Whatever He Says

By Belinda Friends, I just have to give you an update on my progress with SLEEP; glorious, restorative; sleep! (see Out of the Twilight Zone  and To Sleep...Yawn and Out of the Twilight Zone Part 2  ) I think some people out there might care to know how it's going. And I I admit that I am filled with the zeal of the Newly Converted (to anything :)) and want to encourage anyone out there who might be teetering on the edge of dealing with this issue in their life and putting it off--run; don't walk, to your doctor; and get ready to start living as you did not imagine you could! When I made the decision to deal with the issue Paul nagged me about--stopping breathing at night and then gasping for air--it was because I knew it was the wise thing to do for health reasons. I was unaware of the issue myself and I hoped that maybe having a better night's sleep would cure my daytime drowsiness and that just maybe (oh what bliss this would be) I'd be able to read without f...

By Belinda Hey friends, if you've been reading here regularly, you may remember my posts over the past few months  about my suspicions and Paul's certainty, that I had sleep apnea (see Out of the Twilight Zone  and To Sleep...Yawn  .) Well, I have an update! On Monday I went to see Dr. Ong at the Sleep Clinic to review the results of the sleep study. My greatest fear was that nothing happened when I spent the night at the clinic. I felt as though I slept well, in spite of waking up on the hour every hour and having more wires and straps covering my body than I had dreamt of. How typical a night sleep was it possible to have under such circumstances? I had such high hopes of dealing with a chronic problem at last, yet I wondered if it had shown up. To my great relief, the data collected from the mess of wires, showed that I stopped breathing 23 times on the night of the study, even though only for periods of 11-12 seconds. This, the doctor said, p...

By Belinda I am tired--no, really, I am tired. And I am tired of being tired. I have a sense of urgency to "get on with" several things, including making a doctor's appointment to deal with a problem of sleepiness that has plagued me for a long time. I think it's part of entering a new decade and thinking about how I want to spend the rest of my life. Not tired, that's for sure. When I was in my 20's and 30's I earned my tiredness. I was exhausted a lot of the time but it wasn't hard to see why. Like many other young people juggling work, family and volunteer responsibilities, I worked very hard and for long hours. There was little down time and when I did sit down, I fell asleep. I fell asleep in church (quite a feat under my father-in-law's fiery sermons;) I fell asleep when our children rehearsed school presentations, and whenever I sat down with a good book. I zoned out and fell asleep when listening to a conversation partner who talked...