Sleep is No Laughing Matter

Or maybe I should say "Lack of sleep is no laughing matter."

The last several weeks, Mike has had a terrible time sleeping. He's started snoring very loud and obnoxiously. At first, I thought it might have been related to a cold that he'd had. But it just continued and I started noticing that he was tired all the time and having a hard time staying awake in the evenings and other times.

He tried Breathe Right strips, but they did not help. I tried them too and I ended up getting a cold after the very first night. That'll teach me to try new things!!!

You all know what it's like when your bed partner is not sleeping well. It's been hard for me to get some sleep too. I've tried ear plugs, but I could still hear him snoring over the ear plugs. Most of the time now, I just go sleep in my recliner. That seems to work better than everything else. And if I turn on a table fan in the living room, I can't even hear him snoring.

The downside to me sleeping in the living room is that I can't hear his alarm go off and so I don't make sure he gets up on time. Now most of the time, he's done fine but there have been a few days where we were running late.

A couple weeks ago, he got in to see the doctor. I went with him in case I needed to explain what I had been hearing and seeing. Mike told the doctor that I thought he might have sleep apnea. And the doctor acted like I was just a crazy wife who was tired of the snoring. I told him that I was worried about Mike because he was so tired and having a hard time making it through the day.

So he tells me that lots of people stop breathing at night and he starts doing a demonstration with his watch on how he can hold his breath for 10 second and still talk to me and he's fine. Luckily, Mike was between me and this guy because I was suddenly feeling like a pregnant hormonal woman and I was getting sick of this guy's attitude.

The doctor finally said he would send Mike to do a sleep study, but "everybody I send to the sleep study comes back with sleep apnea." Personally, I don't care what these other people are doing. I just want Mike to feel better.

Late last week, Mike went in to do his sleep study. It was scheduled to be a two-day study. He went in the first night and they hooked him up to all the monitors. He had a hard time going to sleep so they finally gave him a sleep aid. And he still slept very little that night. The technicians were not supposed to tell him anything, but one of them said he "kept waking up when he would stop breathing."

The second night of the sleep study was much better. They hooked him up to the monitors and also put a CPAP machine on him to see how he would do with that. In the middle of the night, they came in and switched him to a different mask. I think the first one just covered the nose and the second one covered his nose and mouth. After the mask change, he went back to sleep and slept well the rest of the night. He said that when he woke up the next morning, he was the most refreshed he'd been in years.

Unfortunately, he is still waiting for his doctor to get the sleep study results to see if he can get a machine of his own. He's going to call them tomorrow and see if he can get this process moving. He is just ready to feel so much better after a good night's sleep. I'm praying he'll have his machine by the end of the week.