Rob Sleep Update

[cjsmith]

Rob says last night was not the worst night of sleep he has ever had. Worst is still the sleeper car from Hamburg to I-forget-where, sharing a cabin with a chain smoker. He says the naso-esophageal tube (I just made that word up) wasn't too horrible. They had him snort Lidocaine before sticking it in there, and when the Lidocaine wore off the annoyance wasn't too bad. They taped the tube to his face so he could do things like roll over.

He had electrodes stuck all over him. He has shaved spots on his legs. Some electrodes were on his head, glued in his hair; any extra glue he finds today he should remove with acetone. :-)

He didn't stop breathing. Hmmm. He did have "hypopnea", which he described as a too-low breathing rate, some of the time. He also has partially obstructed airways, even when awake and standing upright, so he may go for some kind of scrape-it-up surgery. It will apparently take weeks to go over all the data gathered last night. It is still likely that the next step is to try the positive pressure machine.

Comments

[gs.livejournal.com]

How easy/difficult is it to sleep next to him if he's using the positive pressure machine? Um...I'm not asking for myself, I'm just curious.
g

[wcg.livejournal.com]

The things do make a noticeable noise. One friend who got one ended up sleeping by himself, because it kept waking his wife up until she moved into an adjacent bedroom. Another friend's wife seems to be OK sleeping in the same bed with him, so I think it's kind of a matter of how lightly the sleeping companion sleeps.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I worry about this a little. I sleep more lightly these days than I did when I was in the Army. I don't WANNA have to move to another bedroom, darn it. There's something symbolic about that for me. I want the kind of marriage with a shared bed. On the other hand I like sleep.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I figured you weren't asking for yourself :-). The first time he tries it will be in the sleep center (he's currently slated for early December for that one). I am somewhat selfishly hoping he doesn't have to get one. I sleep far more lightly than I used to.

[thorswitch.livejournal.com]

I've been using a C-PAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine for about 4 or so years now, and its made a huge difference in how well I sleep and how I feel when I'm awake. The noise from the machine is noticable, but not horrible at all - about like a fan in a desktop computer or so, I'd say. I've found my machine is quiet enough that if I want to play music when I sleep, I can have it at a very low level and still be able to hear it just fine. I can tell you that it doesnt bother Matt much at all, but that doesn't mean anything. i have yet to figure out what actually WOULD bother Matt when he's sleeping *g*

It took me a few days to get used to sleeping with the hose, but I've found since then that if I have all my straps on securely enough, I can change positions in my sleep and it has no effect on the headgear.

Good luck with it -- I hope it goes well for him, whatever they end up doing!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear this! Thanks! If it's about like the fan in a desktop computer, that's no problem at all. I figured it would be a cross between a fan and a compressor, which would definitely be more annoying.

I could wish (selfishly, again) that the headgear were a little less... unromantic. Oh well. If one of these machines would help, I do hope he gets one. Other people have said good things about the results and I hope he gets SOME solution that will give him some of those good results!

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I agree, the small amount of noise it generates is well worth the relief it brings. But that damned hose sure does make some activities...er...interesting! *grin*