February 15, 2017: The Sleep Study

As a part of my application for the surgery, I had to write that I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2014. But, the diagnosis did not involve a sleep study, and rather my giant tonsils that were later removed. The surgeon who performed that surgery said that removing the tonsils likely took care of my sleep apnea issues.

At the first appointment, the surgeon said she wanted me to get a sleep study done because of this note from 2014.

The process to get the sleep study was easy enough, and the night of the exam I packed my 'jammies and went in at around 9:00pm. Once in my tiny little room, they told me to mimic my nighttime routine the best I could, which for me includes a shower. After a shower, the technician came in and hooked all the sensors around my head, face, and chest. Part of the paperwork that I signed said if they noticed apnea, they could come in and start me on a CPAP so they would know what machine settings I would need (if necessary). The technician left the room and asked me to follow some instructions ("Blink twice, move your left leg, move your right arm...").

Then comes sleep. Or lack thereof.

Once during the night I managed to take a sensor off so they came in to fix it. And all the sudden it was 5:45am, which is my normal wake up time. I took another shower to get all of the glue out of my hair and by 6:15am I was walking out of clinic.

About two months earlier, my husband had a sleep study and he clearly had an issue with apnea, and sure enough a day after his study we got a phone call that he had severe sleep apnea (over 120 issues in an hour) and they already took it upon themselves to order him a CPAP. So when a few days had passed without a phone call, I was confident that I did not have sleep apnea. A few weeks later I got a paper report in the mail, and there were minor incidents but nothing that was making doctors call me like they had called my husband.

A month after the sleep study, I followed up with a sleep doctor. She started by saying how confused she was about the 2014 "diagnosis" and after a quick physical examination she said I had four incidents in the whole night, and if I felt like my quality of sleep was being affected she would order a CPAP, but she was confident that by losing a little weight I would probably not have any apnea incidents soon.

I am not sure how this would work, but I am curious to see the improvement in my sleeping after surgery. I feel like I'm sleeping better, but I'm also a little more of a metrics nut than I used to be. I love my Fitbit and finding out the quality of my sleep when I wake up.

Next up: Having to change birth control...