Well, after an eventful sleep clinic adventure (notice I didn’t say restful) my loving, caring, special friend turned in to a grouch monster.
I’m telling you, cos I have to live with him. I’m sharing my pain.
Plus, he’s such a good sport about me writing and sharing about all of his fears, flaws and frustrations. It’s one of the reasons I love him so much.
Sleep study results
Anyhoo, Steve visited his GP to get the low-down from the sleep clinic test.
Those that know Steve, will nod their heads when I say he ALWAYS passes tests. He prides himself on it.
Well, guess what? He failed this one dismally.
His apnoea hypopnoea index was off the scale at 52.4 when the normal range is 0-5.
His respiratory disturbance index was way above normal as well at a whopping 55.6 – mild is 5-10.
Then there is his average apnoea / hypopnoea length, which translates to the amount of time he doesn’t breathe, is OMG!! 25.8seconds.
No wonder he can hold he breathe so long underwater!!!
The results mean he is not getting sufficient oxygen when sleeping. That means his big brain is not functioning optimally. Imagine what he’d be like at full capacity!
But seriously, this is not good news and my love, my darling, my special friend is now losing sleep over losing sleep.
He’s worried about what’s next, what it will take to fix it, stop it, help him get a good night sleep?
The report says, he will be contacted for a CPAP trail.
Yes, that’s one of those machines that sit over the face or nose to assist with breathing during sleep.
Options from here
In the meantime, we put our heads together to come up with something we can do now.
Of course there are multiple options out there but Mr Scientific is only interested in the scientifically proven techniques.
Weight loss is one option to reduce weight specifically around his neck and belly.
Of course we all know weight loss doesn’t work that way but he’s on the path mentally now.
We have started an eating plan, which I’ll share about in another blog post soon.
Steve’s plans to get back in to exercise next week. His willingness and ability to exercise has been hindered since he broke his toe almost eight weeks ago. You should see his toenail. Argh! It gives me the shivers!
Something else we thought of was changing his sleep position i.e. raising the angle he sleeps at to try and help.
I did a bit of research ‘on-the-line’ and found a wedge pillow. There are different options out there ranging in price from $60 to $200.
So, I quickly did a search on Gumtree and found one that fitted the bill for very reasonable price perfectly. Kimmie took a drive to Burns Beach yesterday to collect it. Yay for me.
My special friend came home a little early – in protest of the Trump result – and I promptly put him to bed with his new pillow. He slept soundly for a couple of hours with minimal snoring. Looked promising.
We slept with the wedge pillow in the bed last night and when I woke I found Steve curled up at the bottom of the pillow in the foetal position. Ominous much! However, surprise surprise, he slept pretty well. He didn’t feel so tired when he woke up. I can’t tell you how much relief I felt to hear that!
So, the experiment continues. We’ll tweek the sleeping position a little to try and stop him from wiggling down the wedge in the night and keep our fingers crossed that works even better.
Plus, hopefully we’ll hear about the CPAP trail really soon.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Check out the next instalment ‘The not-sleeping saga continues’
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