Friday, June 15, 2007
Sleep Study Results
I spoke with the nurse at my doctor's office yesterday. The sleep study results came back "normal." I have a follow up appointment with the doctor the end of July. I'd like to hear what his next theory is going to be about why I can't sleep at night and am tired throughout the day.
~Pam
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Fast vs. Slow
WLS patients seem to be divided into two categories:
Those who lose a lot of weight very quickly and hit their goal weight right on schedule.
Those who do not lose weight quickly or see a steady melting of the pounds but never really reach their goal weight no matter how hard they try.
Last night at my WLS Support Group meeting we were discussing this a bit. A theory was proposed about why people are so different in their weight loss results. What if people who had a very unhealthy diet of high fat, high calorie foods were the ones who saw quick weight loss…. And people who had followed a very healthy eating plan before surgery are the ones who saw slower results.
The healthy eater has a body that is already accustomed to lower daily calorie intake and doesn’t have that far to adjust with a post-op diet. Whereas the unhealthy eater can drop pounds quickly because of the drastic changes being made in their diet post-op.
My friend, Ali, has struggled with losing all her weight and has struggled with extended plateaus. Rather than losing the 150 pounds she wanted to, her weight loss stopped at 85 pounds and no matter what she did to push her diet along, she couldn’t lose another single pound. Before surgery she ate an ultra-healthy diet and exercised extensively. She was already on the right road for health before she had the surgery but wasn’t able to lose weight without the help of the surgery.
My sister, Shelly, lost her weight quickly after her surgery and hit her goal within the first year post-op. The difference? Could it be that Shelly didn’t eat a healthy diet before her surgery? She was leading a high-fat, high-sugar, high-calorie, no-exercise lifestyle. But the sudden change in diet and exercise after surgery caused her to lose weight quickly. She lost a total of 190 pounds and has kept it off for five year.
I bring this up because of my own current lifestyle. I’m eating a very healthy diet right now with an average of 1,300 calories per day. I’m exercising 3 to 5 days per week. In general, I’m healthy with low cholesterol, normal blood pressure and low resting heart rate. Will I struggle after surgery with slow weight loss? I don’t know, but it’s something to consider and prepare for now.
It’s a theory with no real research or anything to back it up. I wonder if there’s more information about it online. And you know me…. I’m going to go dig up whatever is out there and read read read.
Just something to think about…
Pam
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
The Diet Continues
This week I’ll have my 8th official weigh-in for my 12-month diet documentation. So far the total weight loss is minimal – I’ve been jockeying back and forth with the same 3 or 4 pounds. I have faithfully been sticking to a healthy 1200-1500 per day calorie count and have been exercising 3 to 5 days per week for at least 30 minutes. I track my food and exercise on www.fitday.com and keep my hard-copy fitness journal updated with daily weigh-ins and a summary of my calorie count and exercise as well.
I’m doing everything right, but still the scale doesn’t move.
My new doctor told me that I need to stay with the program because my body is constantly fighting against my efforts. If I go off the program then the body wins and I’ll gain weight quickly. The only goal right now that he has set for me it so maintain my current body weight until I get through these final months to surgery. He has told me that there are so many things stacked against me with my hormonal imbalance, insulin resistance and genetic make up that surgery is my only option for true weight loss.
Okay, so I hear all those things he’s telling me. But my heart still gets discouraged when every single day I’m trying so hard yet nothing happens. It’s discouraging. It’s hard to keep going on the program. I hate it.
But still I persist. I persist because I know there is a way for me to be healthy and happy with my weight. I just need to continue walking down the road on that journey until I get to the turning point that will help. So I persist.
~Pam
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Sleep Study from Hell
I meant to update my blog the day after my sleep study. But it didn’t happen. Then every time I thought about it again, I wasn’t in a place where I could write (usually driving in the car). So I’ll do it now. Two weeks late.
So first of all, my sleep study started on the same evening as the American Idol finale so it was a bit stressful to deal with all the sleep study stuff while I was trying to watch the show on the little hospital-room-TV. I did catch the end, but missed a lot of the great performances by past Idol winners. Luckily I had it TIVO’d so was able to watch it all again later.
Ok, now for the good part.
The overnight sleep study part was pretty much what I expected. I was hooked up to a couple dozen wires on my legs, chest, head and face. Most of the wires were not a big deal except the ones they put on my face. The worse one was the breathing sensor that was taped on my upper lip – it sensed whether I was breathing out of my nose or my mouth. After I was all wired up, I sat up in the recliner (the too-small recliner, I might add) and read a book for a little while.
The technician came in and put me to bed around 11:00 p.m. I lay in bed for well over an hour unable to sleep. It was a bit unsettling to know that someone was watching me on camera and could hear every breath I took or every time I cleared my throat. I also hated that there wasn’t a close in the room. But eventually I went to sleep. Only to wake up again a few times throughout the night. Whenever I needed to get up and go to the bathroom, the technician had to come in and unhook me to let me walk across the room.
I was awaken at 6:00 a.m. by the technician telling me the sleep study was over for the night. All in all the overnight study was fine. Yes, uncomfortable at times, but not horrible.
However, I was asked to stay for further testing. They wanted to keep me at the facility for a daytime sleep study. I was given the choice to stay that day or I could reschedule for another day but I’d have to repeat the overnight portion again. Because I was already halfway through the process, I figured I’d stick it out and just stay. So I called in sick to work and had some breakfast.
The daytime study involved taking a series of five naps throughout the day every two hours. Each “nap” lasted about 30 minutes. The first couple of naps were fine, but the process started to wear me down real fast. Let me explain.
A side note: Before each nap I had to answer 2 questions. How sleepy do I feel? How alert do I feel? She had a little chart that I had to pick a number from for each question. Generally I was not feeling overly sleep and was moderately alert throughout the day. I mean – I wasn’t doing anything that would make me sleep or overly alert, I was just sitting there doing nothing all day.
At 6:00 a.m. when I was first awaken the technician came into my room all cheerful and full of joy. She pulled up the shade on the window, turned the TV on and talked about what a wonderful day it was going to be outside. She asked what I wanted for breakfast (scrambled eggs and sausage) and brought me a tray within a few minutes. Over-the-top-cheerful doesn’t cut it with me first thing in the morning. But I endured.
At 8:00 a.m. the technician came back into my room to prepare me for my first nap. She was soft spoken and talked slowly – as if to a child getting ready for bedtime stories. She pulled down the shade, turned off the TV and fluffed my pillows. I was hooked up to the machines again and put to bed for a nap. I starred at the ceiling for a while but finally dozed off. Almost immediately I was startled awake by the technician over the speaker in the ceiling (located next to the camera) announcing that my nap was over.
She came into my room a moment later with her Little Miss Cheerful personality all aglow. Shades up, TV on, snacks offered, wonderful day proclaimed.
Then I was left along for the next 90 minutes in the room to watch TV or read my book or whatever I wanted. But I was not permitted to leave the room (I assume I wasn’t anyway, even though I didn’t actually ask to leave).
At 10:00 a.m. guess who showed up? Yep, you guessed it. Little Miss Sleepy Time personality. Shades down, TV off, pillows fluffed and tucked into bed. This time no sleep. Just a really long 30 minutes of laying in bed knowing that she was watching me.
I won’t go through the rest of the day’s naps. I think you understand the routine by now. I didn’t sleep during any of the naps throughout the day. The only break in the routine was a pretty good lunch of baked chicken, fruit salad and veggies. Otherwise I was stuck in this little hospital room with an uncomfortable recliner and a little TV to keep me company.
By the last nap at 4:00 p.m. I was fed up. She asked her typical question of “how sleepy do you feel?” and I just wait “whatever, just like all the rest of the times.” I think she got the clue that I didn’t want to be there anymore.
As I lay in the bed this time around I quietly let the tears flow. I was emotionally exhausted, frustrated and just wanted to go home. I had been in that little room for 20 hours and I was ready for it to be done.
As soon as she announced the end of my last nap, I started removing the wires and sensors even before she could make her way into the room. She finished removing the ones I couldn’t reach when she arrived. The ones in the hair were the worst because they were literally put on with paste that felt like Crisco and I was stuck with these globs in my hair. (For all the naps the wires from the night before were still connected with the exception of the leg ones. So yes, the picture you see here is what I dealt with for 20 hours.)
Once home I was exhausted. Not physically tired, but emotionally drained. Like I said at the beginning of this epic long story… the overnight study was fine. It was the daytime study that broke me down and beat me down. I don’t envy anyone who has to go through such an ordeal.
The next day (Friday) I did a bit of looking around on the Internet to see what I could learn about why they might have wanted to keep me for a daytime study. If I’d known what it was all about beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have stayed. I also found out that they generally only do the daytime study if they can’t determine any specific problems during the overnight study – like sleep apnea.
Basically a daytime study is to determine why a patient has excessive sleepiness during the day to the point of having narcolepsy. I had complained that I was tired all day long and lacked energy or motivation. I think they got that confused with being “sleepy” all day. I’m not sleepy to the point of falling asleep at times when I shouldn’t (while working or driving) – but I am tired throughout the day as if I am worn out and just want to relax on the sofa and not do anything physical. More like fatigued rather than sleepy.
The results of the study won’t be available for 2 to 3 weeks - which makes that sometime next week.
I know that I don’t sleep well at night and get up anywhere from 3 times to 6 times a night. But I also know that I sleep deeply when I do sleep. I dream, so I must be going through the first 4 stages of sleep to get to the REM cycle.
I’m sure that the fatigue has a lot to do with my lifestyle and maybe things are just catching up to me lately. I am away from home for 12 hours a day for work – 3 hours of that on the road for my commute to and from the office. I also run a business out of my home in my spare time and try to put in about 20 hours a week focused on those activities (marketing, product development, website maintenance, client projects, etc.). But lately I’m just so exhausted when I get home from my day job that I don’t have the energy to deal with the business so it has been slipping lately. Plus I try to fit in regular exercise 3 to 5 days a week – even if it’s just 30 minutes of walking. And that doesn’t even account for the rest of life involving my family, friends and social life (which is not that extensive in the first place). Geesh! No wonder I’m tired all the time. I need to slow down.
So I’ll wait to find out the results of the sleep study.
Wow! This post has gotten so long! If you’ve made it this far, I’m amazed. LOL! Next time I’ll try to make a long story shorter.
~Pam
So first of all, my sleep study started on the same evening as the American Idol finale so it was a bit stressful to deal with all the sleep study stuff while I was trying to watch the show on the little hospital-room-TV. I did catch the end, but missed a lot of the great performances by past Idol winners. Luckily I had it TIVO’d so was able to watch it all again later.
Ok, now for the good part.
The overnight sleep study part was pretty much what I expected. I was hooked up to a couple dozen wires on my legs, chest, head and face. Most of the wires were not a big deal except the ones they put on my face. The worse one was the breathing sensor that was taped on my upper lip – it sensed whether I was breathing out of my nose or my mouth. After I was all wired up, I sat up in the recliner (the too-small recliner, I might add) and read a book for a little while.
The technician came in and put me to bed around 11:00 p.m. I lay in bed for well over an hour unable to sleep. It was a bit unsettling to know that someone was watching me on camera and could hear every breath I took or every time I cleared my throat. I also hated that there wasn’t a close in the room. But eventually I went to sleep. Only to wake up again a few times throughout the night. Whenever I needed to get up and go to the bathroom, the technician had to come in and unhook me to let me walk across the room.
I was awaken at 6:00 a.m. by the technician telling me the sleep study was over for the night. All in all the overnight study was fine. Yes, uncomfortable at times, but not horrible.
However, I was asked to stay for further testing. They wanted to keep me at the facility for a daytime sleep study. I was given the choice to stay that day or I could reschedule for another day but I’d have to repeat the overnight portion again. Because I was already halfway through the process, I figured I’d stick it out and just stay. So I called in sick to work and had some breakfast.
The daytime study involved taking a series of five naps throughout the day every two hours. Each “nap” lasted about 30 minutes. The first couple of naps were fine, but the process started to wear me down real fast. Let me explain.
A side note: Before each nap I had to answer 2 questions. How sleepy do I feel? How alert do I feel? She had a little chart that I had to pick a number from for each question. Generally I was not feeling overly sleep and was moderately alert throughout the day. I mean – I wasn’t doing anything that would make me sleep or overly alert, I was just sitting there doing nothing all day.
At 6:00 a.m. when I was first awaken the technician came into my room all cheerful and full of joy. She pulled up the shade on the window, turned the TV on and talked about what a wonderful day it was going to be outside. She asked what I wanted for breakfast (scrambled eggs and sausage) and brought me a tray within a few minutes. Over-the-top-cheerful doesn’t cut it with me first thing in the morning. But I endured.
At 8:00 a.m. the technician came back into my room to prepare me for my first nap. She was soft spoken and talked slowly – as if to a child getting ready for bedtime stories. She pulled down the shade, turned off the TV and fluffed my pillows. I was hooked up to the machines again and put to bed for a nap. I starred at the ceiling for a while but finally dozed off. Almost immediately I was startled awake by the technician over the speaker in the ceiling (located next to the camera) announcing that my nap was over.
She came into my room a moment later with her Little Miss Cheerful personality all aglow. Shades up, TV on, snacks offered, wonderful day proclaimed.
Then I was left along for the next 90 minutes in the room to watch TV or read my book or whatever I wanted. But I was not permitted to leave the room (I assume I wasn’t anyway, even though I didn’t actually ask to leave).
At 10:00 a.m. guess who showed up? Yep, you guessed it. Little Miss Sleepy Time personality. Shades down, TV off, pillows fluffed and tucked into bed. This time no sleep. Just a really long 30 minutes of laying in bed knowing that she was watching me.
I won’t go through the rest of the day’s naps. I think you understand the routine by now. I didn’t sleep during any of the naps throughout the day. The only break in the routine was a pretty good lunch of baked chicken, fruit salad and veggies. Otherwise I was stuck in this little hospital room with an uncomfortable recliner and a little TV to keep me company.
By the last nap at 4:00 p.m. I was fed up. She asked her typical question of “how sleepy do you feel?” and I just wait “whatever, just like all the rest of the times.” I think she got the clue that I didn’t want to be there anymore.
As I lay in the bed this time around I quietly let the tears flow. I was emotionally exhausted, frustrated and just wanted to go home. I had been in that little room for 20 hours and I was ready for it to be done.
As soon as she announced the end of my last nap, I started removing the wires and sensors even before she could make her way into the room. She finished removing the ones I couldn’t reach when she arrived. The ones in the hair were the worst because they were literally put on with paste that felt like Crisco and I was stuck with these globs in my hair. (For all the naps the wires from the night before were still connected with the exception of the leg ones. So yes, the picture you see here is what I dealt with for 20 hours.)
Once home I was exhausted. Not physically tired, but emotionally drained. Like I said at the beginning of this epic long story… the overnight study was fine. It was the daytime study that broke me down and beat me down. I don’t envy anyone who has to go through such an ordeal.
The next day (Friday) I did a bit of looking around on the Internet to see what I could learn about why they might have wanted to keep me for a daytime study. If I’d known what it was all about beforehand, I probably wouldn’t have stayed. I also found out that they generally only do the daytime study if they can’t determine any specific problems during the overnight study – like sleep apnea.
Basically a daytime study is to determine why a patient has excessive sleepiness during the day to the point of having narcolepsy. I had complained that I was tired all day long and lacked energy or motivation. I think they got that confused with being “sleepy” all day. I’m not sleepy to the point of falling asleep at times when I shouldn’t (while working or driving) – but I am tired throughout the day as if I am worn out and just want to relax on the sofa and not do anything physical. More like fatigued rather than sleepy.
The results of the study won’t be available for 2 to 3 weeks - which makes that sometime next week.
I know that I don’t sleep well at night and get up anywhere from 3 times to 6 times a night. But I also know that I sleep deeply when I do sleep. I dream, so I must be going through the first 4 stages of sleep to get to the REM cycle.
I’m sure that the fatigue has a lot to do with my lifestyle and maybe things are just catching up to me lately. I am away from home for 12 hours a day for work – 3 hours of that on the road for my commute to and from the office. I also run a business out of my home in my spare time and try to put in about 20 hours a week focused on those activities (marketing, product development, website maintenance, client projects, etc.). But lately I’m just so exhausted when I get home from my day job that I don’t have the energy to deal with the business so it has been slipping lately. Plus I try to fit in regular exercise 3 to 5 days a week – even if it’s just 30 minutes of walking. And that doesn’t even account for the rest of life involving my family, friends and social life (which is not that extensive in the first place). Geesh! No wonder I’m tired all the time. I need to slow down.
So I’ll wait to find out the results of the sleep study.
Wow! This post has gotten so long! If you’ve made it this far, I’m amazed. LOL! Next time I’ll try to make a long story shorter.
~Pam
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