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.

A Hiccup in the Plans

Hello and welcome to March 1st, everyone. The RPM Challenge is over. Well… technically working on March 1st is allowed, but I don’t.

Last time I posted here I said I had two songs to mix and then I’d be done with everything that I wanted to have done. I managed to mix one of them and then, around 7:30 last night, it went bad. I had one of those episodes where my vision went blurry and I started getting a headache. I went to bed, turned off all of the lights, buried my head under the blankets, and called it a day. I had just finished dinner when it started, but I was still seven grams of protein away from my daily goal. I missed it for the day, but not by much. I’m not that worried about it.

I slept from 7:45 to 3:30. I woke up, put my watch on the charger (it was at 33%), filled up the tank on my CPAP machine, stepped on the scale for the Wednesday weigh in (more on that later), and went back to sleep until about 5:20. Then I got up, got dressed, filled up my water bottle, updated my food tracking spreadsheet and my weight tracking spreadsheet, jogged in place for 40 minutes or so (pronounced yogged, with a soft “j”), watched the new episodes of The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch, packed up my laptop, and started my day.

Wednesdays are in the office days now so I have to get a move on so I can get out onto the road about 50 minutes from now. I have to prep a lunch and a breakfast, refill the water bottle, shower, get dressed, clean off the car, bring in the trash barrel (assuming the city picked up the trash during the snow yesterday, not sure if they did or not), and get going.

My headache is still there, a little bit, but it’s better after hydrating myself some. My eye sight is normal again too. I just have to watch out for crap like that. It’s not fun at all.

Okay, let’s get a move on.

Yesterday was a Day

Wow… yesterday kicked my ass.

Jen and I left the resort to go to Hollywood Studios at a little before 8:00am. We got there before the park opened, but in time for early entry for resort guests. Yeah… privilege. The kids met up with us an little while later. They were running the Disney World Marathon so we got to see a bunch of runners on the course on the way in. That was really cool.

We did my three favorite rides, Rise of the Resistance (Star Wars), Smugglers Run (also Star Wars), and Toy Story Mania (not Star Wars). We also rode the new Mickey and Minnie’s Run Away Rail Road which sits pretty close to my list of favorite rides too. Also, Star Tours (Star Wars). I must have ridden that ride on some previous trip, but I really couldn’t remember it. Guess I’m gettin’ old.

Speaking of old, we didn’t get back to our room until about 11:00pm and I went straight to sleep. I didn’t even wait for my watch to charge so I could track sleep stats. It was insane. I was so thoroughly tired I couldn’t function anymore.

Today we are going over to the Polynesian, our first Disney resort from 2019, for a character breakfast. My camera batter is charging because I didn’t stay awake long enough to charge it last night. It will be fine though. After that we’re going back to Magic Kingdom for the morning. We have tickets to an after close event there late tonight so we’ll probably spend the afternoon resting up in the hotel room. We’ll be out until around 1:00am tonight having Magic Kingdom virtually to ourselves.

As of right now though, it’s 6:47am and I am the only one of us awake. I’m typing this in the dark while waiting for the gigantic image files from my Z5 to upload to Flickr. It’s gonna take a while.

Sunday

Motivation is tough to come by right now. I woke up at 5:40am, did my 30 minutes of exercise, ate some breakfast, watched an episode of Pennyworth and a bunch of film photography youtube videos, and that’s it. It’s almost 8:00am now and motivation is sort of escaping me.

The whole getting up early to get my exercise in before anyone wakes up thing is kicking my ass. Both in the exercising sense and in the not sleeping enough sense. I kinda feel zombiesque this morning. The background music on this particular grainydays episode isn’t helping.

It’s not like I have a lot on the agenda at the moment. The kids aren’t coming until late morning so all I really have to do is take a shower and clean off the exercise sweat. I could maybe put up some more outdoor christmas lights too, but other than that and prepping some lasagna for dinner there isn’t much on the docket this morning. Really all I need to do is stand up, walk upstairs, and take a friggin’ shower. I just don’t wanna.

Oh, and yesterday I said I needed to do car music this morning or NaSoAlMo was going to die a slow, painful death. Re-read the above three paragraphs and take note of how I did not mention car music at all. Rest in Peace 2022 NaSoAlMo… we hardly new ye.

Okay… wake up, asshole. Go get some shit done.

Check In with the Surgeon

I’m taking half a day off of work today for a doctors appointment. Today is my five month (approximately) check in with the surgeon. I don’t expect anything beyond how are you doing, that’s great, any issues, that’s great. That’s what I am hoping for at least. We’ll probably be booking the next round of appointments too.

I got a decent night’s sleep last night. I only got one of those last week. Here’s hoping I don’t make that a habit. Let’s have another good night tonight, please.

This morning’s exercise was different than usual. I went 3.2 miles as normal but I did it in 32 minutes. 18 of those 32 minutes was done at a trot. I kinda sorta ran for half of the time. It hurts my feet and my calves but it cranks up the ol’ heart rate. That’s good, right?

Check in today. Weigh in tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a good week all around. Right on, brothers and sisters.

Got it in Two

Remember what I said the other day about what I am going to do when I get Wordle in two guesses? Remember?

Wordle 479 2/6

⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Oh yeah.

After not getting to sleep until 1:00am-ish on Sunday night/Monday morning can you guess what time I fell asleep last night? That would be 1:00am-ish, yet again. I wanted to get up super early to run some errands while still having time to get all my exercise in. Nope. I slept late. I had to run a little during my walkies to make sure I got the distance in before work started. The workout lasted 33 minutes (instead of the 38-42 it has been taking me to get up to 3.2 simulated miles lately) and I ran for about 11 of it. In the immortal words of Austin Danger Powers International Man of Mystery… ouch, babie. Ouch.

Tough Morning So Far

I went to sleep really late last night. It was almost 1:00am. I slept for less than six hours and it was pretty crummy quality. I got out of bed a little before 7:00am and started my 30 minute exercise only to have to stop after 10 minutes because we had an air conditioner tech coming out to service our central air and our mini-split. He left just as I was starting work so it didn’t interfere with anything in a problematic way, it just messed with my routine. At least I was able to put the laundry away and do the dishes and setup the PlayStation 4 in the rearranged living room. There will be surround sound Rush blu rays spinning in the near future.

My stomach is a bit of a mess today. I was short on my protein counts yesterday so about an hour before I went to bed I had about an ounce of peanuts to get myself over the 60 gram goal. I finished over an hour before I conked out for the night, but my stomach still feels off. Maybe peanuts late at night is a bad idea. I did eat some scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning and boy am I gassy now. The burps are seismic. Let’s keep an eye on this today, shall we?

Speaking of Rush, today would have been Neil Peart’s 70th birthday. His brother asked fans to wear Rush t-shirts today in his memory. I am partaking, but should I need to join a conference call with a customer I’ll change into a collared shirt.

On the topics of weight loss and collared shirts, I bought some new clothes on Saturday. Two office appropriate shirts and two pairs of jeans. The shirts are one “X” size smaller than what I bought pre-surgery. The jeans are four inches smaller on the waist than the last time I bought jeans, and eight inches smaller than what I was wearing pre-surgery. I’m wearing new jeans right now and boy does it feel nice to wear clothes that fit. Oh, yes.

Okay, back to work. Talk to you later, kids.

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.

Bad Night

I went to sleep last night at a little after 11:00pm and woke up a little before 1:00am. My CPAP mask was slipping and sliding all over my face and it was leaking like nuts. I pulled the straps as tight as I could stand it and went back to sleep. I woke up again a little before 4:00am with a splitting headache. Were the two things related? I don’t know, but I couldn’t get back to sleep for a while. I got up and walked around for a bit (earning two stand hours! Bright side, babie!) and then managed to get back to sleep.

When I got up at about 7:00am my head was still a little funny, and I was extra tired, but as I started going through my morning routine I definitely felt better. I wouldn’t say I’m feeling 100%, but I’m getting there. I’ll probably take a Covid test this morning, just for paranoia’s sake. I’m sure I’m good though.

Harry has spent most of the summer at our house. Yesterday he went to his dad’s and he’s not coming back here until next Friday. Then he goes back to school on Sunday. We are effectively empty nesters again and we’re both feeling pretty sad about it. I need to play guitar this weekend to cheer myself up. I also need to play photographer this weekend to further cheer myself up. When I spoke to the psychologist during my pre-surgery prep time he asked if I had anything to use instead of food for reward behavior and cheering myself up. I said it would probably end up being guitars and cameras… now is the time, my reward behavior friends.

Also, I started a candle time lapse today because I am a total freakin’ nerd. Also…

Early Morning

I have to be at my parents house in Tewksbury before 7:00am tomorrow. Holy schnikies, that’s early! I will leave around 8:00 so that I can get home for work, but jiminey crickets, that’s early!

It’s quarter to 10pm right now. If I had half a brain I’d go right to sleep, but I think I’ll watch some photography videos on the YouTubes instead.

Moron.