Sleep deprivation

I spent one God-awful night's sleep last night getting fitted for a C-PAP machine at Richmond University Hospital. 

Guess what, I snore.  I know that.  That is one reason I don't like to sleep on planes for fear I will make enough noise to keep both the Economy section and at least Business Class up all night. When I was traveling with my late husband, he also snored and we kind of balanced each other out.  I know that on several road trips with our children, they found it difficult to sleep in the same room as the both of us, and on at least one occasion, one slept in the bath tub to get some peace and quiet.

When I travel now, I prefer to have a single room since I don't want to keep my room mate awake all night. Often I have travelled to other cities and places as a delegate of the AFT and NYSUT, my travelling companion on those trips has a spouse who snores, and she bring heavy duty ear plugs with her when we room together.

Last year I finally decided to do something about my snoring.  I went to a local specialist who looked in my nose and down my  throat and said, "Yep, you have sleep apnea." But I still needed an official diagnosis. So he sent me off to a local hospital for a sleep test.  Needless to say, I failed.  I then made an appointment to have the breathing machine fitted, but I also failed that test, too.  I started to hyperventilate and just decided to leave.  The "helpful" technician said, "You just have to get used to it.  You will be back."

Well, I returned last night.  A different technician wired me up with about a dozen electronic "leads"  that were attached to a sort of "central hub" which was in turn connected to a computer that would monitor my progress.  I shut my eyes at about 10:30 and slept a total of one hour and twenty minutes.  I spent most of the night tossing and turning on a very narrow bed at an unusually high elevation off the floor.  I kept thinking if I turned around again, I would be rolling off and tumbling onto the floor.  I did not, but got no comfortable sleep.

At 4:00am the technician entered my room and asked if I was comfortable because she noticed I really did not sleep much...( Duh, do you think???  Did you check the monitor?) and told me I could leave at 5am.  I slept for another 15 minutes, woke up  5:15 was unplugged and drove home and promptly climbed into bed and slept for another four hours.

When I work up I had a lovely reddened outline of the mask around my nostrils and across the bridge of my nose.  I am glad I don't have to be out among many people today.

So, what is the next steps??? I have been told my doctor will prescribe a machine for me.  I can't wait to see how that works out.