I Dream of Breathing

My doctor appointment was this morning, bright and early. Results of my blood work and sleep study, finally. The doctor was running almost 40 minutes behind schedule because he had a med student observing for the day. I always bring a book with me and never have time to read it when I go there, it would figure this would be the one time I did not bring a book to read and ended up waiting the longest.

The results of the blood work were pretty reassuring. The vaccine raised the appropriate antibodies from 2/14 to 10/14, which while not 100% is a significant boost. I was super happy about that. The sleep study results were a little surprising to everyone: Sleep Apnea +  something else. Though, because of that the med student's eyes lit up like a puppy about to receive a treat.

It's somewhat amusing because the moment I walked into the sleep study, my nurse commented how unlikely it was that I would suffer from Sleep Apnea due to my height to weight ratio and age. Yet during REM sleep, I quit breathing over 21 times. Per hour. Before and after REM sleep I quit breathing at least 7 additional times. Per hour. Each pause in breathing has to last for at least 10 seconds in duration to to be counted as an apnea. Less than 5 lapses per night is considered normal, between 5 and 15 is considered mild, 15-30 is moderate and anything above 30 is severe. For a person of my physical description to have as many as 21 during REM sleep alone is boggling.

This means I have a some underlying medical problem. It's not the typical case of OSA where Fatty McFatfats needs to lay off the Burger King for a while.  It's a rare case of CSA. Several ideas were put on the table, but nothing conclusive. I'll be seeing yet another specialist, bringing my health team to five now, either before or after my California trip. The dude's schedule wasn't available, so I have no idea when I'll be any closer to answers. We'll see.

The idea that I am least restful while dreaming is kind of intriguing because I have such vivid, memorable, consistent dreams. Or at east my brain believes it does.

In other news, the Seminole went and retrieved all of my worldly possessions from the Clearwater house this afternoon. Though there was a *miscommunication regarding Neelix... so I'll have to go pick him up myself once I'm down there. Not a huge deal, though it means more driving than planned. I head down this Saturday. That's less than a day from now. I should probably pack, but I'm openly procrastinating.
*By 'miscommunication' I mean, 'my ex is a mean bitter little man.'

More than anything else, I will be most happy when I can hug my cat again. While I miss having access to all of my stuff, I really really miss eating cookies with a lap full of Neelix and getting crumbs all over him.

In anticipation I present a classic Neelix moment:

This can't be comfortable.