Waste of a good night sleep!

On a regular base I see my Hellerwork (deep tissue massage) guy, in order to maintain and correct some stiffness I may have. During a treatment he started asking me questions about how I slept, etc. which led to him telling me to ask my g.p. about sleep apnea. I did. The g.p. then sent me for a consultation with an ears, nose & throat doctor who sent me for a consultation at a sleep clinic. All this happened fairly fast (despite our lovely medical system!).

I was seeing the sleep doctor on Wednesday. After meeting with him, Dr. Z diagnosed me with sleep apnea. Since we are self-employed, thus no insurance, there wasn’t a real need to go for a sleep study, but he wanted it done anyway. Normally that takes about 6 months before getting an appointment. Dr. Z wanted me to get a CPAP machine, which only cost about $2,000+… According to him with that machine I would be a whole new, refresh person. OK then, I’ll look into it. On my way out I had to schedule my next appointment with Dr. Z and for the sleep study. The lady just had a cancellation and gave me that appointment for the sleep lab. That test was last night.

I had to be at the hospital for 9pm and spend the night until 5:30am this morning. So, last night after dinner I prepared my bag and off to the Royal Victoria’s for a night of sleep in a lab. I’ll spare you the details of how Montreal is in serious need of updating its hospitals. A sad state of affairs we are experiencing. Hubby drove me (being the nice guy that he is) so I wouldn’t leave my car there all night, plus the Montreal Alouettes were playing Hamilton’s Tiger-Cats at the Molson Stadium so there would be no parking around there whatsoever! BTW, Montreal won that game (27-21), I heard the cheering for my room, that gave out on the football field – nice view for the 10th floor!

When I got in, I was asked to change into my pj (this lady showed up with nothing but her referral paper. The look on her face when the tech told her she was spending the night! Some people, I tell you!). The tech came back, sent me for a last pee and then started to hook me up.
I had 15 little wires cemented to me, 2 straps across my chest, plus an oxygen mask and a pulse thingy! And then he told me good night and turned the light off!

All those wires weren’t comfortable AT ALL and I was supposed to sleep! I’ve been sleeping naked for many years now, so to start with sleeping in a pj was one thing. Now add to that a friggin’ short “hospital” bed, and wires everywhere. Let’s just say that I didn’t sleep well! As soon as I would move I’d get caught in wires, the pulse thingy was too tight, some hairs were stuck in tape and cement, so that hurt, not a pleasant night sleep if you ask me.

At 5:30 this morning when the tech came in the room, and asked how I slept, I basically told him that I felt like I do when we catch a “red eye flight”, snoozed some but not rested. When I looked in the mirror, after he unplugged everything, I looked like I had been on a red-eye! According to the tech I don’t have sleep apnea. Really? How can you tell if I wasn’t really sleeping? I’ll be seeing Dr. Z at the end of the month for the results, so let’s see what he has to say about this inconclusive test. Anyway, at this point I just want to go to bed, so…

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Photo: Sleep Lab