Sleep Study

I did a three night sleep study over the weekend and was excited to hear that I could do it at home rather than at a sleep center. My excitement wore off at bedtime as I climbed into the device, attached all the sensors, secured all safety straps, and noted emergency exits. I was surprised this contraption didn’t come with some kind of parachute or airbag in the event I fall out of bed! A built in neck massager would have been a nice touch though.

The sleep monitor strapped on like a camp head light with three sensors – two measure eye movement and one measures pulse and oxygen saturation. A microphone records snoring and a nasal pronged measures the airflow through your nose. Not quite the tiara I’m used to.

The first night was a long one - six hours was about all I could manage. The next two nights were brief and only tolerated about two hours before I took it off for some more comfortable sleep. I woke up a few times during the night – once to an alarm telling me to adjust one of the sensors but overall I managed to get enough hours of sleep to generate a report.

Monday morning I handed the device over to our nurse manager who plugged it in to the computer like an iPod and within a few hours I was excited to have a report in hand. Our nurse was quick to stifle my excitement to point out that the results weren’t good. Apparently I have such severe sleep apnea that the computer bolded and underlined the word Severe. I stopped breathing (or nearly stopped breathing) more than 180 times and average only about a half hour of restful sleep per night.

So… that’s why I’m so tired ALL THE TIME! The good news…. Weight loss surgery will likely cure my sleep apnea. Hmm… I wonder what it will be like to sleep well.

The next step is to see sleep specialist Dr. McCoy at Cox & McCoy Md. Hopefully I won’t have to repeat the study but we’ll see.


Cox & Mccoy Md
7320 216th St SW Ste 20
Edmonds, WA 98026
(425) 673-3850

Pre-Op Nutrition

I have scheduled my nutrition assessment. In my meeting with a medical nutrition therapist with Pacific Nutrition and Wellness we will go over my history of crazy diets, my addiction to frosted mini wheats, the Spaghetti Factory and diet orange soda. And just what this surgery is going to be able to do for me in terms of food.

As part of the pre-op process I have to have a nutrition assessment and a psychological assessment and I’m nervous about them both. I don’t know how I feel about having someone dive into my world to discover my twisted relationship with food. All those sneaky little moments were I rationalized

“I can eat that because no one’s around to see me!”

“If I eat it really fast I can pretend it never happened”

“Salad w/o dressing for dinner = big piece of cheesecake for dessert!”


I have waged this terrible war with food for years and I finally feel like I am about to launch a weapon of mass destruction on it. Finally I will be able to figure out why I love something I hate so much and why I haven’t been able to beat this on my own.

In the meantime I have set a few rules for myself that I already know I need to work on.

1. Cut out soda (that’s going to be HARD)

2. Practice not drinking a beverage while I’m eating a meal

3. Make sure that my meal has some protein in it

4. Remember to take vitamins (another hard one – I can never remember!)

The Fearsome Hiker

I admit that I may have seen one too many episodes of I Shouldn't Be Alive but, ever the Girl Scout, I am a fan of being prepared for anything!

Thinking of cougar attacks and crazy mountain people I thought that having a can of pepper spray might be a good idea.......and a knife.... one that I can open with one hand... that has a holster I can strap to my leg SWAT style.

I soon realized that I needed to solicit the help of my Dad as Safety Director in this project. And Father like Daughter.. I now also have a collapsible baton ... with a lead tip. And after explaining why the machete was unnecessary I went to sleep feeling very safe and wondering... do I need a permit for all these weapons?

Introduction

40 hikes is part adventure project and part weight loss project. I will be having weight loss surgery this Spring with Puget Sound Surgical Center and to help get me back in shape and excited about a more activity-oriented hobby, I am planning a series of hikes.

Here are the rules.. I will go on one hike each week starting the first day of Spring (March 20th) and going until the last day of Fall (December 18th). That is a total of 40 hikes. Some will be hard. Some will be more like a walk. But each will be different.

I will take pictures and report on the day, conditions, the sights and sounds, how I feel, and any other wonderful (or not so wonderful) tidbits as the project progresses. I will also report on how I'm feeling physically, emotionally, and how my weight, energy, and overall health has changed as I predict it will. So stay tuned!