After buying a new home, dealing with an ending lease and subsequently a new one, things have been busy as you could imagine.
I finally found time to get into the lab for my scheduled sleep study (after rescheduling 3 times.... I know, I know). I really thought after being on therapy for 6 months and now feeling like I can't sleep without it would make my sleep study a breeze.... Nothing of the sort. Felt like I didn't sleep at all. Honestly, I think it was the bed, it was just uncomfortable... pillow sucked too. I'm sure you veterans already know to take your pillow from home
My doctor was acting a little weird after I completed the sleep study. His office was calling me the next day acting shady, saying things like, "Dr. Thompson wants to get you in right away, can you come this week, he said it didn't matter if we double booked him, he wants to see you this week!". Seemed a little over the top considering it wasn't a heart scan or cancer screening but ok, so I went in the same week.
Side note, anyone who followed my introduction thread back toward the end of 2018 might have read that I spoke with my doctor about getting an ASV right out of the gate. I gave him my reasons for thinking I needed one and supporting evidence. Obviously he denied me (regardless of the fact that I had already cleared everything with my insurance). So when I finally met with him, he basically said, "Well, your results came in and... honestly... it looks like you still aren't fixed". It was hard not to roll my eyes since I have been telling him the whole time that even though my AHI is between 2.5 and 4.0 on any given night, I still feel terrible. I also told him about my CA's in SleepyHead and that every night those are pretty much the only type of events I have. Didn't matter.
Anyways, fast forward a little, I still have to do some convincing to get an AutoSV over a BiPAP-ST. Fast forward a few days and I've got my Philips Dreamstation AutoSV unit. It's still unclear if insurance is going to cover it. I have Humana on a group plan. Supposedly most insurances are a little more lenient when you are a group but Humana sticks pretty closely with the Medicare guidelines for stuff like this. At least that's what my DME supplier told me.
As for results, I've been on the AutoSV for 3 nights now. Previous to the ASV my AHI would range 4.x to 2.x. 30 day average was 2.8. First night on ASV and my AHI dropped to 0.5, second night was 0.7, and last night was 0.2! I don't want to start claiming that I 'feel better' yet. I 'think' I do, but seems like sometimes when you 'think' you are supposed to feel better, your brain can trick you into it for a few days. Plus I'm coming off a weekend where I averaged an extra hour or so more sleep per night. I will say that my morning routine seemed.... faster than usual. Generally speaking each part of getting ready for work requires me to wake up a little more than the previous one. Here's an example:
Alarm goes off... snooze... snooze.... snooze.... snooze...snooze....turn alarm off...20 minutes later sit upright in bed. Sit upright in bed for 10 minutes with eyes closed. Swing around and put feet on floor. Sit for another 5-10 minutes with eyes closed. Pep talk myself into not going back to sleep. Barely succeed. Stumble to the bathroom. Stand in front of the mirror rubbing hands together (no idea why) for 5 minutes. Prop self up on elbows on sink top for a few minutes. Stand upright again, rub hands together for a few more minutes. Put in eye drops. Brush Teeth. Dread putting in contacts. Try to put in contacts. Finally get them in. 50/50 chance on them feeling like sand or not. Stumble to closet with partially open eyes. Drag out some clothes. Sit on the edge of bed to put on pants. Contemplate staying home. Start formulating a text to send to my boss on why I won't be in. Pep talk myself again. Grudgingly accept that I'm going to continue getting ready. Delete partial text message. Grunt as wife walks by to start getting ready. Stumble down the stairs. Grab my stuff. Walk out to the car and leave. Fall asleep 3-4 times on the interstate and at least once at a red light. Get to the office somehow. Leave sunglasses on and don't turn on office light until 10am.
This morning most of that stuff happened, but I didn't snooze the alarm. I made it to the bathroom within a minute or two. Didn't stand around rubbing my hands together (still don't know why I do that). Contacts went in without any issue. Spoke to wife instead of just a grunt. Did not think about staying home. Didn't fall asleep at all on the way to work. Turned light on immediately upon arrival at office and did not continue to wear sunglasses. Arrived at work almost an hour earlier than usual. Coincidence? Maybe. Will need more time to know for sure.
I apologize for the wall of text and what I can only assume is poor grammar, I didn't proof this at all
