Wyndsong Writes

Posts Tagged ‘Blood Tests’

If you follow me at all on Twitter or Facebook you’ll already know a little bit about what’s been going on this week. It started Saturday with what I thought was just a gas bubble under my ribs. I went to be with a lot of pain, but expecting it to be gone in the morning. It didn’t go away. It did get worse though. By Monday I was in enough pain that I went to the Dr. He said it was my gall bladder and that I’d probably need it removed right away. He wanted me to get an ultrasound, took some blood tests and some x-rays and told me to go directly to the ER if things got worse. Well, they did. I went to the ER yesterday and got the ultrasound, took more blood tests, more x-rays and they came back with a diagnosis of “Gallstones”. They said that my gall bladder isn’t infected so there’s no rush to have it removed, but it won’t really get better either. I”m supposed to watch what I eat and talk to a surgeon about getting my gall bladder removed.

I”m in a lot of pain and my nausea is really bad too. The only thing that I”m supposed to watch out for is my gall bladder getting infected, which the only other sign to all the pain and nausea is a high temperature. So I’m keeping a watch on that, cuz that would be the only thing that will tell me that I need to ruse to the ER again. Doesn’t that sound like fun??

So what are the foods I’m supposed to avoid? Basically everything I love…. Fats and Spicey. So from now on I have to eat bland rabbit food. Which, I have been doing lately anyway becasue I haven’t felt up to eating anything other than soup or salad, and I’m still having major pains. So, I get to eat plain boring food and still hurt. Great deal!! NOT!

On top of all that I find out that Zynga (the company who makes all those really great games for Facebook and Myspace) has charged our business credit card $200. How they got the card number and what the charges are for I have no clue. I love playing those games, but I would NEVER pay for anything to do with those games, espeically not $200 bucks worth! One time I bought some extra coins for a game, not one done by Zynga, and I went through those coins so fast it wasn’t worth it. So I’ve never bought anything for the games since then, and that was about 6 months ago that I did that. And I used my PayPal account, not even my personal credit card, for that. So somehow Zynga or someone else, got our business credit card number and used it. So now we have to get those charges reversed, change our card numbers and deal with all of that crap.

THEN I got an email card from my dad for thanksgiving today. And somehow he forgot that I have two sons. He address the card to me and Rodger (note the mispelling as well), but not to Jack. Every time I think that maybe my Dad isn’t so bad and I should give him a chance to be a part of our lives (more than just on Facebook), he does something like this. How do you forget that you have TWO grandsons? I’d say that maybe because we don’t talk and such that maybe it’s an understandable omission, but we are connected on facebook, and I talk about the boys all the time. So, there’s no reason for him to forget. It’s just crazy!!

So that’s how my week has gone so far. I’ve spent a ton of money on Dr’s without getting anything really taken care of. Got ripped off by some company through facebook and my dad forgets one of his grandsons. Fun times!

I come from a family of heavy snorers. Most of the people in my family snore so loudly and so deeply that it’s hard to sleep in the same house, let alone the same room. I was not the exception to the rule, but I didn’t think my snoring was as bad as others in my family. Last year, I found out I was wrong.

I was married for 5 years, with two kids, and was teased mercilessly by my husband at the time. However, he was not a nice man, and after I divorced him I really didn’t think anything of most of the things he said. However, when I started dating my current boyfriend, many years ago, he would tell me that I snored as well. Sometimes my snoring would keep him from sleeping. But until we moved in together, it wasn’t really a problem.

After we moved in together last year, my snoring became a problem. Mostly because my boyfriend couldn’t get any sleep in the same room with me, and sleeping on the couch was causing him physical problems. At the time, I was also having a very hard time staying awake during the day. I would start falling asleep at my computer, or sitting on the couch. On the weekends I would be so tired, I’d sleep almost 20 hours, awake for just a few, and then go back to sleep for another 12 – 16 hrs. I thought it was just because I wasn’t going to bed early enough during the week. I was wrong.

I didn’t connect the two symptoms, the snoring and the extreme sleepiness, but figured I would talk to my doctor about both. She ordered the obligatory blood tests, heart tests and such, and also sent home a blood oxygen counter. I thought that was strange, but she said that she wanted to see how much oxygen I was getting at night. So I went home and wore the counter on my finger that night.

It was a few days later that I got a call from my dr.’s office wanting me to come in. The appointment was later that week. My Dr. told me that they believed that I either had Sleep Apnea or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), saying that my blood oxygen level was extremely low and I stopped breathing several times during the night of testing. I didn’t like the sound of either of those things, knowing that both can be extremely harmful and untreated can be deadly. She then ordered chest x-rays and a sleep study.

The sleep study was several weeks later, and I had the chest x-rays done as well. Everyone suspected I had COPD because I am a smoker, but the x-rays turned out perfectly clear. However, my sleep study said that I was having multiple episodes where I would stop breathing for almost a minute. That’s when I was officially diagnosed with Sleep Apnea caused by Obstruction. This is what was causing me to snore and what was making me so sleepy all the time. These are the two biggest symptoms of Sleep Apnea.

After being diagnosed, I went back for another sleep study to try out a CPAP (Continuous Pulmonary Air Pressure) machine. They strapped an oxygen mask to me, which fitted around my nose and was hooked up to a little machine on a bedside table. At first it was difficult to breath, because of the air being forced into my nose. The long tube that connected my mask to the machine was also uncomfortable, and difficult to get used to. However, even though I was only asleep for 4 hours that was the best rest I’d had in years!

So a few days later, I was able to get my own machine and I started wearing it immediately! My boyfriend told me I didn’t snore at all, and I woke up the next morning feeling so refreshed it was amazing! I didn’t fall asleep at my computer, and that following weekend, I didn’t sleep the whole two days straight. I started thinking clearer, could remember things better, and had more energy. Not getting enough sleep had such a huge impact on my life, and I didn’t even know it.

From The Mayo Clinic website – Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Consult a medical professional if you experience, or if your partner observes the following:

• Snoring loud enough to disturb the sleep of others or yourself
• Shortness of breath that awakens you from sleep
• Intermittent pauses in your breathing during sleep
• Excessive daytime drowsiness, which may cause you to fall asleep while you’re working, watching television or even driving

For more information on Sleep Apnea and support groups:

http://www.sleepapnea.org
http://www.sleepapneashirt.org/
http://www.quietsleep.com/
http://www.sleep-apnea.ab.ca/
http://www.angelfire.com/il/awake/