Entry tags:
Night Shift Brain Strikes Again
Ugh, I got my wires crossed and thought that the meeting with my Quaker Friends was today, but it was yesterday at 14:30. OOPS. There were three of us scheduled to meet but only one of us actually made it--the other Friend got caught up in a prior meeting and just couldn't make it. We have re-scheduled for next Monday. My brain is in full betrayal mode these days. Like, I wrote it down in my calendar specifically so I wouldn't forget, and yet somehow got it wrong in spite of staring at it on my screen the entire time.
It turns out my brain has more than one reason to be in full betrayal mode these days. My sleep study results are available in my patient portal, so I armed myself with Google and my reading comprehension skills and set about interpreting them. Luckily the report is mostly written in plain language with comparatively little jargon, so I was able to make sense of it pretty quickly. Turns out I have been quietly choking to death in my sleep. /o\ The report concluded I have severe obstructive sleep apnea, with an apnea-hypopnea index of 65.5 events per hour, meaning I stopped breathing partially or completely roughly once per minute. Eep. Obstructive sleep apnea is considered severe starting at 30 events per hour. My oxygen saturation dipped to 76% at its lowest and was below 90% for 14% of the night.
Adorably, there is a recommendation that I not drive when tired or sleepy. Not sleepy I can do, but if they ask me to not drive when I'm tired, it means I can't drive ever at all, because not a single moment goes by in my life that I'm not tired. LOL oh well. I will continue coping until I can get to that follow-up appointment. I assume they will recommend a CPAP machine, so I'm going to have to start saving up in order to afford it. It's not that I can't afford it based on my preliminary research, and I'm sure that I'll be able to get a chunk of it reimbursed by my insurance as long as I can get the machine while I'm still employed. I'll double-check my coverage just to make sure, but KK has a CPAP and I'm pretty sure she had it covered by insurance.
So the good news is that this is very likely the cause of the Mystery Tired. I'm going to have to stop using that tag, except that I apparently hit my tag limit on Dreamwidth. I keep meaning to go tidy up all my tags, but I haven't gotten around to it. It's not exactly at the top of my priority list.
I'm still meeting with the naturopath on Thursday, and maybe she'll have some insights as well. Leave no stone unturned, etc. I'm hoping that I can get all of my health-related issues dealt with this year, and the sooner the better. Apart from the sleep apnea, the other major thing will be the bariatric surgery, and I'd also like to get that done while I'm still employed and insured. I don't need the insurance for it, because it's all covered by OHIP (that's the Ontario Health Insurance Program, for non-local folks) except for the post-surgical vitamins, and those aren't covered by insurance anyway, but it would be nice to just be able to use my sick leave and vacation leave after the surgery rather than do it while on employment insurance and worrying every day about not being able to get back to work if I get offered a job.
Anyway, right now that is all moot. The system takes the time it takes, although occasionally it will speed up if you make enough phone calls, as I successfully tested out earlier this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed that we can keep things moving along. Honestly, I am just bad at waiting and I would just like all of this to be resolved as quickly as possible.
All righty. I'm sure I had more to say but I can't think of it, so I think I will err on the side of shutting up now. Catch you on the flip side, friends!
It turns out my brain has more than one reason to be in full betrayal mode these days. My sleep study results are available in my patient portal, so I armed myself with Google and my reading comprehension skills and set about interpreting them. Luckily the report is mostly written in plain language with comparatively little jargon, so I was able to make sense of it pretty quickly. Turns out I have been quietly choking to death in my sleep. /o\ The report concluded I have severe obstructive sleep apnea, with an apnea-hypopnea index of 65.5 events per hour, meaning I stopped breathing partially or completely roughly once per minute. Eep. Obstructive sleep apnea is considered severe starting at 30 events per hour. My oxygen saturation dipped to 76% at its lowest and was below 90% for 14% of the night.
Adorably, there is a recommendation that I not drive when tired or sleepy. Not sleepy I can do, but if they ask me to not drive when I'm tired, it means I can't drive ever at all, because not a single moment goes by in my life that I'm not tired. LOL oh well. I will continue coping until I can get to that follow-up appointment. I assume they will recommend a CPAP machine, so I'm going to have to start saving up in order to afford it. It's not that I can't afford it based on my preliminary research, and I'm sure that I'll be able to get a chunk of it reimbursed by my insurance as long as I can get the machine while I'm still employed. I'll double-check my coverage just to make sure, but KK has a CPAP and I'm pretty sure she had it covered by insurance.
So the good news is that this is very likely the cause of the Mystery Tired. I'm going to have to stop using that tag, except that I apparently hit my tag limit on Dreamwidth. I keep meaning to go tidy up all my tags, but I haven't gotten around to it. It's not exactly at the top of my priority list.
I'm still meeting with the naturopath on Thursday, and maybe she'll have some insights as well. Leave no stone unturned, etc. I'm hoping that I can get all of my health-related issues dealt with this year, and the sooner the better. Apart from the sleep apnea, the other major thing will be the bariatric surgery, and I'd also like to get that done while I'm still employed and insured. I don't need the insurance for it, because it's all covered by OHIP (that's the Ontario Health Insurance Program, for non-local folks) except for the post-surgical vitamins, and those aren't covered by insurance anyway, but it would be nice to just be able to use my sick leave and vacation leave after the surgery rather than do it while on employment insurance and worrying every day about not being able to get back to work if I get offered a job.
Anyway, right now that is all moot. The system takes the time it takes, although occasionally it will speed up if you make enough phone calls, as I successfully tested out earlier this year. I'll keep my fingers crossed that we can keep things moving along. Honestly, I am just bad at waiting and I would just like all of this to be resolved as quickly as possible.
All righty. I'm sure I had more to say but I can't think of it, so I think I will err on the side of shutting up now. Catch you on the flip side, friends!