If you follow me on social media, then you would have seen the glorious photo that I shared last week of me with my new bed buddy. To be more precise, it is a CPAP machine, a machine that will help me breathe. It’s a machine that will hopefully move my oxygen saturation levels from catastrophic, to normal.
Last month I had a sleep test done because despite getting the recommended hours sleep a night, I was still tired, bone tired. Last Monday I got the results from that test and the news wasn’t good. I have horrific sleep apnea and catastrophic oxygen saturation and yes those were the exact words the specialist used.
My GP sent through an urgent referral back to the sleep techs and I was able to get in the next day, and to be fitted for a loan CPAP machine. There was no option to wait, it needed to be done now. My oxygen stats were getting as low as 50% and sat around the 85% mark for the majority of the night. For the 8 hour period that I was connected to the monitors I was only in REM sleep for a total of 86 minutes. No wonder I am so tired.
I’d like to say that since using the CPAP machine that I have noticed a dramatic change, but I still feel tired. I have noticed though that I don’t slump as badly in the afternoon. I am also able to wake up more easily. I’m still tired but I can feel a small amount of energy returning. I’m sick at the moment, so I am hoping that once I get over my cold, that I will see a better result.
I’m so glad that my GP sent me for the sleep test, that she kept digging when the blood tests showed nothing. I hope that with my sleep being more quality, that I will be better equipped to make the changes I need in other parts of my life. I know that I need to make changes, to help my sleep rhythms return to normal.
Have you ever had a sleep test done?
How many hours sleep are you getting?
Linking up with Jess for IBOT
Well shit!, this is a pain in the arse! Weirdly enough I was supposed to go for a sleep study with Snore Australia in Southport, not long before xmas. I decided that the chances of me being able to sleep wired up to a machine in a strange place with strangers observing me were somewhere between zero and minus zero, so I cancelled it. They keep calling to try to get me to re-schedule and I keep phone dodging. I am glad they caught this at least and hopefully in the long term you will see the benefit.
Thankfully your GP didn’t just fob you off and kept digging. And now you have something to work on. I hope your sleep improves soon, although having a cold never helps. Were you giving a guideline on when you could start to expect changes happening?