Tag Archives: red

2016 – Progress on my red goals

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
January 2 2017

I mentioned in my earlier posts that I would talk about something in the red goals section, and this is that section, so I guess I will cover the issues here, if I have to! They impact on everything, which is not surprising as the red goals are about health and career.

MY RED GOALS: Be bright, be bold, be direct

For my Career, I was experiencing a bit of ennui. I love my job, it’s a great configuration…I have a fair amount of autonomy, knowable deliverables, enough variety to keep it interesting, and a solid team to manage. And yet…there is something in my work that is becoming a bit stale. I have been in the same job for eight years, something often unheard of in the EC category of government, with policy analysts being one of the most mobile groups in government. Even for planners, I’ve been a bit long in the same spot.  » Read the rest

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Sleep apnea treatment, days 3-8

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
March 9 2016

An interesting experience over the last six days. I am using my machine more and more each night, and sleeping longer and longer each bout. I still wake up once or twice during the night, but that’s better than 3-4. In terms of “incidences”, my AHI index of 124 which is way beyond severe apnea, is down to less than 5 (earlier it said .5, but that was an email typo of my results). So that’s the sleep side, which is the primary goal.

However, I have had fewer foggy incidents during the day too. My head is generally clearer. I have felt a bit light-headed a few times later at night, and my sleep cycle is still off. I did better the first week, better sleep routine, this past few nights I’ve been back to going to bed too late and getting up later in the morning. Which then messes me up during the day, particularly if I compensate with caffeine or more fluid intake after 9:00 at night.  » Read the rest

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Sleep apnea treatment, day 2 results

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
March 3 2016

So I went to bed just before 11:00 last night, and fell asleep well enough after I got over my initial hyper-ventilating. I think I need to let my body relax a bit, settle for a minute or two before I put on the machine, maybe while it is warming up the water. Then I slept until after 1:00. That might not seem like much, but it was well over the 90 minute sleep cycle I normally have i.e. it pushed through it.

The problem was I felt like (a) I needed to go to the bathroom eventually / not urgently and (b) I had a tickle in the back of my throat I wasn’t able to clear. Took a break, got up, went to the washroom, And the tickle became reflux. Not sure if that was a reaction to swallowing too much air, or something else. Going to try clearing my throat more before I start tonight.  » Read the rest

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Sleep apnea treatment, day 1 results

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
March 2 2016

As noted yesterday (Nervous yet resolute), I picked up an APAP machine yesterday to see if it can help with my sleep apnea. I set it up last night, adjusted the straps on the head gear, filled up the water reservoir, adjusted pillows and setup of my night stand to accommodate everything, and gave it a whirl.

In the first couple of minutes, I felt like I was hyper-ventilating. Likely a combination of it being APAP not CPAP, so it actually ramps up from air pressure of “5” to a maximum of “16” for me (range is 0 to 20 for the machine, and in contrast with CPAP that just has steady number the whole time, mine will also decrease if I’m not needing the higher number), and that whole nervous thing I mentioned in the title of the post.

I waited a few minutes, tried again, got it set up, and waited.  » Read the rest

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Nervous yet resolute

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
March 1 2016

So I have always had interesting sleep patterns. Bouts of insomnia, bouts of oversleeping. Frequently waking up with a sore jaw because I’m a grinder. But apnea wasn’t really on my list of likely causes of sleep problems. Mostly cuz I’m fortunate enough to share my bed with someone familiar with sleep apnea and I wasn’t showing the regular signs of jerking awake, obstructed breathing, making choking noises in my sleep, or even restless leg syndrome of twitching while sleeping. Sure, I occasionally snore, but more so when I ended up on my back than my usual side.

Last January (2015), I headed off though for a sleep study. Really I thought I was mostly grinding, but open to seeing what other problems I might have that caused me to sleep so badly. Andrea had done a sleep test years before, so I was open to it. However, in the pre-meeting with the doctor for the first time, I had a less than stellar beginning.  » Read the rest

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