Well, each summer here we've found June hot, July extremely hot, and August unbearably hot and sticky. This year, June was extremely hot, July was unbearably hot and sticky, and god knows what August holds for us.
Normally in August, when I step out of the car or house or office, my spectacles would fog over immediately. This has been happening for the last 6 weeks, this year. Ominous really. How on earth did people survive this climate before aircon of some sort? Oh, thats right, mostly they didnt.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Good news from all over
Or rather, not too much.
On Tuesday I took Cat to the hospital, to (as it turns out) get a biopsy of her cervix - she's been having abnormal pap smears for a couple of years, and the viral infection (some version of HPV) has apparently taken a serious turn. From what the doctor said, they're expecting to find a 'pre-cancerous' lesion, which should be removable via a LEEP operation - a fairly minor outpatient procedure, we're told. Well, far better to have it treated and removed before it turns into a cancer, I guess.
Which, parenthetically, just made me goggle in abhorred wonder at all the nutcase parents in the US who are vowing and declaring never to let their teenage daughters be innoculated against HPV, despite its effect at reducing cervical cancer. The basis for this seems to officially be that being innoculated against a sex-born virus will just encourage them to have sex, and if they only have sex with the one man they ever marry, they will be in no danger of contracting HPV.
Which may be true, IF their husband has never had sex with anyone at all ever, either. And assuming they never divorce and remarry, or - heaven forbid - have an affair while married.
In fact, as far as I can detect, the real reason for this refusal is a far more visceral patriarchal reaction of 'Eewww, lady-parts, yukky!' .... which actually pretty much describes the reaction of these nuts to most female-related issues.
Enough hypocrisy and rank deception to choke a hippo, really.
Oh, and speaking of hypocrisy, we have this little fiasco in Louisiana at the moment too: Experts now estimate that five times more oil has been spilling into the water from that oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana than they thought before:
On Tuesday I took Cat to the hospital, to (as it turns out) get a biopsy of her cervix - she's been having abnormal pap smears for a couple of years, and the viral infection (some version of HPV) has apparently taken a serious turn. From what the doctor said, they're expecting to find a 'pre-cancerous' lesion, which should be removable via a LEEP operation - a fairly minor outpatient procedure, we're told. Well, far better to have it treated and removed before it turns into a cancer, I guess.
Which, parenthetically, just made me goggle in abhorred wonder at all the nutcase parents in the US who are vowing and declaring never to let their teenage daughters be innoculated against HPV, despite its effect at reducing cervical cancer. The basis for this seems to officially be that being innoculated against a sex-born virus will just encourage them to have sex, and if they only have sex with the one man they ever marry, they will be in no danger of contracting HPV.
Which may be true, IF their husband has never had sex with anyone at all ever, either. And assuming they never divorce and remarry, or - heaven forbid - have an affair while married.
In fact, as far as I can detect, the real reason for this refusal is a far more visceral patriarchal reaction of 'Eewww, lady-parts, yukky!' .... which actually pretty much describes the reaction of these nuts to most female-related issues.
Enough hypocrisy and rank deception to choke a hippo, really.
Oh, and speaking of hypocrisy, we have this little fiasco in Louisiana at the moment too: Experts now estimate that five times more oil has been spilling into the water from that oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana than they thought before:
Okay. Here's how much they estimated was leaking before this evening: 42,000 gallons a day.
Five times that amount means approximately 210,000 gallons a day have been leaking into the Gulf.
If this spill continues unabated for two months — and that seems to be the most likely time frame at this point — we're talking about 12.6 million gallons.
Exxon Valdez? That was 10.8 million.
Enjoy your evening.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Really not funny
One of the things that makes me most nervous about this country is the truly catastrophic consequences of serious illness here - getting cancer, or anything that requires serious expensive treatment, is often a quick route to bankruptcy, and frequently a guarantee of an unnecessary death once your resources do run out.
The idea of relying on private enterprise to 'insure' your health care always struck me as pretty dubious, and after encountering it at close range, and hearing a few of the many many many horror stories about how this has resulted in its victims being purged from the books once they start costing money, rather than just coughing up their cash, this has just been reinforced for me, over and over and over.
I mean, the NHS in England was pretty shoddy and embarassing at times, by NZ public health standards, but that was more or less in keeping with the English attitude to service, labour, and ... well everything to be honest. At least it was cheap, tho - something like 5% of GDP, compared to the 14% of GDP that the American system swallows (although to be fair I think that should be noted as 10% of GDP spent of health care and another 4% spent on health care insurance companies).
However, the occasional callousness and dirtyness of the NHS is as nothing compared to the utter barbarity of things like this:
Let's see, it cost about $1k for my cardio scan last year: frozen chickens sell for about $5 each, so that would be about 200 chickens - I hope they have some fairly substantial freezers at the hospital. Or I suppose I could bring live ones, which would be less valuable (all that effort slaughtering and plucking), so say 240-300 live chooks? Well I suppose they could use the carparks to pen them up, after all noone will be able to afford an automobile with this system.
The idea of relying on private enterprise to 'insure' your health care always struck me as pretty dubious, and after encountering it at close range, and hearing a few of the many many many horror stories about how this has resulted in its victims being purged from the books once they start costing money, rather than just coughing up their cash, this has just been reinforced for me, over and over and over.
I mean, the NHS in England was pretty shoddy and embarassing at times, by NZ public health standards, but that was more or less in keeping with the English attitude to service, labour, and ... well everything to be honest. At least it was cheap, tho - something like 5% of GDP, compared to the 14% of GDP that the American system swallows (although to be fair I think that should be noted as 10% of GDP spent of health care and another 4% spent on health care insurance companies).
However, the occasional callousness and dirtyness of the NHS is as nothing compared to the utter barbarity of things like this:
The reference to bringing chickens needs a little explaining - one of the Republican candidates for the US Senate seat in Nevada has publicly recommended reverting to barter (specifically, bringing a chicken in payment) with doctors in order to reduce medical costs. Seriously. When twice offered an opportunity to modify or retract this, she has reiterated and reinforced it. And yes, this happened in 2010, not 1810 (even the Victorians would be ashamed of such naked nuttiness).
One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. First there was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. Later, Robin Beaton, a registered nurse from Texas. And then, most recently, there was Patricia Relling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer from Louisville, Kentucky.Free markets are, by definition, more efficient than government programs which leads to better outcomes for everybody, across the board as incentives always line up in a seamless conjunction:
None of the women knew about the others. But besides their similar narratives, they had something else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders -- more than any other health insurance company in the United States.
The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.
They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.
Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint declined to comment on the women's specific cases without a signed waiver from them, citing privacy laws.
That tens of thousands of Americans lost their health insurance shortly after being diagnosed with life-threatening, expensive medical conditions has been well documented by law enforcement agencies, state regulators and a congressional committee. Insurance companies have used the practice, known as "rescission," for years. And a congressional committee last year said WellPoint was one of the worst offenders.
But WellPoint also has specifically targeted women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with the intent to cancel their policies, federal investigators told Reuters. The revelation is especially striking for a company whose CEO and president, Angela Braly, has earned plaudits for how her company improved the medical care and treatment of other policyholders with breast cancer.
The cancellation of her health insurance in June 2008 forced Robin Beaton to delay cancer surgery by five months. In that time, the tumor in her breast grew from 2 centimeters to 7 centimeters.
Two months before Beaton's policy was dropped, Patricia Relling also was diagnosed with breast cancer. Anthem Blue Cross of Kentucky, a WellPoint subsidiary, paid the bills for a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
But the following January, after Relling suffered a life-threatening staph infection requiring two emergency surgeries in three days, Anthem balked and refused to pay more. They soon canceled her insurance entirely.
Unable to afford additional necessary surgeries for nearly 16 months, Relling ended up severely disabled and largely confined to her home. As a result of her crushing medical bills, the once well-to-do businesswoman is now dependent on food stamps.I suppose one could blame these women for not realizing that all they needed to do was bring a few chickens to their respective oncologists/surgeons in order to get the care they needed, but that wouldn't be nice.Snark aside, kudos to Murray Waas for covering these stories (see, also, Waas' coverage of a similar scandal involving Assurant and its systematic rescission of HIV-positive customers).
Let's see, it cost about $1k for my cardio scan last year: frozen chickens sell for about $5 each, so that would be about 200 chickens - I hope they have some fairly substantial freezers at the hospital. Or I suppose I could bring live ones, which would be less valuable (all that effort slaughtering and plucking), so say 240-300 live chooks? Well I suppose they could use the carparks to pen them up, after all noone will be able to afford an automobile with this system.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Everything comes and goes
Everything comes and goes
pleasure leaves too early
and troubles leaves too slow
Tough month: it's been freezing cold here, biting in a way that it wasn't in London. And I do mean freezing, quite a few days it hasn't even reached 0C at the warmest point of the day. Last weekend, we didn't go out for 4 days as we were iced in - all the roads were sheets of ice, with a dusting of snow, and the temperature seesawed between 15 & 25F (-10 and -5 roughly).
It isn't the grim grind of an English winter, even at worst there are plenty of sunny blue-sky days - viciously cold, but fine: but it's decidedly colder. Of course all the locals are shaking their heads and saying, never been a winter this cold before ... as usual. They've also been cheerfully announcing that it means this global warming stuff is just foolishness (gakk).
It, or various medical issues, seem to have left me fairly depressed: quite hard just to get up and keeping going each day.
Cat seems to be feeling a lot brighter than this though - she's just launched into a new project to build a set of compost bins behind the garage, with a raised vegetable garden as the next project after that. She's tearing into that with quite a bit of energy, happily hammering and sawing away in the garage, while wrapped up in many layers of warm clothes.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Baby its cold outside!
Well so much for the hot-weather south! We got snowed on Monday, enough that there was ground-cover most of the day, which the locals were saying hadn't happened in 50 years*, and it's still bitterly cold: I think yesterday's high was 2 or 3, and the forecast for Thursday & Friday is a high of -5 or so.**
It's not actually as chilly as Wellington winters outside tho, as there is little moisture and almost no wind, so no windchill or drenching effects .... just the slow seeping cold inside, if you dont crank up the central heating or dress warm.
It does make the driving on concrete bridges terribly treacherous though, as the overnight dew freezes into ice sheets and streaks and renders tire grip negligible - and of course, Arkansas isn't coping with it very well, not being used to it, so we're trying to stay at home as much as we can & I've been working from home all week.
Which is not terrible, as I've got this stupid support-hose to wear on my left leg til next monday, and it is a collossal pain in the posterior: pinching, uncomfortable, keeps riding down my leg & needing adjustment, and makes me walk funny, so I'm not sorry to NOT be hobbling around work looking even more peculiar than usual.
*which is about as reliable as spring sunshine really
** Apparently caused by an Arctic Oscillation
It's not actually as chilly as Wellington winters outside tho, as there is little moisture and almost no wind, so no windchill or drenching effects .... just the slow seeping cold inside, if you dont crank up the central heating or dress warm.
It does make the driving on concrete bridges terribly treacherous though, as the overnight dew freezes into ice sheets and streaks and renders tire grip negligible - and of course, Arkansas isn't coping with it very well, not being used to it, so we're trying to stay at home as much as we can & I've been working from home all week.
Which is not terrible, as I've got this stupid support-hose to wear on my left leg til next monday, and it is a collossal pain in the posterior: pinching, uncomfortable, keeps riding down my leg & needing adjustment, and makes me walk funny, so I'm not sorry to NOT be hobbling around work looking even more peculiar than usual.
*which is about as reliable as spring sunshine really
** Apparently caused by an Arctic Oscillation
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Medical Month
Well this does seem to be the month for things medical. On Tuesday I had a cardio stress test along with being injected with radioactive tracer (which is a lot less fun than it sounds :), and the cardiologist was not entirely sure of the result - there was a shadow or occlusion over the lowest part of the picture, and it's not clear whether it is caused by a blockage, or just by the thick muscle of the top of my diaphragm, as this is forced upward by my excess bulk.
Sooo, tomorrow I'm off to the hospital, where they will put a camera on a tube up through a vein in my groin, to have a look at my heart. If nothing is wrong, I should be out by lunchtime, but if they spot any blockage, they will insert a balloon and inflate it inside the artery to clear the blockage & I'll be in overnight (mostly to ensure nothing funny happens post-op, I think).
Given that this all started because I was feeling periodic palpitations/heavy pulse, and occasional left-chest pain, I'm more or less expecting that they will find something (and presumably fix it).
Anyway, on top of that, I visited the Vein centre last week, to check on my swollen foot/calf, and they have found some of the valves in my surface vein network aren't working properly (so leaving blood to pool in the extremity, hence the swelling), so on the 30th I'm scheduled for laser surgery with them (where they put a tiny laser into a vein, trace it up through the leg and seal the problematic points. That would also be nice, as this is a fairly annoying condition - it kinda restricts my mobility a bit, but mostly just aches a lot and is generally vexatious.
So, hopefully start the new year a whole new man! well, bits of one anyway.
-------------------------------------
Update:
======
Well, cardiac camera show done now, and all good news: no ischaemic blockages or anything like it - a few small traces of artherosclerosis unsurprising in a 51 year old, plus a lecture on losing weight, getting fitter and eating better, surprise surprise. Still don't know the cause of the symptoms but at least it's not cardiac.
Sooo, tomorrow I'm off to the hospital, where they will put a camera on a tube up through a vein in my groin, to have a look at my heart. If nothing is wrong, I should be out by lunchtime, but if they spot any blockage, they will insert a balloon and inflate it inside the artery to clear the blockage & I'll be in overnight (mostly to ensure nothing funny happens post-op, I think).
Given that this all started because I was feeling periodic palpitations/heavy pulse, and occasional left-chest pain, I'm more or less expecting that they will find something (and presumably fix it).
Anyway, on top of that, I visited the Vein centre last week, to check on my swollen foot/calf, and they have found some of the valves in my surface vein network aren't working properly (so leaving blood to pool in the extremity, hence the swelling), so on the 30th I'm scheduled for laser surgery with them (where they put a tiny laser into a vein, trace it up through the leg and seal the problematic points. That would also be nice, as this is a fairly annoying condition - it kinda restricts my mobility a bit, but mostly just aches a lot and is generally vexatious.
So, hopefully start the new year a whole new man! well, bits of one anyway.
-------------------------------------
Update:
======
Well, cardiac camera show done now, and all good news: no ischaemic blockages or anything like it - a few small traces of artherosclerosis unsurprising in a 51 year old, plus a lecture on losing weight, getting fitter and eating better, surprise surprise. Still don't know the cause of the symptoms but at least it's not cardiac.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Catchup day
oops, cut off in mid-stride: a few emergencies erupted yesterday, and I thought I'd better hit publish as it didnt look like I'd get time to get to it.
As I was going to say before I so rudely interrupted myself :) - our moving day is set for Friday 9th, so we've got about a week after settlement day (30th) to have some people go in, repaint the bedroom, lift the carpets in the hall & 2 bedrooms and polish the hardwood floors underneath them, and fix some minor things we want changed (toilet needing reseating, electrical outlets needing upgrading, new shower head, picayune stuff but nice to get sorted out - and nice to own the house so we can, without having to ask permission!)
And it looks like another mad day today: had to spend a couple of hours last night fixing some headaches, and now in addition to the tidyup and paperwork (well, electronic, but it comes to the same thing), I need to chase up why this occurred (fortunately not my problem) and whether we caught it in time (definitely a potential problem). Oh well.
Cat applied for a couple of floristry jobs - one of which she didn't hear back from, oddly, as the woman seemed to be terrifically interested in all the new techniques she could offer: but she may have priced herself out of that one, or the woman may have reconsidered in light of the economic weather. The other she was offered but turned down, partly for the poor pay rate (not much over minimum wage) but mostly because 90% of the work would be funeral work as the shop is owned by a big funeral home chain - and unlike England the funeral work here is amazingly dull and unimaginative, very simple and repetitive and hardly better than production-line floristry.
However, the proprietor shop she's been working unpaid at for the last few months - which is definitely one of the 2 or 3 elite floristry places in the city - heard about her looking, and has offered her a parttime position, which is what she wanted. She won't be starting until mid-October, after we're moved in, which is definitely a Good Thing, as she has a lot of projects she want to get done by then.
Other than that, I am still feeling fantastic, released from the Dopey Prison of apnea. It's just, well, like dawn after nightfall, feeling so much more alert, and having energy to actually do things. Not a huge amount of energy, but anything is good: I've been able to increase the amount of daily exercise I'm getting, and cut down a bit on meal sizes, which is paying dividends in losing weight (slowly, but anything is good). Even the pestilentially annoying psoriasis seems to be clearing up (except for a particularly annoying patch on my scalp, under my hair, which seems to be resistant to everything: I'm considering napalm, or perhaps a mohawk, to expose it to the sunlight).
Oh, and my nose has started working, at least intermittently. After decades of not really smelling anything much at all, of a sudden I can - sometimes anyway - detect quite subtle small smells, which is wonderful .... sometimes! Of course most of that will be down to not smoking any more (wow, nearly 5 years since I stopped now), but blowing lots of warm wet air up my nose has done wonders to clear the congestion as well.
It has also definitely improved my humour - both my general mood, and my capacity to hang on to my temper and not fly off the handle. Probably hasn't improved my terrible puns and jokes though! In fact, it may have made them, well, more numerous if not worse in quality.
As I was going to say before I so rudely interrupted myself :) - our moving day is set for Friday 9th, so we've got about a week after settlement day (30th) to have some people go in, repaint the bedroom, lift the carpets in the hall & 2 bedrooms and polish the hardwood floors underneath them, and fix some minor things we want changed (toilet needing reseating, electrical outlets needing upgrading, new shower head, picayune stuff but nice to get sorted out - and nice to own the house so we can, without having to ask permission!)
And it looks like another mad day today: had to spend a couple of hours last night fixing some headaches, and now in addition to the tidyup and paperwork (well, electronic, but it comes to the same thing), I need to chase up why this occurred (fortunately not my problem) and whether we caught it in time (definitely a potential problem). Oh well.
Cat applied for a couple of floristry jobs - one of which she didn't hear back from, oddly, as the woman seemed to be terrifically interested in all the new techniques she could offer: but she may have priced herself out of that one, or the woman may have reconsidered in light of the economic weather. The other she was offered but turned down, partly for the poor pay rate (not much over minimum wage) but mostly because 90% of the work would be funeral work as the shop is owned by a big funeral home chain - and unlike England the funeral work here is amazingly dull and unimaginative, very simple and repetitive and hardly better than production-line floristry.
However, the proprietor shop she's been working unpaid at for the last few months - which is definitely one of the 2 or 3 elite floristry places in the city - heard about her looking, and has offered her a parttime position, which is what she wanted. She won't be starting until mid-October, after we're moved in, which is definitely a Good Thing, as she has a lot of projects she want to get done by then.
Other than that, I am still feeling fantastic, released from the Dopey Prison of apnea. It's just, well, like dawn after nightfall, feeling so much more alert, and having energy to actually do things. Not a huge amount of energy, but anything is good: I've been able to increase the amount of daily exercise I'm getting, and cut down a bit on meal sizes, which is paying dividends in losing weight (slowly, but anything is good). Even the pestilentially annoying psoriasis seems to be clearing up (except for a particularly annoying patch on my scalp, under my hair, which seems to be resistant to everything: I'm considering napalm, or perhaps a mohawk, to expose it to the sunlight).
Oh, and my nose has started working, at least intermittently. After decades of not really smelling anything much at all, of a sudden I can - sometimes anyway - detect quite subtle small smells, which is wonderful .... sometimes! Of course most of that will be down to not smoking any more (wow, nearly 5 years since I stopped now), but blowing lots of warm wet air up my nose has done wonders to clear the congestion as well.
It has also definitely improved my humour - both my general mood, and my capacity to hang on to my temper and not fly off the handle. Probably hasn't improved my terrible puns and jokes though! In fact, it may have made them, well, more numerous if not worse in quality.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hell is not Texas
Hell is in fact phoning the Infernal Revenue Service - exactly on their stated opening hours - and, after spending 5 minutes wrestling vainly with their autophone service, getting a message saying, 'Your anticipated wait time is greater than 15 minutes', without even the option to leave a message or request a callback.
Oh well.
Ironically I phoned the Arkansas Tax Department & got everything sorted with them in about 2 minutes total :)
Heaven, on the other hand, is getting enough sleep. I've been on this new CPAP machine for about 10 days now, getting used to wearing it at night, and the results are ... fantastic! I've got energy, and bounce, and much more cheerfulness. No more periods of feeling dopey and dozey, no more extended lethargy, no more afternoon naps in the weekends.
Cat says I've got a twinkle in my eye, and I'm present and here so much more. It sure feels like it - last night after work, I got home, did my regular exercise, had dinner: then instead of washing the dishes then sitting quiescent in front of the laptop all evening, I got up, cleaned the kitchen, helped Cat with a problem with her furniture project, did stuff, was all energetic! Wow ... just ... wow.
Of course, it does feel weird, at night, but I'm gradually getting adjusted: and finding I'm even waking up before the alarm goes off, and just thinking & planning the morning.
Not sure if this burst will last or subside as I get more used to feeling rested, but damn it feels good so far!
Oh well.
Ironically I phoned the Arkansas Tax Department & got everything sorted with them in about 2 minutes total :)
Update: I do have to apologise to the IRS for some of the mental ill-wishing I indulged in, as once they did answer my call, the woman I got was amazingly friendly and helpful, and couldn't do enough to resolve my issue and make me happy. It did take quite a while, but rather than the usual bounce-me-round-the-department crap, she made all the ancillary calls herself, & let me know what she was doing, and her progress on each one. Score a big plus for the civil service, I must say.
Heaven, on the other hand, is getting enough sleep. I've been on this new CPAP machine for about 10 days now, getting used to wearing it at night, and the results are ... fantastic! I've got energy, and bounce, and much more cheerfulness. No more periods of feeling dopey and dozey, no more extended lethargy, no more afternoon naps in the weekends.
Cat says I've got a twinkle in my eye, and I'm present and here so much more. It sure feels like it - last night after work, I got home, did my regular exercise, had dinner: then instead of washing the dishes then sitting quiescent in front of the laptop all evening, I got up, cleaned the kitchen, helped Cat with a problem with her furniture project, did stuff, was all energetic! Wow ... just ... wow.
Of course, it does feel weird, at night, but I'm gradually getting adjusted: and finding I'm even waking up before the alarm goes off, and just thinking & planning the morning.
Not sure if this burst will last or subside as I get more used to feeling rested, but damn it feels good so far!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Health
Well, this is interesting.
On Thursday night, I spent the night in the Sleep Clinic at the nearest hospital, having my sleep studied for apnea, which frankly you could have diagnosed in about 30 seconds with a paper cup pressed to the bedroom door (or a geophone* hehheh). It was about as unpleasant as it could be, short of, yanno, actual surgery or illness, but on the upside, the diagnosis was confirmed, and they (eventually after much shuffling of papers and waiting around) issued me with a CPAP machine.
This comes with a mask, or in my place a noseplug, to feed air to you at night at overpressure (quite a LOT of overpressure it turns out), and assists in breathing by forcing the breathing passage open when it closes.
Stupid really, I've known I have apnea for aeons now, at least 15 years - and it was probably much longer without my realising, as it's quite insidious. I'd thought repeatedly about getting this treatment, but the idea of covering up my face and nose at night just made my skin creep, so I kept putting it off. What changed my mind was simply in some stupid TV program, seeing someone getting fitted with a mask while he slept and ... son of a gun, it was a tiny thing, didnt cover his mouth at all, or most of his nose! Realising (duh!) that there must be many variations for different levels of claustrophobia, completely changed my mind.
Parenthetically, I wouldn't have said I have claustrophobia ordinarily, but something about the whole cover-the-nose-and-mouth thing just makes me feel smothered, even just contemplating it.
So, after three nights, I must admit it seems to be going pretty fantastically well. I've got sleeping pills to take at night, so I can get used to wearing the mask - just as well, it would I'm sure keep me awake otherwise. Both Saturday and Sunday, I just felt .. better. Not boing! bouncing off the walls full of energy, just better, a little more clearheaded: and I didnt need a nap either day, which ordinarily would be an absolute necessity on the weekend. Definitely a big improvement.
Now I'm trying to get my head around the idea of having laproscopic surgery for a stomach stapling, or whatever it's called now. I've toyed with the idea for a long time, but always been put off because when Mum had it done, it seemed to have an awful lot of unintended & unpleasant consequences, and not to deliver that much positive for all that price ... but as my doctor, and Cat, have pointed out, they've made a huge number of improvements and advances since then, and it's a lot safer, less invasive, and more positive in outcomes.
There's a woman at work who had it a while back, and a guy who has just had it, and both are completely positive about it.
Mostly, I just need to get it embedded and normalised in my head - especially the idea that I'll be eating tiny meals, and NOT being or feeling deprived about it. That may take a little while to drill through, but without that I can see I'd just do something foolish. Plenty to contemplate: hard to imagine a new slimline Phil full of energy, really :)
On Thursday night, I spent the night in the Sleep Clinic at the nearest hospital, having my sleep studied for apnea, which frankly you could have diagnosed in about 30 seconds with a paper cup pressed to the bedroom door (or a geophone* hehheh). It was about as unpleasant as it could be, short of, yanno, actual surgery or illness, but on the upside, the diagnosis was confirmed, and they (eventually after much shuffling of papers and waiting around) issued me with a CPAP machine.
This comes with a mask, or in my place a noseplug, to feed air to you at night at overpressure (quite a LOT of overpressure it turns out), and assists in breathing by forcing the breathing passage open when it closes.
Stupid really, I've known I have apnea for aeons now, at least 15 years - and it was probably much longer without my realising, as it's quite insidious. I'd thought repeatedly about getting this treatment, but the idea of covering up my face and nose at night just made my skin creep, so I kept putting it off. What changed my mind was simply in some stupid TV program, seeing someone getting fitted with a mask while he slept and ... son of a gun, it was a tiny thing, didnt cover his mouth at all, or most of his nose! Realising (duh!) that there must be many variations for different levels of claustrophobia, completely changed my mind.
Parenthetically, I wouldn't have said I have claustrophobia ordinarily, but something about the whole cover-the-nose-and-mouth thing just makes me feel smothered, even just contemplating it.
So, after three nights, I must admit it seems to be going pretty fantastically well. I've got sleeping pills to take at night, so I can get used to wearing the mask - just as well, it would I'm sure keep me awake otherwise. Both Saturday and Sunday, I just felt .. better. Not boing! bouncing off the walls full of energy, just better, a little more clearheaded: and I didnt need a nap either day, which ordinarily would be an absolute necessity on the weekend. Definitely a big improvement.
Now I'm trying to get my head around the idea of having laproscopic surgery for a stomach stapling, or whatever it's called now. I've toyed with the idea for a long time, but always been put off because when Mum had it done, it seemed to have an awful lot of unintended & unpleasant consequences, and not to deliver that much positive for all that price ... but as my doctor, and Cat, have pointed out, they've made a huge number of improvements and advances since then, and it's a lot safer, less invasive, and more positive in outcomes.
There's a woman at work who had it a while back, and a guy who has just had it, and both are completely positive about it.
Mostly, I just need to get it embedded and normalised in my head - especially the idea that I'll be eating tiny meals, and NOT being or feeling deprived about it. That may take a little while to drill through, but without that I can see I'd just do something foolish. Plenty to contemplate: hard to imagine a new slimline Phil full of energy, really :)
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