Tag: sleep apnea

Meeces to Pieces

It’s time for our two new cats to prove their worth to the household. Yesterday we started seeing clear signs that they were stalking something. The hunt was on. Last night Harry got a brief glimpse: a mouse. Later, Jen and I also saw it hiding in a tiny space between a cabinet and a wall. I tried getting it with a broom but failed miserably.

The cats were hyper vigilant throughout the night but haven’t had any success yet. There was a moment this morning where I heard them attacking from the next room, and also heard their prey squeaking in terror. I felt kinda bad, but that’s the price you pay for invading our home.

The cats have two responsibilities in this house. One is to be adorable and let us pet them and snuggle them. The other is to eliminate small furry invaders. It’s time to hold up your end of the bargain, Robin and Lily. I have full confidence in your mousing abilities. Make Daddy proud, girls.

No problems last night as far as stomach pain goes. I was a little nervous before bed. I was a little queasy. Not bad, but just aware that I wasn’t at 100%. I was also so thoroughly exhausted that I couldn’t really think straight. I turned in at about 11:00 but I forgot to clean out my CPAP mask so I went to sleep without it. I woke up at about 3:30. My first thought was, here we go again. Then I realized what woke me up. It wasn’t in my stomach, it was on my stomach. Miss Lily had jumped on me and was very insistent about showing me some affection. I gave her what she wanted. She doesn’t really show me any attention like that, so I wasn’t about to say no.

Once she had her fill I tried going back to sleep, but I was pretty much awake. I just sort of laid there for a while, then I got up and got a new CPAP mask out of my closet. I had to deal with Miss Robin who ran inside while I had the door open and wouldn’t come out. I swapped out the drool’d in mask for the new, clean one and went back to bed. I got to listen to an attack on the mouse before I fell asleep. My alarm was set for 7:00am but I snoozed it until a little before 8:00. So the good news is, no stomach issues or anything health related. The bad news is I didn’t sleep through the night the way I was hoping. The lesser good news is that I did snag about seven hours of sleep that I very much needed, though I am still feeling really tired this morning.

Here’s hoping tonight continues to show improvement.

I was afraid of this. I have fully committed myself to binge watching all of Star Wars The Clone Wars. There are 133 episodes. It’s going to take a while. I know I tried doing this once before but fell off the wagon very early. Why? What stopped me?

During this morning’s faux jog (pronounced, yog) I found out. Season one, episode eight… the entire episode focuses on Jar Jar and it is just as insufferably awful as you would expect. I made it through without vomiting but it did sap my re-watching enthusiasm by about 65%. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back to the X-Files for a couple of days.

If I don’t get a haircut today I am going to go insane. Just warning you. Ya know, in case I start posting things that are more insane than normal. If I do, you’ll know why.

Not Bad, Just Weird

So last night. It wasn’t bad, it was just weird. Weird in that I haven’t experienced anything quite like it before, but also in the way that it mirrored the bad time from the night before without actually being all that bad.

I went to bed at around 10:30 and dropped off to sleep pretty much instantly. After the mess that was Wednesday night, that was all I had hoped for. I woke up around 1:00am feeling a bit nauseous. I actually spit up into my CPAP mask, just a little bit. I guess my fears about wearing it the night before we justified? I got to the bathroom, spit up a little more, and felt better. I never vomited and the nausea passed quickly. In it’s wake was some gas pain. That scared me. Any pain in the stomach would, after all of the crap from Wednesday. Unlike Wednesday though I was able to lay back down without getting worse and I actually went back to sleep for half an hour or so.

I woke up again and the pain in my stomach was worse, but still not like the night before. It felt like gas still, but it also felt like hunger. I got up for a tiny little snack and brought it back to the bedroom and had it. When I did that on Wednesday I immediately knew that it wasn’t going to help. Last night I didn’t have that feeling. It may have helped a little, but really burping helped more.

I sat up in bed for a little while, then went back to the bathroom, which I also did on Wednesday night, but that didn’t help. The pain was there, but it was never even remotely as bad as the night before. Wednesday was probably a 6-7 on the pain scale from 1-10. Thursday was maybe a 3-4. I was still burping and farting a lot and I was afraid I was going to wake Jen with all the racket so, like Wednesday, I went out to the living room.

This was the point where things went out of control on Wednesday. I was a little afraid of a repeat, but pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen. I was able to lay down on the couch, which I couldn’t do the night before, and I actually fell asleep again. I didn’t have my CPAP machine so I would sleep for a little while then wake up then repeat. At 4:30 or so Jen came out looking for me and I reassured her that apart from some gas I was fine. She asked if I could go back to bed and I did. I changed my alarm from 5:00am (for yogging purposes) to 7:00am to help with the exhaustion a little. I didn’t put my CPAP machine on because of the drool factor. I need to clean that sucker tonight. I slept until about 6:00 and then just drifted between dozing and awake until 7:00.

So all in all it wasn’t a bad night, just weird. I could have stayed in bed the whole time but I was afraid I would make too much noise and wake up my dearest. I really wanted her to have a good night’s sleep. I messed her sleep up the night before and I absolutely did not want to do that again.

Tonight? I guess we’ll have to see. I am thinking about sunrise photos at Salisbury Beach tomorrow so hopefully I’ll get a good sleep before waking up stupidly early in the morning. We’ll see how it goes, I guess. I am sure it will be fine.

CPAP Thoughts

Two days ago when I had my nine month follow up with the surgeon who rearranged my digestive system one of the things we talked about was the state of my sleep apnea. Am I still using the CPAP machine? Am I still showing symptoms of sleep apnea? Am I going to have my sleep study redone?

I am still using the CPAP machine, and as a result I don’t know if I am still showing symptoms or not. I haven’t really thought about getting the sleep study redone. I feel like the CPAP machine is still helping me get better sleep. Now I have some evidence.

Last night I didn’t use it. I set it up and filled up the water tank and was ready to go, and then I just didn’t use it. I wanted to see what would happen. I never woke Jen with loud snoring, so that’s a plus. The numbers on the Apple Watch app I use to track sleep looked pretty good. I didn’t feel like I had a bad night’s sleep at all. Good news, right?

Maybe not. I am super tired this afternoon. I still have two hours worth of work day to go, but I am ready for a nap. I am willing to believe that what I am feeling today is all in my head, but regardless I think I am going to keep using the CPAP for a while. Maybe we’ll reevaluate in May.

Clean

The CPAP machine has been cleaned like crazy and it has a new air filter. Here’s hoping we get a good night’s sleep tonight. If not I might change the mask, but I’m sure I’ll sleep like a baby tonight.

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Sleep Apnea Thoughts

I was tested for Sleep Apnea because I couldn’t get a good nights sleep to save my life and I was snoring so loud that I couldn’t stay in the room with Jen anymore.

When I started looking into Gastric Bypass I was told that the surgery would result in enough weight loss to cure my apnea. That sounded good to me.

101 pounds later I’m trying to decide how I’ll know when my apnea is cured if I never stop using the CPAP machine. It seems the only course of action is to just stop using it and see what happens.

But when? I asked Jen what she thought, given that my snoring keeps her awake even more than it keeps me awake. We were both on the same page. If I lose 30 more pounds I’ll do an experiment where I don’t use the machine for a night and see what happens. I’ll be curious how it affects Jen’s sleep, and what the sleep numbers my AppleWatch records look like.

At this rate that will be 4-5 weeks from now. Until then I’ll keep sticking that mask over my face.

Distilled Water Update

This one is just for my future reference. You can ignore this one.

I’m going to start a new gallon of distilled water tonight. It’s been 22 days since I opened a bottle.

I expected missing a couple of days would stretch things out a bit but sleeping longer most days has actually burned through it faster. Who knew?

The results so far:
18
18
20
21
23 22

That’s Better

Wednesday night’s awful sleep combined with a tough day at work combined with the Covid stress of going to the office left me a bit of a mess last night. I managed to pull off the rest of the exercise ring but I’m not exactly sure how. I was toast.

Last night’s sleep was better. I went to bed around 10:30. I woke up a little after 4:00 to go to the bathroom and my watch didn’t register any sleep after that. I know I slept more but maybe it was really light? I don’t know. What my watch did register was almost all restful sleep including one stretch that lasted over an hour. I don’t feel great this morning, but I do feel better than I did yesterday.

Bad sleep blows.

The contractor we’ve had working on the kitchen and dining room expects to finish the painting tonight. I am so happy with the way it’s going. It looks great so far. He’ll have to come back next week for the finishing work but that’s a-ok with me.

For me right now, Star Trek Picard season two episode three. I have about 10 minutes to go. Good stuff so far.

Non-Lunch Post

We’re coming to the end of another work day spent in the office. How many more will there be at this desk? I don’t know. A few, probably.

It’s been a hectic and stressed out day. I’m not sure how, but I managed to do everything right as far as the weight loss surgery prep steps are concerned. I’m up to date on my vitamins (still have one more to take with dinner), and I tracked all of my food, and I stopped drinking more than 15 minutes before eating, and I didn’t drink again for over an hour after eating.

My exercise ring is half closed. That’s due to the long walk from the car to my desk, and the long walk from my desk to the kitchenette and back, and the long walk from my desk to the bathroom and back. I think wearing a mask contributes to the increased heart rate as well, but I don’t have proof of that.

The building recently switched from masks required in all common areas to masks optional for vaccinated folks. I think it’s too soon for that, but I have to deal with it. My mask was on in all common areas but I was in the minority. Will peer pressure eventually remove my mask? I don’t think so but I can’t say for sure. The Covid numbers are way down for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I would like to take approximately 1/6,893,000th of the credit for that. At least that much. I kept my mask on and kept those around me safe from the virus that I don’t have. That’s not sarcasm. That’s honesty. Wear your effing mask.

Anyway, I was able to eat lunch today, but I was not really able to take a lunch break. That’s why there’s no lunch post from today, and that’s why I titled this post the way I did.

I might look into a new theme for this page. It might be time. Maybe something black and gloomy. Yeah, that would be cool. Black and gloomy is tight.

Now I need to get my exhausted ass home so I can eat dinner with the love of my life, check out how far the paint job got while I was out, watch the new episode of Star Trek Picard, and then finally get some of that sleep that I didn’t get any of last night.

Almost quittin’ time, babie!

CPAP Parts

I put a new mask and a new hose on my CPAP machine this morning. Two nights in a row it just wouldn’t stay stuck to my face. The mask would spring a leak in one place, I’d push it back in and it would spring a leak somewhere else. It woke me up twice.

I don’t have any actual evidence to support the theory that changing the mask improves the seal during use, but it worked the last time I had a problem so fingers crossed that’s a trend. A boy can hope, right?

On the weight loss front, I think my personal facebook ban will be coming to an end. The doctor suggested a join a particular facebook group and I can’t really say no to that. I’ll probably log in and leave most of the groups I follow so that the weight loss group is the only non-person left. We’ll see. I might just say fuck it and go back to how I used to be. I don’t know.