Another week has rushed on past me in fits & starts - while I was feeling bad juju about my sleep study last Wednesday night, I went ahead & got on with it… I was hoping for more of an academic exercise than the sleep center’s concerted effort to get me fitted for a CPAP. I term this “When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!” Or pulling up another gem from Cool Hand Luke: “What we have here is a failure to communicate”
The equipment I picked up for the home sleep study in April was not too bad - a nasal cannula, a chest strap, and an O2 sensor on my finger. They recommended an overnight stay in the sleep lab, where I presumed I would be wired up like a crash-test dummy (which I was), but the technician immediately started fitting me with a CPAP device. Seriously, you expect me to sleep with something like this?!? Not without heavy pharmaceuticals…
While the technician was very pleasant, she had her marching orders so I said I would try. I laid there for two hours with the first model; we switched out the subsequent two models for about an hour apiece. By 2 AM I told her this was pointless, so she disconnected me had me sign several forms saying I was “refusing treatment”/AMA & released me to go home to nap a few hours in my own bed… Silly me, I thought I was being so efficient by scheduling my follow-up with my GP at 8:30 AM!
Needless to say, Thursday was a Very Long Day since I had follow-up with dermatologist at 3 PM (neck has healed fine, what's another scar??) However, I managed to muddle through - crashing at 9:30 PM & getting what felt like my first decent night's sleep in I-don't-know-when...
Sounds like a total horror story and a waste of your time!
ReplyDeleteDon't mind me, I have a warped sense of "medical minimalization", brought about by being raised without medical "assistance". Parents were Christian Scientist, and I stuck with it the first half century of my life.
When I gave that up, I discovered that there were things that helped, but it's still a HUGE step for me to even consider popping an allergy pill or a headache one. But when something is truly interfering with life (like losing vision) I was open to the eye drops and the cataract surgery!
If there's something that can help, go for it, but when the "cure is worse than the disease?" Yikes.
Yep, don't worry - more & more I am growing into a "less is more" person, both for my own health care as well as for my animal patients! Right now I am trying to decide if these more recent symptoms of mine are a continuum (SOB is worse under certain circumstances, now accompanied by dizziness), or a damnable side effect of the inhaler?? Reminds me of the old comedy routine: returning to the doctor over & over, getting new medications as antidotes to the side effects of previous ones!
DeleteI hear ya, Val! My sister had that kind of dance going on after her breast cancer... side effects from that exacerbated arthritis... and on and on!
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