Thanksgiving America!

Happy Thanksgiving!

df1

Hope y'all had a good turkey day.

While I missed having any Turkey. I did enjoy having the day off.

I can see how that can be. It is so unnatural to sleep this way. First of all, I have a mask on that covers my nose and mouth and really when I close my eyes laying in bed, I feel like I have someone shoving a shoe into my face and it's constant.

The second part that is hard for me to adjust to is it feels like the machine breaths for me. In other words, I'm not breathing voluntarily. When I had a sleep study a few months ago, I had a mask that only covered my nose. This was less intrusive than the face mask, however the desire to want to breath on your own is overwhelming. So you open your mouth to take in a breath of air on your own and as soon as you do, air goes flying OUT of your mouth instead which feels extremely abnormal to your senses. During my sleep study, I had no sense of time at all. It felt like I laid there for years. I made it until about 4:30am and then ripped the entire gig off me in a fury. I thought it would never end. I felt like I didn't sleep 2 minutes. The technicians came in and hooked me back up to only have me lay there for another 30 minutes. Both of my sleep studies were pure torture of the mentally challenging kind.

The full face mask lets me open my mouth and take in breaths on my own if I want to. I've even managed to sleep with it for about 3-4 hours at a time. However, I've never finished a night yet with the contraption still connected to me. The 1st night I made it to 7am and took it off and slept the rest of my morning without it. Last night I took it off around 4am and had to get up at 7. I think I'm going to get used to it eventually. The whole trick is laying in a position where it doesn't feel like it's pushing on your face. I naturally prefer sleeping on my stomach. This has proved challenging but I have managed to do just that a few times with the mask on.

I originally went to see the doctor a little over a year ago because I have had blinding migraine headaches since I was 12 years old. A year ago I was having them about every 2-3 days and I was experiencing temporary blindness 3-4 times a day. I used to be I had about 5-7 a year. Now I was having 10-20 migraines a month and multiple times a day. It was getting unbearable. The doctor seemed convinced sleep apnea was a major part of my problem.

Since then I have been put on medication, I haven't had a single migraine since January. I've also lost nearly 20 lbs in the past year.

I've told my doctor I'm feeling great, but he said I had been measured as a severe case of apnea and highly recommended I used the machine. I will say I feel like my blood is moving better and there are benefits to using the machine that I would like to see happen. I've heard of many people, including my own step dad that cannot tolerate the machine and rid themselves of it quickly. I also know a few people who say it has made a huge difference in their lives in many positive ways. So tonight will be night #3 of trying it. I think I am eventually going to get used to it. If so, I will see if it gives me any added benefits I didn't already experience. If it doesn't, I will probably rid myself of it too. It is really tough feeling you can't breath on your own and like you have a shoe in your face while laying in bed.

So far, I've honestly slept a lot better without it. I was sleeping like a baby before because the doctor put me on Ambien about 3-4 months ago. Without the mask, I've been sleeping better than I have since I was a child. With the mask and the Ambien, I'm waking up multiple times a night.

Tonight I am very tired. I worked a long day including unwanted overtime. I hope that helps me pass out and stay asleep tonight.