Sleep studies are not the best way to spend an evening...

[johnpalmer]

So, I had my sleep study done. I had been told that if my blood-oxygen saturation went low, they'd put on a mask, and they didn't, so I reckon they're unlikely to have found anything, except, wow, when a person has a sore hip, it makes for uncomfortable sleeping.

(My left hip feels closer and closer to fitting right. But it means I'm constantly stretching and using muscles that are apparently atrophied, or shortened, or something. I should probably consider going back to physical therapy, now that my hip is close enough to normal that I think they can help again. Last time, I gave up because none of them seemed able to do anything. Or maybe I should ask my doc for that latest of Schedule 2 Narcotics to help - Vicodin.)

(Yes, the changed the scheduling of Vicodin so you now need physical prescriptions and are disallowed refills. This country needs to be smacked upside the head, and then denied painkillers for the headache for fear they could be abused.)

But they may have. My sleep doc says that sleep issues can present in *very* strange ways, so I'm not refusing to listen, even if I don't think I'll like what I hear.

The four-day EEG showed nothing. The doctor wants me to consider going in for neuropsych testing, apparently to test for brain damage.

I'm being flippant, of course. Really, neuropsych testing is for finding abnormalities in brain function. If you find a person is functioning far above par in X, Y, and Z, and sub-average in W, that means something is weird about W_Brain_Region. Not necessarily "damage" - but it doesn't matter if it's a brand new, undamaged carburetor that doesn't quite fit, or wasn't quite built to spec, or if it's a damaged carburetor that doesn't quite work right (I'm too old for fuel injection, I believe... did that exist in '66?), really - it means something ain't right.

But I'm not sure I want to. And I'm not sure if I'm just being stubborn and foolish, or just admitting that we're not likely to find anything useful. So I'll let that wait for a bit.

As for the next steps: my doctor has doubled my Ritalin dosage. It helps, some.

I've stopped doing regular exercise. I also started writing again[1]. What really bothers me about this is that it seems like cause and effect. Seriously: I wasn't jogging, I was just doing some relatively gentle treadmill programs, enough to bump my heart rate up a bit, but not enough to put my body under serious strain. Is *that* what's wiping me out? And if so - do I need to accept some level of that to keep my body strong enough so that even the light exercise in a mostly-sedentary lifestyle doesn't end up being "enough" to tire me?

I don't know. But I did exercise yesterday, and I *think* the only reason I feel bad today is I had a crappy night's sleep at the sleep lab. We'll see.

Comments

[dubhain]

[A couple days late, but you know how that is. *g.* ]

Glad to know you had the study done. Also glad to hear that your O2 sats apparently didn't drop. That's good. Mine? Heh. They drop like a big, dropping, droppy-thing.

And yes: The U.S. needs to be dope-slapped (pun unintentional) for the way way it treats painkillers. I'm still doing Schedule II barbiturates for my migraines, but most painkillers don't work on my anyhow, so I'm having good luck with Lidocaine patches for my chronic pain issues. I don't know whether they'd work for you, or not, of course. Might be worth asking about. I dunno.

Yeah, fuel injection existed in '66. Mechanical fuel injection was fussy, fiddly, tricky, expensive, and generally more hassle than using a carburetor. Generally only performance cars had it, in the U.S, and then usually only as a high-dollar option. (I recall the Corvette having mechanical injection as an option for at least part of its history.) Fuel injection actually goes back to...about 1902, I believe, but didn't really get used a lot (Aircraft engines, I believe,) until the 1920s, when it was used pretty widely on diesel engines. It migrated to automobiles in the 1950s. Chrysler put electronic injection into production in...1958, but the electronics couldn't handle automotive conditions very well. So mechanical was the way to go until the mid-to-late '70s.

(Which is doubtless more than you wanted to know regarding FI, but hey, I'm from the rust belt, y'know?)

I actually like your neuropsych analogy. Now you have me wondering about my brain. *g.* Also, abnormality isn't a pejorative. I'm sure you're aware of that, but it bears mentioning. Whether or not you've any in your brain.

Glad to hear the Ritalin dosage increase is helping. Hoping that you're feeling better and are in better spirits now.

[johnpalmer]

Heh. In fact, I had done a quick search on fuel injection and decided "heck with it." But this adds more, and I appreciate it.

[siliconivy.livejournal.com]

I empathize with your frustration and disillusionment. I think I may have mentioned in the past that it took them 4 years to finally diagnose the endocrine system disorder that I have, by which point it had gone untreated long enough that I developed mild Type 2 diabetes. But it was 4 years of me telling the docs that *something* wasn't right and them (understandably) focusing on my cholesterol & blood pressure, both of which went out of whack, and ignoring things I also felt were symptoms of a problem.

But stick with it, really. You may not like what you hear, but it is better than not knowing. IMHO, anyway.

Good luck, whichever way you go.