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Sleep Apnea It Ain't
My sleep study results finally finally came back. Shocking no one, it's not apnea. But let me emphasize how Not Apnea it is.
There's an index, see. Apnea is gradated along two axes: number of incidences per hour, and severity.
To be the mildest possible apnea, there have to be five incidences per hour (mildest amount) of oxygen saturation under 90% (mildest severity).
I had 4 incidences per NIGHT. Including the time I woke up with a cable wrapped around my neck.
So, let's all really appreciate the degree to which I do not have sleep apnea, okay? Are we appropriately appreciative?
MY FUCKING DOCTOR. IS STILL TRYING. TO ADVICE ME. ABOUT APNEA. EVEN WHILE TELLING ME THAT MY COMBINATION OF HYPERSOMNIA, HALLUCINATIONS AND PARALYSIS IS ALMOST ALWAYS NARCOLEPSY. Like, three separate times while she was explaining narcolepsy to me, she said it could still be apnea, since it's so "prevalent in cases of obesity."
One thing that gets asked on sleep study intakes is if you have any sudden weight changes, because that can indicate underlying problems, btw. I gained 70 pounds in just under 6 months, for reasons no one has yet been able to figure out, which happened at the onset of this fatigue. So you would think she would be interested in the potential underlying causal factor connecting those? But no, I'm fat, ergo, being fat is the cause of all my problems.
But, it gets Better™, because the doctor's advice for me? Eat less, specifically eat a low carb diet, and stay awake more.
Now, here's the thing. She never asked me about my diet. I can't digest fatty foods because I'm missing the fat digesting organ, the gallbladder. I mentioned this 6 times. That's not exaggeration. I mentioned this six distinct times. I physically cannot eat a low carb diet. However, that's not a big issue, because I actually eat an almost comically small amount of food. About 1800 calories a day. This is about half what someone my weight needs, but the thing is, I sleep so much I physically don't have the time to eat more.
And as for stay awake, IF. I COULD. STAY AWAKE. THEN I WOULD NOT. BE IN THIS PLACE. WOULD I.
Other advice included the ever popular, "only lay down when you will fall asleep within 15 minutes," and a total dismissal of my concerns about my severe chronic pain. "Get more sunlight," ignoring the fact the I literally have blood tests backing up the fact that the vitamin d deficiency she's trying to treat there doesn't exist and those test results were in her hands.
All in all, it was exactly as stupid and awful a fucking experience as expected.
There's an index, see. Apnea is gradated along two axes: number of incidences per hour, and severity.
To be the mildest possible apnea, there have to be five incidences per hour (mildest amount) of oxygen saturation under 90% (mildest severity).
I had 4 incidences per NIGHT. Including the time I woke up with a cable wrapped around my neck.
So, let's all really appreciate the degree to which I do not have sleep apnea, okay? Are we appropriately appreciative?
MY FUCKING DOCTOR. IS STILL TRYING. TO ADVICE ME. ABOUT APNEA. EVEN WHILE TELLING ME THAT MY COMBINATION OF HYPERSOMNIA, HALLUCINATIONS AND PARALYSIS IS ALMOST ALWAYS NARCOLEPSY. Like, three separate times while she was explaining narcolepsy to me, she said it could still be apnea, since it's so "prevalent in cases of obesity."
One thing that gets asked on sleep study intakes is if you have any sudden weight changes, because that can indicate underlying problems, btw. I gained 70 pounds in just under 6 months, for reasons no one has yet been able to figure out, which happened at the onset of this fatigue. So you would think she would be interested in the potential underlying causal factor connecting those? But no, I'm fat, ergo, being fat is the cause of all my problems.
But, it gets Better™, because the doctor's advice for me? Eat less, specifically eat a low carb diet, and stay awake more.
Now, here's the thing. She never asked me about my diet. I can't digest fatty foods because I'm missing the fat digesting organ, the gallbladder. I mentioned this 6 times. That's not exaggeration. I mentioned this six distinct times. I physically cannot eat a low carb diet. However, that's not a big issue, because I actually eat an almost comically small amount of food. About 1800 calories a day. This is about half what someone my weight needs, but the thing is, I sleep so much I physically don't have the time to eat more.
And as for stay awake, IF. I COULD. STAY AWAKE. THEN I WOULD NOT. BE IN THIS PLACE. WOULD I.
Other advice included the ever popular, "only lay down when you will fall asleep within 15 minutes," and a total dismissal of my concerns about my severe chronic pain. "Get more sunlight," ignoring the fact the I literally have blood tests backing up the fact that the vitamin d deficiency she's trying to treat there doesn't exist and those test results were in her hands.
All in all, it was exactly as stupid and awful a fucking experience as expected.