Salivary Biopsy and Sleep Study(1)
Friday Dec 8th, was my return to Dr. Christine Lepourde the ENT doctor for the salivary gland biopsy. My neurologist and my primary had both told me this test consisted of getting 1 or 2 small samples of tissue from the inside of my lip or cheek. The ENT cut eight (8) salivary gland “buds” out of the right lower side of my mouth; she said she wanted to be certain that the lab had plenty of tissue to work with. This was painful and very unpleasant. 
My mouth is still swollen, sore and the lip partially numb. I am a little worried about the numbness not going away and am afraid they might have damaged a nerve. It is interfering with my speech a little bit and making me drool when I sleep. Not fun. 
Saturday Dec 9th, night at 8:30pm I went into a clinic for a sleep study. It was a small room furnished like a nice hotel room, Rocking chair, lazy boy, queen size bed that was way too high for me.( I had to jump to get in, I asked for a step stool but they didn’t have one) But instead of radio or clock on side tables there was medical monitoring machines. The was a small TV and VCR on which I was required to watch a video on Sleep apnea as I was wired up.
It took over an hour to get wired up head to toe with all kinds of monitoring electrodes, and devices. Then I had to pee. I read a magazine for about an hour, peed again and then was settled into bed.
It was an awful night because this day my body had decide to flush the build up of lymph fluid so I was peeing like every 3 hours, each time having to call for assistance to have my umbilical cord of wires unhooked from the machines and looped over my arm. (But I’ve dropped about 10 pounds of bloat.) 
: O) After an hour not being able to fall asleep, the nurse/tech, Sue gave me a sleeping pill I finally fell asleep but only for a short time, I startled awake again. At which time I had to get up and pee. Once in bed and hooked up again Sue gave me a 2nd pill. They want to see you under natural sleep cycle so the pills are light dose made to help you fall asleep but not “unnaturally” keep you asleep. 2nd dose seemed to help a little more, I stayed asleep longer but I still kept waking up, I rolled, tossed and turned so much that I pulled the bottom sheet right off the bed, and kicked the covers all over. I woke up again around 5:45 am I know the time because I lay awake again for a while trying to fall back asleep but realizing I needed to get up and pee again. Then Sue came in and told good timing its time to get up, wake up call is 6am. She unhooked me and let me dash to the bathroom, then I returned and helped her rip electrodes off my body. I asked her if I slept enough for her to get data, she told me I Never got into deep REM sleep, but that I did sleep enough to show I was having episodes of APNEA and I would likely be asked to come in for a 2nd longer all day sleep study. But 1st I have to meet with Dr. Macon to discuss the results of this 1st sleep study.
IN OTHER NEWS: Paul(bro in law) is back in the US, visiting his wife and 3 yr old son. He gets about a week leave then is shipped back over to Iraq, so the rest of the family in michigan won’t get to see him, but we have got to talk with him on the phone.
Email this entry
The trackback URL for this entry is: Trackbacks are disabled for this entry
Trackbacks:
Comments:
Next entry: Visit Gone Wrong
Previous entry: Pre X-mas Chaos, My Birthday, More Doc visits & Tests
