lisa

    I cannot believe YOU passed up the opportunity to take a picture of yourself with all those wires all over you.

    Poor Larry had no idea who he was going to be spending the night with...

  • Anonymous

    Didn't you go and get back in your own snuggly bed?

    So when will you know the results?

  • Four in Costa Rica

    Yuck, Justine, that sounds miserable! :( I'm sorry it was such a pain, literally and figuratively. Here's hoping you get some answers from the whole ordeal.

    By the way, would they let you bring your own pillow? I think that would make things a little easier, anyway.

    Christine

  • Holy Crappers

    My hub just went all of this , twice !!
    They are hooking him up with some machine to sleep with. Not sexy at all. So now his snoring won't keep me awake, the machine will.

    #1

  • Justine

    Beanie, I brought my own pillows. My regular one and my body pillow! Can't sleep without it!

    Robyn, WHY did you go into code blue? You never said!

    Naz, results should be in in about a week.

    Justine :o )

  • Life on the Edge

    Oh dear, so sorry to hear about Larry the Sadist! When I had that done, it didn't hurt at all, so it sounds like he is just a brutal oaf because that should NOT have hurt! I think a letter or phone call to the person in charge might be appropriate.

    I guess I was pretty lucky because instead of Larry the Sleep Study guy I had Todd the Sleep Study guy that I used to go to church with and I trusted him implicitly. It was a little awkward when he had to place the pads in some areas around my chest, but we worked hard to maintain my modesty, lol. As for results from my test, I didn't have sleep apnea. I was simply exhausted all the time because I could never get enough sleep on third shift!

    Kady

  • onlymehere

    Can't remember if I told you or not but I had a sleep study done quite a few years ago. I had the same thought when they wired me up "now, you expect me to sleep like this!" I woke up a few times bz the wires were cutting into me as I turned (I'm a side sleeper). They did take a Poloroid picture of me with all the wires on bz they said I'd want to show my family. I did show them but, you know me, the picture was destroyed after they saw it and laughed at it! My problem with solved by fixing my septum. I'd broken my nose when I was 12 and it was a mess inside. I had a nice side effect from the surgery.....I quit having migraine headaches!! WOOHOO! I just wasn't getting enough oxygen and that apparently was one of the triggers for the migraines. I hope they figure out what's going on with you. Too funny to that you found a picture of a bathroom wired diva!! Oh and to answer your question about what I do for a living, I'm a medical transcriptionist and I work from home.

  • Rhea

    How long til you get the results?

    That bed looked pretty comfy.

    Loved the pictures. Glad you had the study done!!

    Did you know there are some levels of sleep that only babies reach? Wild, huh?!

  • Rhea

    And you know what, I wouldn't have felt weird about only having Larry there too. He might get off messing with sleeping women, you never know!

    Glad it turned out ok.

  • Anonymous

    Hope goes well with you. My youngest daughter just had that done. Wasn't a pleasant experience for her either. She ended up having sleep apena, but she's having a difficult time adjusting to sleeping with that thing she has to wear.Hope you don't have sleep apena.

  • Us4 Cats

    Hey, wonder if they could do a live-feed like Big Brother10 and everyone could watch you via internet.

    Bahaha!

    Seriously, wow! I understand about the whole sleep thing. I luv to sleep but go in and outta insomnia. The other nite had a night terror (only 3rd one in adulthood). Those are weird.

    Well, hang in there. Check into that live-feed you may get some fans who run bets on your sleep status.

    Too funny. Not really, I know.


    THANKS for visiting my blog and commenting. It has a new look now, check it out!!!!

    Chow.

  • Unknown

    I loved reading about your study! It's great when you can take something annoying and make it funny!
    For the blog name, I wouldn't go w/ something w/ a "bad word" in the title. You know the trouble I had!

  • Kathy

    Bet you dream about Larry and all those wires now!!,

    This is my third attempt to leave you my best wishes Justine, everytime I got on here I was called away for some reason or the other, so I am sorry for the delay, but hope it all gets sorted out soon. hugs, Kathy

  • SG

    Wow. Sounds interesting. Yes, I'm disappointed no pics of you with the wires! That was weird how your head was so mistreated. Poor Tiney.

    Can't wait to hear the results!!

  • MARY IN SCOTLAND

    how could you sleep with all those wires in you?!?!?!?!
    Hope you get to feeling better, and they find what's up.