this stinks!

Okay.. I know I don't have sleep apnea.. I have NO symptoms and I sleep through the night.. I wake rested and have no problems with sleepiness during the day. I fall asleep quickly and only wake when the bladder calls or the cats are fighting -- and then infrequently.. My pulmonologist's office called today and said they are ordering a sleep study based on the results of my pulse ox test that I took home with me. Now, when I put the thing on me and went to bed I knew it was going to be trouble. The finger clip was a little tight for my finger so it was uncomfortable.. the cats wanted to play with the wire.. not to mention I was interested in the readings so I kept checking.. as a result, it took forever to fall asleep and I kept waking up.. I had a VERY restless night with it on and that is NOT the norm for me.. ANOTHER delay! ARGH!! and she even said it was a very mild abnormality but for some reason the Dr. wanted a sleep study.. AND I HAVE TROUBLE SLEEPING IN UNFAMILIAR PLACES!! GOD THIS STINKS!! I'm going to get diagnosed with something I *KNOW* I don't have!! *kicks computer* I'm so mad right now I could spit!!

Well look at it this way, this wont prevent surgery and you will be cured after surgery, yeah cured from something you dont have LOL Hang in there it will be OK!

I know... but it still STINKS!! It stinks like dirty butt.

Just one more hurdle to jump over. No big deal! You won't have to worry about your kitties or anything else. You'll probably have a great night's sleep. Have no fear. It'll be just fine. Did you ask the Dr. if you can do the test at home again? I mean, wouldn't it be better to confirm you have whatever abnormality instead of jumping the gun? Then you can plan to keep the kitties busy with something else and you'll know to calm DOWN! Smooches Melissa

that really does stink. I went thru this exactly. I have a nerve disorder that gives me fiery sciatica type pain and numbness from hips to kneecaps on both outer legs. I've had it off and on since a gymnastic injury as a teenager. sleeping on my back almost always brings it on and for the sleep study I had to sleep on my back and of course the meralgia pain kicked in. i was restless, no deep sleep, and they said I had sleep hypopnea not apnea (half breaths) and I tried to tell them that's because you half hold your breath when you are in pain. At the pulmonologists when you do the breathing tests thru various filters and things I registered the best they had ever seen. even after those tests where you inhale things, my pulse ox fingerclip never dropped below 99%. they even mention that was pretty rare. In spite of all of that they depended on the sleep study that showed hypopnea. they also were concerned that I had no stage4 sleep, umm, I told them ahead of time I used to suffer from night terrors, true shrieking in bed, fighting punching, coma level inability to wake up type stuff and it took 7 years of learning lucid dreaming to make that go away. Lucid dreaming also retrains your brain to dream at a lower level. I brought in the case file on me and my sleeping training as well as a research paper on lucid dreaming and how you cannot apply standard brainwave analysis to those who lucid dream, but apart from a "hmm, interesting" kind of glance the sleep techs at alexian hospital didn't even read it. They insisted I couldn't have dreamt and I knew I had. So guess who got put on a CPAP for 2 months b4 and 2 months after surgery. I complied just long enough to make sure I got my surgery and aftercare then stopped using the machine which gave me headaches and prevented restful sleep. I was lucky in my case hubby has sleep apnea and had been on a CPAP for several years and has an older spare machine we keep for traveling. All I had to do was buy a new mask for it for me, we didn't have to pay any machine rental. I hope all works out well, one thing that might help you avoid surgery delays for the extra tests is to be open to taking appointment cancellations at the sleep lab if that is possible for you. My surgery date ended up a full 2 months ahead of time because we lived 5 blocks from the hospital and I was able to just run on in for both sleep studies on 20 minutes notice. If the first sleep study makes them want you on a CPAP you'll need a second study to determine the titration level for the machine. best of luck and hang in there! Colleen

Stefanie, Don't give up! They made me do it too and I had no signs of apnea. Then it took a month to schedule the test, by the way, if you couldn't sleep with the thing on your finger, you probably won't sleep there either. The Dr. told me that all I had to do was take the test and if it came back neg. then they would give me the clearance. Well, they made me go back in for a visit to go over the results that were negative. Not very effecient if you ask me. But just do what they as****pt saying it is for my own benefit, they just want to make sure for surgery. I just had all my pre-op testing done. I have a visit with Dr. Rantis on the 4th, and then off to surgery on the 15th. I thought it would never get here. Keep plugging away, sometimes things happen for reasons we are not even aware off!