Bed Head

Snoring Cure Part 3

The journey continues!

First was the breathing doctor who sent me to the sleep center - see: http://looneytalk.blogspot.com/2009/06/sleepless-in-cr.html

The diagnosis: Sleep Apnea. It turns out I stopped breathing 14 times an hour!

Then the really bad news: I can't be fitted for a C-PAP breathing device because I don't move enough air through my nose. Surgery will repair a deviated septum and reduce my turbinates. "Hopefully" that solves the air-flow problem and I can get a C-PAP. Otherwise, the next thing we'd be looking at would be to remove my tonsils. While that is a relatively safe and easy procedure in children, it is one of the most painful and hard to recover from surgery for adults! As in, "Most people schedule it for the day before Thanksgiving so they can save on the sick leave." Yikes! Don't want that!

So, after a full physical and more blood tests, off to the hospital. What typically is an out-patient procedure will require an overnight stay for me - since I stop breathing so often.
Relaxing in the prep room as the drugs kicked in - and a thunder storm hit outside! Hope they don't lose power while I'm under the knife!

Next thing I know, I'm waking up in recovery! Then off to my room. I feel like I have the worlds worst head cold - perhaps due to the miles of gauze shoved up my nose? My nose is tender, but the drugs are preventing much pain. My biggest complaint is my neck - I think they broke it during surgery!

So, after an un-restful night, I can finally go home. Sounds good, right?

Well, the pain killers were strong, but not enough to eliminate all of my nose pain. My neck still was the worst, plus I have to sleep upright on several pillows, killing my back as well.

I've had surgery before, I thought that staying home for a week would be fun - movies, TV, internet - I thought I'd clean some files off an old computer. Boy was I wrong! The drugs made me brain-dead! I couldn't concentrate on anything. I couldn't follow a movie or even get into a televisions show. All I could watch was HGTV - I could wake out of a daze, say, "That's a nice kitchen" then doze back off.

So, it's gotten better since then. Flushing the nasal passages feels better than it sounds!

Finally, it was time to head back to the sleep center.

I scheduled it for a Friday night so I wouldn't have to deal with it at work the next day. I was pretty tired going in, and the Ambient kicked in fairly quick. I got wired up and had the C-PAP strapped to my head. Nice, cool air gently blowing into my nose. (When I opened my mouth, the air blew out lol!) With stuff between my eyes, I couldn't focus on the TV, but it didn't take long and I was out. She woke me up once to have me roll back onto my back, but otherwise, I slept the whole night - from about 9:30pm until 4:30am. I won't say I woke up refreshed, and honestly, I think I had a hangover from the Ambient, but it wasn't bad sleeping with the mask on. Other than the headpiece was too tight and gave me a headache. In fact, getting ready for bed Saturday night I kind of wished I had the nice, cool, gentle air forced up my nose!

But I could still get the report that it was ineffective and I need tonsil surgery, so I'm not going to rest until I know for sure.

To be continued...