Well, I've gotten my official sleep apnea diagnosis since my last post. And not only do I have it, but it is severe. They rate it with this scale called the AHI scale where they count how many total hours I slept during my sleep study, then they count how many times I stopped breathing for at least 10 seconds, and then how many times my oxygen level in my blood dropped more then 3%, then they divide all that up and get a #, that's your AHI. Normal is under 5. Mild to moderate is 5-30. Severe is over 30. Mine was 87! And the scarier part is my pulse-ox (oxygen in my blood) dropped as low as 48-49% at times during the night.
So now my polycythemia makes more sense. Polycythemia, if you remember, is wher my body is making extra blood, so my hemaglobin and hematocrit are higher in blood tests and they tried to figure out why. If I'm not getting oxygen, then it's not getting to my brain, or 48-49% of the time it isn't in some cases - so since blood brings oxygen to the brain, my body has decided that clearly I must not have enough blood since it wasn't getting enough oxygen, so it created more.
Thankfully for me, when the body has a choice of breathe or sleep - it chooses breathing. Otherwise I'd be dead. However this not only explains my extra red blood cells but also why I am tired constantly because my body is constantly waking up to take a breathe, so I'm never getting into a deep REM sleep.
So all that being said, now that you've had my sloppy science lesson - at least I know what is wrong with me. The doctor told me that diet might help but with it being as severe as it is, it won't "cure" it. Surgery also won't cure it. Causes of it are mostly just genetics and how my neck and muscles in and around it are shaped, and sometimes as you age they can relax as well, and weight certainly doesn't help. But nothing will cure it, so I have to use a CPAP machine. It's a machine that shoots air into me forcing a pathway to my lungs and basically forces me to breathe so I can both breathe and sleep.
Enter this hideous thing:
This is actually the second mask I've had. The first kept leaking and making farting noise, which shockingly enough, is hard to sleep through when it's strapped to your face with air shooting at you.
You know you're jealous.
Now of course, a few days after getting this thing - what hits my house - you guessed it - the flu, and not just any old flu. A crazy bionic stomach flu that also somehow turned into a sinus/cold kind of thing. First one to get knocked on his butt was the toddler, as usual. Poor little man was not a happy camper, but thankfully vomiting only hung out for a day. Next few days were just the nausea and not wanting to eat anything except oatmeal and drink gatorade. Finally by like Thursday or Friday he was getting better, but then somehow comes up with a cold and coughing all night long each night. Awesome for everyone involved as I'm sure you can tell. And Saturday brings us to the doc and he now has an ear infection. Lovely.
Then fast forward to Wednesday of that week - about to walk into the docs office for a quick checkup for my daughter - and she tosses her cookies in the parking lot. Good thing the doc has puke bags, just in case. She was sick all that day and sadly, we had to cancel her bday party that was scheduled that weekend. Pretty sure none of the parents wanted to be infected by the plague spreading in my house. She was sick all weekend, Sunday comes and she's all better and jumping on the trampoline like a crazy person.
Thursday - what happens - I get it and start to be nauseous. I don't ever puke though - kinda wish I did because the constant fear of it is much worse. That finally went away yesterday. Which is good because you can't use a face mask for a CPAP machine with nausea because I'm thinking puking in your own mask and suffocating is probably not highly recommended.
Hubby somehow avoided all stomach troubles, but he got a full fledged cold right around Thursday/Friday and he and Andrew got to cough and hack together.
My house has now been aired out, bleached to death, and is hopefully free of this horrible plague that settled in.
And now back to wearing my mask. Until this new one started making farting noises in the middle of the night again. I am hoping the info I learned from googling will help, but I get to go see the respiratory therapist tomorrow just in case, because OMG it is obnoxious.
But in general I know the machine is working since my AHI has dropped from 87 to like 2. Now if i could just wear it for more than a couple hours before it gets all screwy, I'll get a full nights sleep.
And if all of that was not enough - I've also been dieting this entire time, still on the Advocare 24 day challenge (although it will be more like a 28-30 challenge now that I paused for the flu!).
I'm doing good though - down 8 lbs :). The last 2 were totally not on purpose ;-).
Today was the first time in as long as I can remember that we were able to go outside and get some exercise as a family. It was beautiful and in the 70s after work, so we took a long walk with the kids and Boston (the dog) and explored the high school up the street. Did just over 1.5 miles and about half was uphill. I'm hoping I'll continue to have the energy to keep this up!
That's all for now, hopefully the next couple weeks are much less eventful! That is until my kid's rescheduled bday party where I'm going to have 5 8/9 years running around my house having a "spa party". Boy that sounds fun.
Gnite!
