Yes to CPAP, No to Corn & Green Beans

Sitrep: 1 hour @ gym - weights both arms & legs

Had my follow up with the ENT yesterday. I have mild Sleep Apnea. The way he was talking, it seemed like he was iffy on prescribing me the CPAP. Until I told him I have to go to bed between 7-8pm in order to just get through the day. I mean, seriously. What part of sleep deprivation does he not get? But he did prescribe it and I got it today. CT scan came back looking good; just a little spot that might cause issues. Staying on Rx nasal spray and starting on Neil Med Sinus rinse 2x a day. Allergy testing had some interesting results. They call mine an "intolerance" not allergies. Milk scored high (like I didn't know that already), tomato a close 2nd. The startling ones are CORN and GREEN BEANS. These are the 2 veggies I eat most often. Frankly, they're the top two veggies I like! These are the specific items I'm to restrict to no more than 2x a week, and rotate them (copied as-is from the list): Cheese, CORN, Corn Syrup, Egg White, Egg Yolk, Wheat, MILK (Cow), Butter, Cheese, hard, Cottage cheese, Cream, Cream cheese, Ice Cream, Sour Cream, Whey, Yogurt, Orange, Peanuts, Potato, White, Tomato No more mixed veggies for me. And corn? Is this even possible? I mean, corn is in everything. Which brings to mind CO's recent post blasting the corn industry's pro-high fructose corn syrup. I thought it was a great post when I read it, now it makes me want to cry. And say, did you know that "dextrose, glucose, dextrin, dexin, dextrimaltose, caramel color, Vitamin C (!)" all have corn in them? Vitamin C??? Good, God. What next? But they gave me a huge list of foods in all the food groups that I can have, and a sample 4-day rotation schedule. My Little's mom says that's what's bugging me the most. I have my grocery budget, my shopping list, etc, all planned out. Now I have to relearn how to cook, eat, and shop. Sigh. I never did like grocery shopping to start with...

Oxygen

Sitrep: Zero. My goal is to workout at the gym 2x this week.

This lack of good sleep is really getting to me. But at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Friday night was the sleep study. It was interesting, and I actually slept. I got to the hospital's sleep center about 7:30 and had a ton of paperwork to fill out regarding sleep patters, etc. They hooked me up to all sorts of wires/sensors: 1 on each leg 2 on chest 2 on back of shoulders 1 behind each ear 1 0r 2 (can't remember) under chin 2 on forehead 2-3? on my head. In my hair. With sensor paste. That was NOT FUN washing out the next day. Then there were the two nasal things - like the oxygen tubes, only not tubes. They hooked over the ear and rested just at my nose. That felt really weird. One was a temperature gauge, I can't remember what the Respiratory Therapist said the second was for. I also wore 2 bands; one over my diaphragm and the other over my upper chest. They wanted me to sleep on my back all night. That was the hard part. Then she showed me how to use the oxygen "mask", in case they needed me to use it in the middle of the night. She said that if I had enough measurable pauses/stopping breathing, they would put me on the oxygen for the last 4 hours to get some readings. Okay. She helped me into bed - someone had to hold all the flippin' wires. Then turned the lights out. I'd taken my usual sleeping pill, so I was able to fall asleep. But it felt like an eternity until I did. On my back, the whole night. Of course, I was apparently so afraid of flipping onto my side, I held my arms in one position too long, and they started to fall asleep. [g] At one point I woke myself up choking/coughing/gasping for air....Those don't happen too often (because I learned to sleep on my side). I'm glad it happened during the sleep study. About 1:30 the RT woke me up and put on the oxygen mask. Apparently I'd had enough "incidents".

Got 4 hours sleep using the mask; it was lovely.

Here's what the mask looks like:

Wearing it didn't phase me at all. Although trying to talk while wearing it was a bit difficult. I guess I'm just used to wearing stuff on my head (sinus eye masks to sleep, or wrapping a heating pad around my head when I have a headache). It'll take about 2 weeks until I hear the results. Still have the CT scan of my sinuses to look forward to. Then it's back to the ENT for results from sleep study, CT, and allergy testing. Between all this stuff they have got to find a solution for me.

Frankly, I just want the darn oxygen. My little sister's mom said to me at breakfast Saturday that she hadn't realized how badly it'd gotten for me until that morning. She said "I haven't seen you this chipper in a long time." [g] Yup. So now I have to eke my way through two more weeks; luckily I've figured out that if I get 11 hours of sleep per night, I can function. Although I haven't been able to work out how, exactly, I'm going to do that with my 2 nights I'm not home until 9pm (gym nights). Oh, well. I'll survive. :)