Mirror Test: Pass, when awake
In lieu of yet another post titled "I'm not dead," "Still not dead," or some glass-half-empty variation of that theme, I submit to you that if you shove a mirror under my nose, it fogs. More specifically it fogs more frequently when I am awake than when I am asleep.
I've suspected for some time that I've been developing sleep apnea...I don't snore, never have except when I've been very ill, but over the last year I've noticed myself waking up gasping, insomnia, tired all the time, feeling generally slow, and not necessarily waking up gasping but remembering a dream-feeling that I was underwater and coming up for air, and that last impatient second before your face breaks the surface to breathe. Plus, my mother started developing obvious signs of it when she was the age I am now, and over the last year my weight has become much harder to manage.....which is another big sign, since the latest research shows that weight gain and inability to lose it are symptoms of, and not causes of, not breathing during sleep. Oh, and I had at least three of the major signs of sleep apnea in children (bed wetting after age 5, sleepwalking, sleep talking), so possibly this has been going on for some time. Even better, that also runs in the family. So much fun.
I had a sleep study wednesday before last. Before sleeping, the nurse made me breathe with a CPAP mask on, just to make sure I could do it and not panic. I had to force myself to stay awake, because I could have easily fallen asleep with her holding it over my nose.
When I get back on land, hopefully there will be some word from the sleep physician. I'd really like to get a good night's sleep, and not be tired all the time, and also I would really like to stave off at the pass some of the problems my mother has had. Like stage 1 heart failure.
In other news, His High-Maintenance-Ness the Right Honourable Mr Ponypants is causing me no end of frustration. He's come SO FAR since the neurotic, dangerous four-legged hot mess he was when I got him, only now the issue is I can't keep him in one piece. He's caught in a self-defeating cycle of assholery and unrideability: he was recovering from foot issues, so he couldn't be ridden. This horse needs to be exercised pretty much every day to keep his head from flying off, but because of the pain, he couldn't be ridden. Once the foot abscess blew out, the farrier and I put glue-on shoes on him, which were GREAT for about 24 hours before he threw the first one kicking at the horse in the pen next to him, because he has so much ENERGY FROM NOT BEING RIDDEN and now he's lame in that foot....and yes, despite being smart enough to learn to play polo in less than 30 minutes, this is why I call him my big red idiot. When I'm back on the beach, I'm calling the farrier and he and I are going to use a fibreglass cast combined with set-in hooks to glue those shoes on to all four, and then epoxy over the damn things until his feet look like walking blobs of glue. On a happy note, though, riding him in a bitless bridle with draw reins instead of normal reins fixed the head tossing and some of the orneryness, and gave me a fly-by-wire fighter jet ride. Which I (or the guy borrowing him) could do more often if he'd keep his god damn shoes on.
I've suspected for some time that I've been developing sleep apnea...I don't snore, never have except when I've been very ill, but over the last year I've noticed myself waking up gasping, insomnia, tired all the time, feeling generally slow, and not necessarily waking up gasping but remembering a dream-feeling that I was underwater and coming up for air, and that last impatient second before your face breaks the surface to breathe. Plus, my mother started developing obvious signs of it when she was the age I am now, and over the last year my weight has become much harder to manage.....which is another big sign, since the latest research shows that weight gain and inability to lose it are symptoms of, and not causes of, not breathing during sleep. Oh, and I had at least three of the major signs of sleep apnea in children (bed wetting after age 5, sleepwalking, sleep talking), so possibly this has been going on for some time. Even better, that also runs in the family. So much fun.
I had a sleep study wednesday before last. Before sleeping, the nurse made me breathe with a CPAP mask on, just to make sure I could do it and not panic. I had to force myself to stay awake, because I could have easily fallen asleep with her holding it over my nose.
When I get back on land, hopefully there will be some word from the sleep physician. I'd really like to get a good night's sleep, and not be tired all the time, and also I would really like to stave off at the pass some of the problems my mother has had. Like stage 1 heart failure.
In other news, His High-Maintenance-Ness the Right Honourable Mr Ponypants is causing me no end of frustration. He's come SO FAR since the neurotic, dangerous four-legged hot mess he was when I got him, only now the issue is I can't keep him in one piece. He's caught in a self-defeating cycle of assholery and unrideability: he was recovering from foot issues, so he couldn't be ridden. This horse needs to be exercised pretty much every day to keep his head from flying off, but because of the pain, he couldn't be ridden. Once the foot abscess blew out, the farrier and I put glue-on shoes on him, which were GREAT for about 24 hours before he threw the first one kicking at the horse in the pen next to him, because he has so much ENERGY FROM NOT BEING RIDDEN and now he's lame in that foot....and yes, despite being smart enough to learn to play polo in less than 30 minutes, this is why I call him my big red idiot. When I'm back on the beach, I'm calling the farrier and he and I are going to use a fibreglass cast combined with set-in hooks to glue those shoes on to all four, and then epoxy over the damn things until his feet look like walking blobs of glue. On a happy note, though, riding him in a bitless bridle with draw reins instead of normal reins fixed the head tossing and some of the orneryness, and gave me a fly-by-wire fighter jet ride. Which I (or the guy borrowing him) could do more often if he'd keep his god damn shoes on.