Solving my own personal energy crisis......

Solving my own personal energy crisis.....

So, last fall, I complained to the doctor about being y-shausted (yanno, that stage beyond exhausted.....groan). First, he checked stuff like my thyroid function, then (when that came back normal), he said that (since women with PCOS have a higher risk of sleep apnea) he was sending me for a sleep study.

So it took a while to get the first consultation appointment (and then that was delayed because I had what was to that point the nastiest cold I'd ever had in my life), but after that visit with the sleep specialist, the scheduling for the two nights of the sleep study went quickly (except that the second night was delayed by the worst cold I've ever had - which developed into bronchitis - yuck and more yuck!).

Turns out I do have sleep apnea.....evidently, I stop breathing about every 4 minutes (on average....) when I'm sleeping. So I wake up at least part way in order to start breathing again..... which means that I wasn't really getting much sleep (maybe the equivalent of 2 hours when I though I was getting 7...) and that's likely been the case for years.

I've had issues with strange sleep patterns much of my life, but since my mother did as well, I'd always thought it was normal....either nature or nurture.

The net result: two weeks ago, I got a C-PAP machine to help me breathe at night. A bit of a bother, but less than I'd worried it would be (although I haven't tried traveling with it yet.......) -- and I am now getting close to a full night's sleep (and that is despite the adjustment period to the C-PAP.....and it does take some adjusting to the mask and the tubing to the machine being there) and I have lots more energy (AMAZINGLY more.........) and I'm in much less of a mental fog.......I've even waking up alert in the morning.

Last Sunday, after I got home from an outing with a friend (yeah! to yarn shops and Korean restaurants.....), I curled up for a late afternoon snuggle with a book and the cat (well, the cat for the few minutes I got with her before she went back to her true love........) -- and I didn't fall asleep.......which was an incredible surprise! I'm not sure I can remember another time that happened, that I curled up with a book on a weekend afternoon and didn't fall asleep..........