Saturday, April 12, 2008

Sleeping, Shopping and Straight Talking

I hadn't intended to be away from the computer all day yesterday, but with a doctor's appointment in the morning, another in the afternoon, and some racing around in between, well you know how it is.

I saw the sleep disorders specialist in the morning. He operates out of a place with the cool title of The Brain Research Institute. Sadly it's no Hammer Horror-esque 'art deco' observatory building, set high on a barren moonlit hill, but you can't have everything. He was nice, even though he did give me a major punch to the solar plexus when he delivered the salient point that I'm "a middle aged man who's a bit overweight". Ouch (bitch!). His initial diagnosis is likely long-term primary insomnia, made worse more recently by possible sleep apnea. On May 12th I get an overnight stay in hospital for a sleep study, where they hook up with electrodes and observe you sleeping.

I'm just going to pretend I'm on Big Brother, but with electrodes.

The hospital literature stresses that you have to follow your normal routine, so bring in books etc if you normally read before bed, and if you normally have alcohol before going to bed to arrange with the hospital to bring in alcohol. Alcohol and hidden cameras, see really the only difference is the electrodes.

I wonder if I'll have to do some lame-ass challenge as well?

I had some time to kill before going to see my regular doctor in the afternoon to talk about the sleep stuff and get the results of my liver ultrasound, so I headed into the city to go and get my refund from the $250 I paid for the sleep specialist in the morning. I'll skip over the half hour waiting in line, and cut to the good bit where I get $130 back from Medicare. Yay!

So of course I went to Kinokuniya and bought a couple of Japanese knitting books with some of the procceds. I mean, it's not everyday someone hands you $130! Even if it is your own money!

Then I went into Tapestry Craft (where Web-Goddess worked until very recently) to check out the yarns. I'd only been in there a couple of minutes when the nice young lady behind the counter (Hi Becca!) asked me "Excuse me, do you have a blog? Are you The Other?..." Ha, fun! I am so rock star.

So then I went and saw my regular doc in the afternoon, who agreed with me that 43 is not "middle aged" (exactly, thank you!). Everything is all good except I need to make some diet and lifestyle changes, and be more diligent about taking my cholesterol meds and maybe change meds in the future, because my liver is enlarged and has "fatty deposits". Ewww. Anyway, let's not dwell on "fatty deposits", I'm still dealing with "middle aged".

So there you have it, the minutae of my day. I felt good about all the medical stuff, the sleep study thing should be an interesting experience and hopefully will lead to a resolution, my doc looked at all my blood results over the past 3 years and showed me that all the badness has been steadily trending downwards. Yay me! Oh, and my doctor's receptionist (Who we like very much, and not just because she wears an "Ab Fab" t-shirt with Patsy & Edina on it.) didn't charge me for the appointment. Score.

12 comments:

James said...

43 is not middle-aged? In Africa maybe... but in Australia 43 is most definitely middle-aged...

M-H said...

Sounds like your doctor is on the ball - caring, sharing and tactful.

Anonymous said...

Do you have sex before going to sleep? So bring a partner and all will be filmed ;)

Victor said...

"Follow your normal routine..before bed"

Mmmmmmm, Georg 'beat' me to it. What if you usually masturbate?

Ray Ray said...

what if having a wank before bedtime is your normal routine? would you stick with the routine?

Andrea James said...

Damn, I have been blogging since 2000 and still no one recognises me from any of *my* blogs. You are well ensconced in the rock star category, dude.

Miss Eudoxia said...

The challenge will be to sleep with all those wires hanging off you and a rebreathing mask on,as well as the smell of a hospital whilst telling yourself that you really are at home.

Beccakater said...

Smiles gleefully! Waves from the other side of her home computer (I'm still really glad you didn't freak)

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

43 will never be middle-aged while we're around to screw it over, you know it...

The Other Andrew said...

Absolutely, here's to growing old (dis)gracefully!

The Other Andrew said...

Thanks for the comments everyone. Tsk, tsk, there will be no 'bopping the bishop' on my hsopital stay you boys. (Probably)

And yes Miss E, probably not much sleep either...

Hi again Becca!

Destructomeg said...

When I did my sleep study in 2000 (I think) i wasn't allowed to drink - they wanted to test without. Which means that I got a result that isn't actually reflective of my normality! And I had to wear PJs to bed. and it was a nasty single bed. I actually found it hard to sleep, and was actually woken up by the nice young man that was watching me in the wee small hours as I'd kicked off some of the electrodes. Oh and hospital blankets suck, I'd recommend taking your own if you are fussy :)