Sleeping ugly

Two weeks ago, after lunch at Kanishka (delicious Indian buffet, btw) in Redmond, Dianne and I went for a walk and chatted after Steve headed home. She had noticed that I seemed depressed sometimes. We talked about women in the second half of their lives, about our post-menopausal bodies. I was bemoaning that, at times, it feels I get dumber as I get older, because I can't focus on what I'm working on and often I can't comprehend what I was reading. "I used to be productive!" I complained.

I think I may have finally found out why. I spent last night at the Woodinville Sleep Improvement Center.

I needed this sleep apnea test for a long time. Dee suggested it a long time ago when she noticed that I stopped breathing while I slept during one of my visits. During my 3-day stay at the hospital after my hysterectomy last January, the oxygen-detection machine kept beeping during the night, warning the nurses that I wasn't getting enough oxygen.

So, I left home last night at 7pm and arrived at 8:30pm with my dinner from Taco del Mar, snacks and water from QFC, a duffle bag with my U-shaped body pillow and an overnight bag with another regular pillow and stuff to read and do. I filled out the remaining paperwork (I already filled in the most of it by email), then ate my dinner while chatting with the sleep tech Richard, and I learned a lot about sleep and what the test was like.

At nine o'clock, another sleep patient came in. Richard hooked him up first while I finished eating my dinner. Richard warned it takes 45 minutes. By the time I had brushed my teeth and changed into my jammies, he was just finishing up with the other patient and it was my turn.

By 10:30pm, I had a spaghetti of wires from my head to my calves connected to a black box that reminded me of that board game Operation. Bzzzzt! :D When he saw my U-shaped body pillow set up, he called it my "nest."

I got up early yesterday and I only had 6 hours of sleep the night before, so I was groggy the entire day. I tried hard not to nap but I couldn't avoid a 10-minute one in the early afternoon. And another briefer one while on the ferry, but I didn't tell them about that.

Lights out was at 11pm. It was probably 15 minutes to a half hour before I fell asleep entirely. I kept waking up at every snort meanwhile. Then I woke up again at 3am, as I was trying to get comfortable again. Within a few seconds, Richard was on the intercom asking if he could help. I said it was too warm. But the room didn't have a separate thermostat, so he turned on the fan and set it up on a chair so it would cool me off. When I started drifting off again, I felt cooler again.

At 6am, he came in to wake me up and started taking off the wires. The other patient had already left. The first thing I remembered him say was that my oxygen went down to 45% during the night. While he was hooking me up the previous night, he was just mentioning that 35% was the lowest oxygen level he had seen on a patient's study and mild apnea was 90%. He had also predicted that I might have severe apnea after I told him about my sleep habits.

He had agreed to show me the graphs in the morning. He couldn't officially give me a diagnosis, but, after I got dressed and packed, he showed me the patterns in the waves and explained what they meant.

In REM sleep, I stopped breathing about half the time (maybe more), in about 30-second stretches, sometimes longer. And after those "hypopnea" instances, the oxygen level in my blood dropped down to as low as 45%, usually around 50%. And that was while I was sleeping on my side. He said it would have been worse if I were sleeping on my back.

He explained that's when my heart pumps harder. In his words, "That's why you're always tired. Instead of rejuvenating, your body is working hard just to keep you alive while you sleep."

I knew I had been snoring even while I was still married. Jon had mentioned that it got worse on days when I was tired. So I might have had sleep apnea for more than a decade, maybe two decades.

What if most of my health issues stemmed from not getting a restful sleep?

Richard said that he would probably see me again. That was because I have to do another overnight stay for them to figure out the right pressure for the CPAP, which forces my airways open. I think Dee uses the same thing.

I was supposed to go back for a follow-up visit on the 30th to discuss the results with the doctor. But today, I got a call that the doctor definitely wants to see me sooner, so I'll be going back tomorrow.

I already know what he'll say.