davidgoldfarb

Katie tells me that I snore. My mother tells me that I have apneicepisodes when I nap. I observe that I feel drowsy in the daytime.

So in December I e-mailed my doctor and asked her to order a sleep study. In January I took a machine home to monitor my blood oxygen and other functions during my sleep. This involved strapping sensors to my belly, chest, and one finger, and sticking tubes up my nostrils.

In February I got a postcard saying I had another appointment for early March. Turns out the January sleep study didn't turn out for some reason, and I had to do another one. Naturally they hadn't actually made a note of what went wrong so that I could try to do better....

So I did the study again.

Wednesday morning I was awakened by a phone call informing me that Kaiser had ordered a CPAP machine for me. Well, yay. On Thursday I got up early to go pick up the machine, and attend a class on its use and maintenance.

Thursday night I used it for the first time. Tired as I was, it was still a little hard to fall asleep with cold air blowing into my nostrils, but I managed.

Today is Friday. And...damn. I discover that I had forgotten what it feels like to be rested. To have energy. To go about my daily life without that little gnawing hunger for sleep pressing at the edges of my consciousness.

I feel like I did when I got my first pair of corrective lenses, and found out just how bad my eyes had gotten without my realizing that found out just how bad my eyes had gotten without my realizing that I didn't have normal vision. (I bet a lot of you out there have been with me on that one.) I feel like a scurvy patient who's just been allowed to drink his fill of orange juice.

My Kaiser plan has a co-pay, so the permanent machine when I get it is going to cost me about $150. This is going to be easily the best $150 I've ever spent. Should have done this years ago.

(The machine I have now auto-adjusts itself to how it senses my breathing. This makes it more expensive. Next week I go back and they examine the machine's records, and give me a permanent machine adjusted to a single air pressure level that they feel will be optimal.)