So there I was, on a train bound for Kingston late one afternoon. I was to arrive for my sleep study at 9 pm sharp, so I had some time for dinner before heading to the clinic. I went and had a lovely dinner at Chez Piggy, as one should anytime they are in Kingston, and then hopped in an Uber uptown to the clinic around 8:30. I arrived at a small strip mall, and the door was locked, with a sign that said someone would let us in at 9.
Other people started to arrive, mostly middle-aged men. We all stood around, a bit uncomfortable, but finally, the door opened and we were ushered inside. I was shown to my room where I was asked to change into my PJs. I changed, then sat on the edge of the bed for a while before the technician came to get me to get wired up.
The whole wiring-up process takes about ½ an hour, shockingly. The kind technician began to stick probes all over my head and body. I had to string wires down my pant leg and out the bottom of my pyjamas. Then I was taken back to my room and it was lights out.
I got a total of MAYBE 4 hours of sleep that night between 10 pm and 6 am when they opened the door and turned on the overhead lights. But, that was enough for them to get what they needed to assess my sleep. And really, it was a pretty pleasant experience overall.
I dragged my tired butt home on the train, and then the waiting began. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. About 2 weeks later I got a phone call from the sleep clinic and I was summoned to the Ottawa office to hear my results.
The sleep doctor took a look at my chart and asked, “Do you know what AHI is?” I didn’t, so she explained that AHI is the Apnea Hypopnea Index. It measures apnea (when you stop breathing for at least 10 seconds) and hypopnea (when you have a partial airway blockage, making your breath shallow). The AHI tells you how many of these incidents you have on average in an hour when you’re asleep. Normal AHI is less than 5 events per hour.
My AHI was 91.
You read that right. An average of 91 times an hour, I was almost stopping breathing or stopping breathing altogether. And when you stop breathing while you’re sleeping, guess what? Your body wakes you up. Not necessarily fully awake, but it makes it very difficult for you to get into REM or deep sleep, which is necessary for your overall health. Not only that but not breathing enough causes your oxygen levels to decline, which can lead to all sorts of other chronic issues in the longer term, like diabetes, heart disease and more.
The diagnosis? Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea. The doctor took my vitals (which were normal) and then took a peek down my throat. She said, “Wow, you don’t have a lot of room in there!”. It turns out I have a narrow throat, a large tongue, and big ol’ tonsils, which is physiologically making it difficult for me to breathe when I’m asleep and everything relaxes. And yes, losing a few more pounds (which I am actively working on) would probably help, but in my case, she said, losing weight alone is not likely to solve the problem entirely.
So, my brain fog, fatigue, and at least some of my mental health issues appeared to be the result of not getting any good sleep in YEARS.
The doctor prescribed me an APAP machine (Automatic Positive Airway Machine), which is a machine with a mask that fits on your nose or nose and mouth, and pushes a stream of air through the mask to open your airway while you sleep.
The difference between an APAP and the more commonly known CPAP is simply that the APAP automatically adjusts the pressure. So my pressure ranges from 5 to 15 cmH20 (centimetre of water), depending on my needs at any given time.
A few weeks later, I was sitting in a respiratory therapist’s office, getting fitted for my first machine. They give you a one-month trial to start, to see if the therapy will work well for you. I opted for the nose-only mask as the therapist said it’s usually more comfortable than the nose and mouth mask.
The technology is pretty cool, actually. The machine is connected to their network, and every morning, the information from the night before (mask seal, number of events, etc) is sent back to the lab so they can monitor. I also have an app on my phone that lets me see the results every morning and look at the trends.
After the appointment and instruction on how to use the machine, I took the carry bag and went home, eager and a bit nervous to see how the first night with an APAP machine would go.
To be continued….
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