Tag Archives: sleep

The Crash

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I haven’t ever been able to sleep on an airplane. I’ve made some long hauls “over the pond” before and for all of those journeys, I was conscious every bitter second. 

Today was par for the course.

I hardly slept last night so I was aware that that today’s flights to Vancouver and then onto Honolulu were going to be exhausting. The amount of “hurry up and wait” that goes along with air travel is astounding which translates into stress as well as both mental and physical exhaustion. If I could get a wink of sleep on the plane, this might be acceptable. 

But right now, in the hotel room in Honolulu, I’m having trouble keeping my eyes open. More tomorrow. 

It’s Do Or Die

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That’s what time it is for the Prince of Stanley’s hockey team. Tomorrow night, they play a crucial game that will not only decide their path toward a gold medal but will also, more importantly, decide whether or not I have to wake up at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning.

If they win tomorrow night, then they will play in a game on Friday night to decide if they head to the gold medal game. If they lose tomorrow night, then they play at 7:45 am at the arena on the opposite side of the city, in the heart of Downs’ Castle.

I’m going to do the math on this one; if the game starts at 7:45 am, he needs to be there a half an hour earlier as a minimum… at 7:15 am. I’m going to have to give the standard one hour of travel time, meaning that we have to leave the house at 6:15 am. Providing an allowance for how much time I need to get the Prince awake and fed, tack on getting a coffee in there… multiply it by the crab factor (which is basically how cranky the Prince is going to be getting up that early) and you have a crazy early morning.

Hence why it’s a ‘do-or-die’ scenario. Because if he doesn’t win… I’m going to die.

He's More Machine Now Than Man

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Snoring Husband

Do something before she kills you.

For quite a while, the Queen has really been on my case about my snoring problem.  And when I say my snoring problem, I am really saying that it’s her that has the problem with the fact that I snore like a buzz-saw.

For a moment, let’s set aside the fact that she’s a borderline insomniac anyway and focus on her observation that, besides my snoring, I’ve also exhibited signs of sleep apnea.  The main sign is that I often would stop breathing completely for a short period while asleep.  Other signs included some real nasty leg twitching and chronic exhaustion.

So, after much urging and persuasion (read: nagging) by the Queen, I talked to my doctor about it who hooked me up with an appointment with an otolaryngologist (ear, nose and throat doctor) who makes a ton of money shooting lasers into people’s throats at $1,500 a pop.

I originally thought that it would be pretty easy to diagnose the problem, he’d set me up with an appointment and bim-bam-boom… I’d be on the wrong end of a laser that would scar the back of my throat and suck my bank account dry at the same time.

Goldfinger's Laser

No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to DIE!

Of course, I was foolish to think that it could be this easy.  He examined my nose and throat before recommending that I take a sleep test as he thought that zapping me wouldn’t be the fix-all that I hoped it might be.  I guess I should be grateful that he isn’t a trigger-happy doctor.

Eventually, I got a call from the respiratory health services folks who hooked me up with a sleep test machine.  I took it home and, that night, I hooked it all up right before bed.  Given that I had all kinds of tubes and wires running to me, I actually slept pretty well that night.  The following Monday, I took the machine back to their office for analysis of the data.

Darth Vader

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

About a month later, the results came back telling me that I have ‘Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea’.  No shit, Sherlock.  The report that came back from the test said that I had a Respiratory Distress Index (RDI) of 20; which meant that I had 20 events per hour where I would stop breathing.  Over 40 events is considered severe.

What they recommended was that I take home a C-PAP machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) on a trial basis to see if it would make much of a difference in the quality of my sleep.  The problem with this machine that it’s actually a total bitch to even be able to fall asleep with the mask and tube apparatus on.  I’ve switched from the nasal mask to a different mask that covers my nose and mouth which I’m hoping will help with the problem.  Of course, when I’m laying in bed trying to drop off… I can’t help but feel somewhat like the über-nerd version of Darth Vader with this ventilator pumping air to the mask that I have to wear.

Anyway, the machine costs in the range of $1,800 to $3,000 if I were to buy one.  So I don’t want to go into this all whilly-nilly, if I have to fork over that kind of cash… I’d like to know it’s actually going to work.