Sleep Study

So, I went to my sleep study last night . . . or should I say mostly sleepless study!  I arrived at the hospital around 7:30pm, checked in and went to my room.  Upon arriving to my room I was greeted by my most cheerful sleep tech, she was such a joy.  I was able to have the same tech that I had 2 weeks ago and that was really nice.  I took my lap top with me to the hospital to keep my self entertained until bedtime. 

In the meantime the tech brought in two masks for me to try out to see which one I thought that I might want to try sleeping with.  First I tried on the full face mask and it was OK so then I tried on the nasal mask, the thing with the nasal mask is that you have to be sure to sleep with your mouth closed and I thought I might have a hard time with that so I told her I would start out with the full face mask. 

Around 10pm the tech came back to hook up all of my wires and leads and I got in the bed around 10:30pm. I started out with the full face mask as planned.  I had a really hard time with it.  I couldn’t keep it in place, it kept sliding up my face, so I struggled with that until approximately 1am.  I was so frustrated that I just sat up on the side of the bed and wanted to cry.  The tech came in to check on me and asked me if I had some medicine maybe that could help me sleep and asked me if I wanted to try the nasal mask and see if I could tolerate it better.  I took two Advil PM and we switched mask.  Next thing I knew the tech was back to wake me up, it was morning!!!  I couldn’t believe that I had actually slept all that time with that mask over my nose, but I did!

I got ready to go home and the tech came and showed me some ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots of my test results.  It was amazing at the difference in the lines on the polysomnogram.  I will look forward to hearing from the doctor next week.  I will keep  you posted.

All Appointments Are Scheduled

 

Today I received the return call from the nutritionist, so now all of my surgery related appointments have been scheduled. Just knowing that all of my appointments are now scheduled I just have to wait in anticipation.  I am so excited about this journey.  I don’t think that I have ever been so excited about anything in my entire life, other than my 2 children being born of course!

All of my appointments are within a two week period.  They occur on June 12th with the psychologist (this will be the 1st of 2 appts), June 19th with the surgeon and June 22nd with the nutritionist.  So I am thinking that maybe by the beginning of July we may have a surgery date.

As I spoke of in an earlier post I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea, well tomorrow night I have another appt at the sleep lab so that they can set me up on CPAP.  I am totally not looking forward to this, i can’t even stand people touching my face, I surely don’t know how I will ever be able to sleep with something strapped around my head to my face.  Although I have been told that if I can get used to it I am going to feel like a brand new person because of being able to finally get some good sleep.  I have yet to talk to a CPAP user that didn’t feel better once using the CPAP.  I am also keeping in mind that once I have my WLS and loose some of this extra weight then I will probably not even need the CPAP anymore, so I am looking at this as a temporary thing which makes it a little easier to think about.

A New Journey . . . The Beginning of My New Life

I am in the process of beginning a new journey which I am going to call . . . The Beginning of My New Life.  I have made the decision to have Weight Loss Surgery (WLS).  This is something that I have pondered for almost a year, but a few months ago I hit the 300 lb mark and then in this past month I was diagnosed with Diabetes and Sleep Apnea.  This was my breaking point.  My oldest sister Julie had already started the process of beginning the WLS journey and invited me to go with her to her consultation appointment to see the surgeon.  I was able to go back with her and in addition to hearing responses to her questions I was also allowed to ask questions and have them answered.  I left that office with a made up mind that this was the route for me so before leaving I got an information packet to fill out.  Over the weekend I filled out all of my paperwork and on Monday faxed it to the office and requested that my medical records from my primary physician be sent to the surgeon.  On Saturday I received a letter in the mail from the surgeon’s office and my consultation date is Friday, June 19th.  In addition to seeing the surgeon you also have to have consultations with a psychologist and nutritionist.  My first consultation with the psychologist is on Friday, June 12th.  This process is moving so much faster than I had thought that it would and I am so glad that it is.

There are a few types of WLS that are offered.  I chose the Lap Band. This is where they take a silicone band that is filled with a saline solution and put it around the upper part of your stomach to make a small stomach ‘pouch’.  This allows you to feel satisfied sooner and stay satisfied longer while only being able to eat small amounts at a time.  The weight loss with this procedure is a little slower than that of the Gastric Bypass, but I believe that it is a safer and more natural than ‘re-routing’ parts of your gastrointestinal system.

I will continue to post updates on this blog to let you know how things are progressing.  Please be in prayer for me as I embark upon this journey, which I truly believe is ‘The Beginning of My New Life’.