Understanding Sleep Apnea

When I went to my doctors to go over the results of the sleep study I had, I had a lot of questions. Luckily my doctor is one who loves to educate and explain everything to his patients. It a big part of the reason I drive so far to see him.

My doctor wanted to go through the results of the first night of the study first than look at night two. He said, "before we do that Georgie, you need to understand what Sleep Apnea is and how it affects your heart." 

Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing during sleep. The study shows how many times I stop breathing in an hour. You are solid if you have less than 5 events an hour. That means if you stop breathing 5 times an hour or less you are considered normal. Crazy, right!?

My number?

41.

So every 90 seconds I stop breathing. 41 times an hour I wake myself up gasping for air. No wonder I am dead tired all the time.

"You did break the recond and won an award for the fastest time to sleep. You went to sleep in 3.5 minutes!" My doctor loves to tell me this kind of stuff. I told him I thought that was compliment on my efficiency but he said, "It's because you are always tired." Which makes a lot more sense.   

Not breathing seems like a big deal, and it is. Sleep Apnea is associated with Diabetes, Stroke, memory issues, weight gain, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Not to mention accidents due to sleep depravation. 

Now I understand Stroke and Memory stuff since less oxygen could lead to brain damage. But how does it tie into heart disease? My doctor explained it to me.

Our heart pumps of course while we are sleeping. A slow steady pace it goes and we rest. When someone with Sleep Apnea stops breathing and takes in too little oxygen the brain kicks into survival mode.

"Hey Heart, we are not getting enough oxygen in this body so could you pump that blood a little faster please?" That is what I pictured the brain saying.

So as the heart increases its pumping rate it is in turn raising blood pressure. When you enter into a state like this your body releases adrenaline to keep that heart pumping fast. That causes stress on your body which can restrict blood vessels and cause blood pressure to raise even more. Not to mention heart disease.

"It's like God gave your heart a certain number of beats and you are wasting a lot of them every night." That was how my doctor put it.

I saw the print out of what my heart was doing and it looked crazy. My heart was speeding up and slowing down and speeding up over and over again. I could not believe it. Just by looking at it I knew something was wrong. My doctor explained that you didn't want a readout like that but rather a smooth straight line.

He then showed me how many times I actually made it to real REM sleep. The sleep that refreshes and reenergizes our bodies. I had 3 instances that all lasted less than 5 minutes each. It's no wonder I feel the way I do.

Then it was time to look at the second night of the study. The night when I wore the CPAP machine.

Times I stopped breathing was 1.2 per hour. My heart was steady and smooth all night. And I should mention I had 5 nice long sections of REM sleep.

Now I am waiting on insurance to get me all cleared for starting on the CPAP machine. I am looking forward to life after a real nights sleep. Something tells me that a better rested ninja is a much more alert ninja.

If you are falling asleep all the time during the day you may want to get checked out. I was a real eye opener to see how little I slept. Pun intended.

And treating your Sleep Apnea will not only give you a goods nights sleep, but anyone in earshot of your snoring!

Lifeaversary

I made it to 40. I never ever thought I would make it but I did. Despite diabetes, smoking for 15 years, heart disease, and all kinds of other fun stuff I am here.

Now on to 50. This is the decade I fear the most.

Save the date, March 23rd, 2023.

You're invited to a party.

Little Rose

Little Rose,

with ten little toes,

and her daddies nose.

We knew we were done,

Boy 1 and Girl 1,

We felt we had won.

Little Rose,

In ribbons and bows,

And Summery clothes.

So funny and smart,

unique from the start,

with a generous heart.

Little Rose,

My love overflows,

Admiration grows.

For fifteen years,

Through laughter and tears,

and unending cheers!

My Little Rose,

Who God sweetly chose,

His love she shows,

Wherever she goes.

Happy Birthday my dear sweet Gillian Rose. I love you more every day.

Saving Time

My memory is not the best these days. I joke and tell people my hard drive is full so I have to delete things before I can save anything new.

It really feels that way. I used to remember everything. Phone numbers, dates, addresses, passwords, if I left the iron on or not. But one thing I never forget is to take my medicine.

Every morning I take 13 pills and 2 at night. I never forget to take them because I stick to my routine and know that taking my pills happens after I have brushed my teeth and before I brush my hair (if I have hair).

Forgetting to take my pills is nothing I worry about. 

So why am I writing a post praising pill organizers? Well, those 15 pills I take each day come from 13 different bottles and in the morning I don't have a lot of time to fool around with open and closing every one!

When I first met with the nurse from Cardiac Rehab she gave me two pill organizers to use a soon as I told her my medications.

Seemed silly to me but I thought what the heck, I'll give it a try.

I save so much time and can see pretty quickly what pills need to be refilled and when. I have one for my morning pills and one for the evening. It saves me so much time. 

This may seem totally silly to you but it honestly blew me away how much of a pain in the butt opening all of those bottles was every day. Not to mention if I dropped a pill and then in trying to pick up said pill I drop more. They are sneaky little pills I tell ya!

Anyhow, the Ninja tip for the week is, if you have more than one pill you take at the same time everyday, try a pill organizer. It really makes things easier.

No Sleep 'Til CPAP

Sunday night was the beginning of a two night sleep study for me.

My cardiologist ordered it when he heard that a few years back I had shown slight sleep apnea according to a take home device my doctor sent me. Because it seemed so slight my doctor decided not to do a complete study.

Then the whole Heart Disease thing happened.

Now check this out. People with diabetes are prone to sleep apnea. People with diabetes are also likely to have heart disease. People with heart disease tend to have sleep apnea. And lack of sleep has been shown to cause insulin resistance.

GREAT huh?

So Sunday night a tech showed up at the house around 10PM. He hooked me up to a big old machine that was now sitting by my bed. He then attached wires all over my head, face, chest, and legs. He also put the most annoying little clip on my finger like they do at the hospital. When he was done he said to sleep as much as I could on my back and then he would be back at 5:30 AM to pick everything up.

Sleep? How? When? 

All night I uncomfortable. All these wires everywhere and especially that stupid thing on my finger kept me up. I dozed off here and there but never did I feel like I slept.

**KNOCK KNOCK**

5:30 on the dot he was there.

"So how did it go?"

"Well I don't think I actually slept at all but it was fine."

He told me that with all the wires and stuff they use any little bit of sleep can give them the info they need. "We got plenty of good info for you so you did great!"

Of course because is a tech he cannot tell me exactly what he saw but he did say the info they needed was there. 

Monday was a hard day to get through but I did.

Monday night at 10:00PM the tech showed up again.

"This time you are going to get some sleep!"

He hooked up all the wires once again but also connected me to a CPAP machine. The gentle air that was being pushed into my nose took some getting used to but after a while I was doing okay. The tech left and I went to bed having been so sleep deprived the night before.

And I slept. Not well but I did get some sleep in. I went to sleep quickly and woke up about 2 hours later. The pressure was a little high for me when I exhaled. I called the tech who had left his cell phone. He said from looking at the data I was opening my mouth now and then which typically means I needed an adjustment. 

"I am gonna turn things down a little and lets see how you do." He was able to make changes to all the equipment remotely which I thought was pretty cool.

I laid back down and I fell asleep. Until 5:00AM! I was lying in bed thinking how crazy that night of sleep was and how long this may have been going on. Does another device mean I am getting worse? What is happening to my body? Should I be happy I am going to get treatment for something I didn't know I had?

**KNOCK KNOCK**

5:30AM on the dot he knocked. "So how did you do? Do you feel okay?"

"I feel great actually. I feel awake." 

That moment made me realize that I never wake up feeling awake. I wake up but I could right back to sleep every day.

Now I wait to hear from my doctor to get set up with a machine. I am looking forward to it actually. Now that I know the difference it can make I am in 100%.

I have said before how important it is to know what is going on with your body. Now I have learned something else going on that needs my attention. It's okay. I've got this.

It's good to be aware.

It's good to be awake.

Soon I'll be both.