Sleep Study 101 - For My Low BMI Peeps

I had my sleep study done last night. I think I “passed” with flying colors.

If you know my story, you’ll know that I’ve been worried about not qualifying for surgery because my bmi is too low and I havent been able to put on the weight I need (20+ lbs) to get it at the 40 mark. I took some measures to get my weight up at my last appointment, but it still wasn’t enough to get my BMI up high enough so we were counting on my blood work to show something – high cholesterol, diabetes, anything….again, no success with that either. My NP let me know that my last option was to be diagnosed with sleep apnea. We scheduled the sleep study for last night, and I’d like to give you a quick rundown of how it went.

If you’ve never had a sleep study done, here’s a jist of what you can expect.

I arrived at the sleep center at 9:15 and registered. The center I went to emailed me a packet of information and forms that they asked me to bring with me on the night of my study. I had to answer one part when I arrived, and then I gave the packet back to the tech. She was very nice, showed me to my room, and gave me a quick tour of the floor – showers, pantry, her station, etc.

We chatted it up a bit as she asked me why I was having the study done. I told her that I was hoping to have VSG surgery and she mentioned that she was considering WLS herself . She instructed me to change into my night clothes in the bathroom (the cameras are in the room) and that she would be back in a few to wire me up. She came back in the room at about 9:45 and the wiring process began. She put little glops of this pasty adhesive stuff on my face and scalp (imagine super thick Vaseline with Elmers glue added to it). While she was wiring me she explained that the pasty stuff was for the leads to adhere and give better readings while attached to me. Long story short, she put wires in my scalp, chin, neck, chest, back, and legs. She put tape on a few of the wires, which felt like I was getting waxed when she had to remove them the next morn. She also wrapped some kind of belts around my torso, and taped an oxygen monitoring device to my left index finger. I kind of felt like Swamp thing when I stood up to get into the bed. The room was really cozy as I was able to adjust the temp to my liking. There was a nice tv mounted and I vaguely remember watching some of 30 Rock while she wired me, and then the 10 pm news was on by the time I laid down. The bed was comfy, but the pillows were super flat. I could have asked for a couple more pillows, but I wanted to use everything I could to get my snoring on so I dealt with the flat pillow and laid down on my back (I ALWAYS snore when I sleep on my back). Lights out, time to go to sleep.

At home I usually sleep on my stomach or my side, and I don’t snore much as per my hubby, but I definitely drool like a teething baby. My sleep study sleep was completely different...

I remember waking up a few times during the night because I was snoring so loudly. You know it’s bad when you wake your own self up with your snoring. At one point I felt like someone stuffed 100 pairs of tube socks in my mouth because it was so dry. I think I had a few episodes of apnea because I kept waking up from my own snoring. I did end up on my side eventually, and had to turn back over because the wires were making me uncomfortable. Next thing you know the tech is in the room (at 6 frickin 15 in the morn) chirpy and jipper as ever to wake me up. I sat up and felt like I had slept on a ton of bricks and had a bag of sandpaper in my throat. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust and focus, but I was coherent enough to remember where I was. I asked the tech if she got a good laugh outta my snoring, and she said “don’t worry honey, you’re gonna get your surgery”, and that made my day. She reminded me of where the showers were and I got myself ready to get outta there.

So all in all, it wasn’t bad at all. I wasn’t worried about actually doing the study, I was worried that I wouldn’t “pass”. Oh, did I mention that I had a nice large glass of wine with my dinner before about an hour before? I’m sure that helped. *wink*