I first heard about my snoring many years ago.
I was in the hospital for my first (and only) episode of DKA. I had a pretty funny roommate, but boy did he give me a hard time the next morning.
When the nurse came into the room for the first time he told her “watch out for all of the wood chips, this guy’s been sawing logs all night long!”
I didn’t really think too much of it then.
I treat my father, uncle, and cousin to it once a year on our traditional hunting trip. They don’t complain too much, I guess because it’s only one night a year.
My wife? Yes, she tells me I snore, but says she is used to it. Poor thing.
It wasn’t until I started a new job that required overnight travel, with a roommate, for three to five consecutive nights, that I started to worry a bit about it.
Luckily for me the guy who I room with is a pretty good buddy, and he tolerates me quite admirably. I usually buy him earplugs for the trip, and yes, he does use them. He tells me that I could shake the paint off the walls and rattle windows for three miles around.
Wowsers.
After the second or third trip, and dealing with some well deserved ribbing, I started thinking that I might have a problem.
I have heard about sleep apnea and CPAP machines, but had never wanted to explore the possibility of being hooked up to another device and dealing with another “thing” (that “thing” being sleep apnea).
But then I started to wonder if I was really getting restful sleep at night? I’m always tired, I crawl out of bed in the morning feeling like I could use another 10 hours of sleep, and I lean heavily on the crutch that is Diet Coke.
Maybe I’m living life at half speed? Maybe I would feel much more energetic if I got some good sleep? Maybe I’m dealing with something that affects many different areas of my life, from physical, to mental, to my diabetes management, and weight control?
So I decided to check into it.
“Just sleep naturally…” the guy says after 45 minutes of attaching things to me. What the hell have I gotten myself into?
Results to come later in the month at a follow up appointment.
