Sleep Studies

The tests to access whether I still need supplemental oxygen while sleeping are all scheduled. I have been without oxygen while exercising for three months and we took our first trip in seven years last January without dragging oxygen along. It was so freeing.

Dr. K. ordered two separate tests: an overnight spirometry and an overnight sleep test.

Overnight In-Home Finger Pulse
Oximetry Sleep Study

The spirometry equipment will be delivered to my house by Apria - my oxygen provider - along with instructions to set it up to sleep with a pulsometer. The data will be collected all night and I will drive the equipment back to Apria the next morning. The test is scheduled on March 8th.

The overnight sleep test will happen through my university contract with a separate company. They rent out an entire floor of a hotel five blocks from the hospital for the sleep tests. Michael will drive me up for the 7:30PM appointment and come back the next morning at 6:00AM. Poor guy for having to drive that much. I have the easy part!

This will be my second sleep test so I know the drill - clean hair, no products in it, nice pj's, not a lot of water that day so I don't awaken in the night, no sleep supplements. Electrodes are attached to different areas of the head and tiny microphones are taped near the nose and corner of the mouth. My job is to try to sleep with all of this on me! What I did last time was to totally wear myself out that day and not sleep a lot the night before. By the time I hit the bed, I was exhausted. This test is scheduled for March 22nd.

Hopefully by April, I will be free of all the oxygen equipment. Wouldn't that be lovely?