Whew! I did my first sleep apnea study last night. It was unpleasant, but not horrible. I did sleep a good bit, but I am tired and sore.  I had 21 wires attached to me: 4 to my legs, the rest to my face, head, neck, and shoulders. I need to take a bath and wash my hair to get the stuff out of it. I arrived at 8:30, as requested. Well, I was about 5 minutes late, because I went back for my pills that I take at bedtime. It was cold and wet--a chance of snow was predicted by this morning! I imagined being snowed in at the doctor's office. The door was locked, no one answered my knocks. I was getting a little upset, when I realized there was a sign on the door to ring the bell and a buzzer high up on the right. The sign was hidden by the Christmas wreath on the door and the outside lighting was not good enough to see the sign or the bell. But someone came, a woman (sleep technician) named April. She let me in and I filled out a questionnaire about my day, whether there was anything unusual to affect my sleep that night. She was waiting for another patient who never came. She showed me to a small, not unpleasant bedroom, where I changed into my nightgown. I used the bathroom next door and took out my contact lenses. April had me sit on a stool while she attached all the elctrodes (?) and a microphone over my throat for snoring. There were two sets of probes in my nose to monitor breathing and one near my mouth. She told me to sleep on my back as much as possible, which is hard for me. I always sleep on my side.

My back began to hurt from sitting there with no support for almost half an hour. The television in the room was on, a flat screen high up on the wall over my head. I could only hear it. Eventually I decided it was Bill Murray playing Scrooge in some modern version of a Christmas carol. It seemed a little surreal to me... I had asked her to turn it off earlier and she said she would, but hadn't yet.

I got into bed (carefully, with my wires attached). There was no good place for my water bottle, so it just spent the night on the bed with me. Not ideal, since it leaks some. She did some tests. She could tell me what to do from the next room via a speaker. She could hear and see me all night. I read for awhile and then told her she could come and turn the lights off. I woke up later and told her I had to go to the bathroom. She disconnected some of the wires and handed a box to me to carry over my shoulder with the ends of all of them. Then I came back and she hooked me back up. I was very thirsty during the night and my back and shoulder hurt, but I slept off and on.

Before 5, she knocked on the door and told me to wake up. She took the wires off, but I had to take the tape off. Ouch. I got dressed and put in my lenses and fillled out two more questionnaires. She offered me orange juice, apple juice or coffee. I took the orange juice--it was an individual bottle from Tropicana that had a funny taste to it, maybe like grapefruit juice. I've noticed it before with Tropicana.

I will go back in a week, unless they call to tell me I don't need to (because I don't have sleep apnea). The second time I will know more what to expect, which is both good and bad. I will use a mask of some sort to see if it helps me, I believe.

It hadn't snowed and, in fact, had stopped raining. It was cold, just above freezing. I only saw two cars on the way home. Ray was already up and he made me some breakfast. I went back to bed for awhile, but not to sleep. Maybe later today.

Yesterday, I went to an OLLI class on Modifying Your Home to Age in Place. It was taught by a contractor who makes renovations to people's homes. He was very knowledgeable, although much of the information I already knew.

I had a pleasant lunch with Becky. I went by the UUFA to pick up some information on a poverty simulation we are hoping to schedule in early 2012 and talked to Shaye some about the Green Sanctuary committee business.

At home, my Dad came about 4 to make turkey stock. I made oatmeal-raisin cookies and gave half to him while he was doing that. Then I went to feed the pigs and then I met Ray at the Shell station when he got off the bus (and got gas).

We had turkey with frozen broccoli and egg noodles, and ice cream, and watched a couple game shows, before I headed to the doctor's office.