You're my only hope!

Back in February I had a sleep study done because I was always tired. I've felt tired most days for as long as I can remember. It got worse after having the boys, but I just chalked it up to getting woke up everynight when they were littler ( boy that word looks wierd typed out. Littler. Is "littler" a word? Yes it is, I just looked it up on dictionary.com.) But since they are no longer "littler", I thought it was because I just wasn't getting enough sleep - staying up too late playing my piano or talking to a certain "boy" every night on the phone =). Still, even when I would get 8 or more hours of sleep, it wouldn't seem to matter. It has gotten so bad over the past year or so that I was having trouble staying awake during meetings or while working at my desk. That's not good, in fact it was embarassing.

So I had the sleep study done. That was fun...they hooked me up to all kinds of electrodes on my head, throat, face, chest, legs...I had wires coming out from every angle (well, not every angle, but alot!) I felt like a robot. Suprisingly tho, I was able to sleep fine. After watching my sleep patterns for a couple hours they came in around 1am and put a c-pap machine on me, which blows pressured air through your nose to keep your airway open. Apparantly my throat relaxes too much during sleep and restricts my air supply enough so that my brain wakes up - not enough for me to be aware of it, but enough to interrupt the quality of my sleep. The study showed that I woke up an average of 44 times an hour! Yea. No wonder I have been so exhausted - I haven't slept well for who knows how long!! I remember being tired alot even as a kid. So, yes, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.

So now I have my very own c-pap machine, which I call my "breather". I can't say that I like wearing it, but I feel alot better so I consider it a blessing! Vince has one too, and has for over 10 years. His sleep apnea was so bad that he used to fall asleep talking to people or while driving....scary! Seeing the two of us sleeping together hooked up to our breathers should be quite hilarious! Mine is relatively quiet, however Vince's sounds like Darth Vader. So if you hear me wake up in the middle of the night screaming "Help me Obiwan!", you'll know why.