Mr. Sandman

I met with a sleep doctor today. After taking my history, listening to my lungs (I guess people with RA tend to have lung problems- I don't) and looking down my throat, he scheduled a split night sleep study. What that means is that I will pack my bag as if I am going to a luxury hotel, let the technition attach wires to various parts of my body-which takes about minutes- read or watch TV until I decide to go to sleep.

Then I sleep and the technition listens to me sleep-kind of like I used to with my babies. He/she will also watch the monitors with the info from the wires attached to me. Then after there has been a pattern that indicates I have sleep apnea- the technition comes in, wakes me up and fits me with a C-pap mask and turns on the machine. I go back to sleep and he /she watches and listens for the rest of the night. I wake up feeling refreshed and wonderful, go home and all is right with the world.

Dr. Hammond is 99.9% positive that the results are going to be sleep apnea. He told me this based on his look inside my mouth. He told me that I have an extremely long air way and a high back tongue. He said that it is rare for people with this physiology to not have sleep apnea and he would be surprised if I didn't have it and he would feel comfortable just prescribing the C-Pap today, but for the insurance to pay for it we have to do the overnight.

I am not happy about a C-Pap/Darth Vader mask. However he told me, let's see how did he put it? "The bigger the person, the more pressure they need to keep their airway open. These are the people that have the full face mask. Small people like you can usually get by with small amounts of pressure. You will probably be fine with a nose pad". (think oxygen after surgery) So of course I like this doctor because he described me as small.

There is always the chance that I don't have sleep apnea. If not, then we have to try and figure out why I wake up feeling as if sleep is a figment of imagination read about in fairy tales. He mentioned that it could be Narcolepsy, even though I don't fall asleep like my friend Eva (not her real name). I guess that most Narcoleps don't have sleeping episodes, but just feel tired all. the. time.

The upside? I have sleep apnea, I get on the machine, I sleep, I rest, I dream, I wake up feeling refreshed. And well. And happy. My blood pressure goes down (or up depending on the day) enough that I no longer need pills to keep it where it belongs. I lose weight because my body gets the rest it needs. My stress level goes down. I have energy and want to exercise, clean my house, write my papers, and all those other things I am always to tired to do. My arthritis doesn't hurt so much because I am rested. And I finally get rid of the biggest cause of stress in my life because I have the energy to do something about it. The current economic crisis is reversed, there is world peace, and the kids clean their rooms. At least that's what I think he said, I was yawning at the time.

And life is good. Finally.

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Indeed.