my night as a lab rat

Sleeping in a lab . . . not as painful as I thought it was going to be. I checked in at 8 and was taken back to my assigned room. I was a little intimadated by the seemingly endless wires hanging over a table, the thirty-two pieces of tape lined up along the edge of the table and the big blank walls around me. The tech came in and put on an informational video about sleep apnea and what was going to happen in the sleep lab. While watching that, I had to fill out yet another info sheet (beyond the 6 pages I had to bring with me) about my sleeping habits and what brought me in. Then the tech came back and starting hooking me up to all the sensors; and there were ALOT! There were two bands, one around my chest and one around my stomach to measure my respirations, two sensors on each of my legs to measure movement. Then came the innumerable face and head sensors; on my forehead, chin, temples, behind the ears and all over the scalp. The sensors for the scalp had to be literally glued on, a big glop of sticky glue in my hair! The final addition was a strap across my face under my nose with a breathing sensor to see if I mouth or nose breathe at night. I was tempted to take a picture of the final result, but after seeing it for myself in the mirror, I decided that as much as I believe in preserving all memories, good and bad, this was one I could skip.

After I got all settled into bed, the tech came back in and plugged in all my wires to the big console. Then she left to adjust the camera (I have to say the thought of someone watching me while I sleep is a little bit creepy) and then test all the sensors by doing eye movements and breathing exercises. Then I got to just read until I was ready to go to sleep, at which point I just yelled out "I'm ready" and the powers that be turned out my lights.

Surprisingly, the night went like usual. I fell asleep quickly and stayed asleep. I thought I would sleep through to the 6 am wakeup call, but I woke up early because the finger they had put the pulse/ox meter on was burning. I think that the little LED light burnt my finger (thanks prednisone for the tissue-thin skin). So then when the wakeup call came, I had to go through the same calibration exercises that I did last night and then I got to go home! Now I just get to wait for my doctor to get the results from the sleep lab doctor.

I was surprised at how many people were there. I asked the technician and she said that their 10 rooms are full seven days a week, 365 days a year (minus major holidays). She said there are amazing numbers of people that have sleep problems and even more that should be getting tested but just don't know it. So I totally suggest talking to your doctor about it if you think you are abnormally tired and snore . . . it might be you!

As for our other big event of yesterday, Kadin was none too thrilled with the experience at first, but in the last five minutes I think he warmed up to it a little bit. We had to ease into it, talking him through the pre-pool shower, sitting on the side for a few minutes talking to him about what was going to happen. He spent the majority of the class in a death grip around my neck, but he really liked the Humpty Dumpty part. We put the kids on the side of the pool and did the Humpty Dumpty rhyme and when we got to the "great fall" part, we'd pop them back into the pool. He liked the in and out of it. The instructor suggested that I get a rash guard shirt for him, he was shivering by the end of the class, and maybe being warmer would help him be happier about the whole thing. So we go back tomorrow and try it again.