Week 4 and maybe snore no more???

Well, this week I didn't eat as well as I could have. I had a muffin at lunchtime on top of my lunch one day, AND had a lot of Subway sandwiches (we had a platter ordered for a football meeting) for lunch on Friday and then ate pizza for dinner after that...not the best week of eating in relationship to what I've been doing. However, I guess my workout regime picked up the slack. I got my swims in for the week, and one bike ride, and I even met my goal of swimming 0.75 miles on one of them! It actually felt pretty good.

The result: -2, down to 293.4. So I've officially lost over 10 pounds now...and hopefully I'll see the 280s soon! Maybe the 270s by the time our first league baseball games at the end of March.

Today, I went to my follow-up check-up with my sleep doctor from the overnight study I did last week Sunday. He confirmed that I do have sleep apnea, and we looked over some statistics that helps him decide how bad of a case it is. He found that I had a "restricted airway" that required my body to adjust/wake-up 23 times PER HOUR over the course of the 6 hour study. That's pretty crazy to think about. As my brother noted, that means I'm "waking up" in some shape or form every 2-3 minutes...my brain never gets to rest for more than 2-3 minutes without having to alert my body to move or wake to keep breathing! It's not easy being my brain!

The second statistic we looked at was my oxygen level. The doctor said that someone my age should expect to have an oxygen level of 95% or higher overnight. My level was at 76%...a slight deficit in oxygen.

With these two factors together, the doctor said that I am a candidate for a CPAP machine to help regulate my breathing and oxygen levels. If you don't know what it is, it is a Continuous Positive Air Pressure machine, which means it puts a pressure into my airways so that when I inhale slightly, the pressure keeps my airways open. This will hopefully fix my snoring/restricted breathing, which would then not only supply me with enough oxygen overnight, but also allow my brain to rest and actually go to sleep, instead of always being on alert to keep me alive at night.

So, tomorrow night (Tuesday) I get to go back into the lab, and spend another night there. This time, I get to wear the CPAP and let them adjust the amounts of air I get. I'll let you know how it goes sometime later this week!

Until then, to HEALTH and WEALTH in 2010!!!

Aloha,
Isaac