![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yeah. I haven't written anything like this in awhile.
I've been astonishingly busy. I'm pretty much my own boss and apparently I'm a bit of a slavedriver. Go figure. I fear for any employees I may one day have. Between needing to get a release of my current project out, and needing to write 3 very fat chapters for the upcoming book, I've got a lot to do.
My daughter is going to turn two in exactly a week. And the terrible twos are definitely starting to show up. She's getting very short tempered, which is not something we're used to with her, and it's a little difficult to figure out how to respond to it sometimes. She doesn't seem to really respond to timeouts for it, but I'm hoping time will ease that. Beyond that, she's still adorably cute, far, far far in advance of other children her age, and just amazing in general. She has memorized about the first half of "Good Night Moon" and can "read" it to me. Which is to say, she recites the parts she knows while turning the pages, but she doesn't really quite connect written words to words yet.
In February I finally decided to get a new primary care physician. To be fair I needed to do this because my insurance changed. I hadn't really had a PCP since I moved down here (technically I had one but he was up in San Mateo so it's a pretty rough trip). In so doing, I went in for a physical just to see how things really are. We talked about the things I knew were wrong -- the nasty indigestion and the sleep apnea, and noted that both were growing worse. He gave me two referrels, one to a gasterenterologist and one to a pulmonologist.
The actual physical came back fine. My blood pressure is slightly elevated as is my cholesterol, and the high BP is expected with sleep apnea.
It took the pulmonologist a month and a half to set up the appointment, but I got to the gastroenterologist right away. He did an endoscopy and looked at my stomach. Nasty erosions but nothing really bad in there. He put me on omeprazole and I haven't taken a tums since day 3 on the new drug. That's going great.
At the beginning of April the pulmonologist had me do a take-home sleep study, which involved strapping a monitoring device to my chest, wearing an oxygen sensor on my finger and having tubes in my nose. And sleeping. After having to push their receptionist to get the appointment to talk about the results rescheduled from June (seriously. June?!) I finally got in this week to see the results. The answer? Bad. 72 apnea events per hour, 26 of them obstructive and 10 more of them mixed.
Today I got the CPAP prescribed, and I'm actually looking forward to it. A few years ago the thought of a cpap really put me on edge, but these days I would like to have more than 1 day a month where I feel really awake. I've got my fingers crossed. In just wearing it to get used to it, I find that after I take it off the first few breaths without it on are actively unpleasant, as my lungs have to go back to working to get the air in. Clearly they very quickly get used to the air pressure opening them up. Otherwise, I didn't find it unpleasant at all to just wear. But that was only wearing it for a few minutes. Having it on all night may be another story, but I think knowing the problems I've got I can 'tough it out'.
For those interested, the machine is an AutoPAP with data recording and a humidifier. I have an over the nose mask, which I decided to try before the over the mouth mask just to see. Right now there's an even chance I'll have to trade it in, but if I do I do, and if I don't this one is definitely a little more comfortable.
I've been astonishingly busy. I'm pretty much my own boss and apparently I'm a bit of a slavedriver. Go figure. I fear for any employees I may one day have. Between needing to get a release of my current project out, and needing to write 3 very fat chapters for the upcoming book, I've got a lot to do.
My daughter is going to turn two in exactly a week. And the terrible twos are definitely starting to show up. She's getting very short tempered, which is not something we're used to with her, and it's a little difficult to figure out how to respond to it sometimes. She doesn't seem to really respond to timeouts for it, but I'm hoping time will ease that. Beyond that, she's still adorably cute, far, far far in advance of other children her age, and just amazing in general. She has memorized about the first half of "Good Night Moon" and can "read" it to me. Which is to say, she recites the parts she knows while turning the pages, but she doesn't really quite connect written words to words yet.
In February I finally decided to get a new primary care physician. To be fair I needed to do this because my insurance changed. I hadn't really had a PCP since I moved down here (technically I had one but he was up in San Mateo so it's a pretty rough trip). In so doing, I went in for a physical just to see how things really are. We talked about the things I knew were wrong -- the nasty indigestion and the sleep apnea, and noted that both were growing worse. He gave me two referrels, one to a gasterenterologist and one to a pulmonologist.
The actual physical came back fine. My blood pressure is slightly elevated as is my cholesterol, and the high BP is expected with sleep apnea.
It took the pulmonologist a month and a half to set up the appointment, but I got to the gastroenterologist right away. He did an endoscopy and looked at my stomach. Nasty erosions but nothing really bad in there. He put me on omeprazole and I haven't taken a tums since day 3 on the new drug. That's going great.
At the beginning of April the pulmonologist had me do a take-home sleep study, which involved strapping a monitoring device to my chest, wearing an oxygen sensor on my finger and having tubes in my nose. And sleeping. After having to push their receptionist to get the appointment to talk about the results rescheduled from June (seriously. June?!) I finally got in this week to see the results. The answer? Bad. 72 apnea events per hour, 26 of them obstructive and 10 more of them mixed.
Today I got the CPAP prescribed, and I'm actually looking forward to it. A few years ago the thought of a cpap really put me on edge, but these days I would like to have more than 1 day a month where I feel really awake. I've got my fingers crossed. In just wearing it to get used to it, I find that after I take it off the first few breaths without it on are actively unpleasant, as my lungs have to go back to working to get the air in. Clearly they very quickly get used to the air pressure opening them up. Otherwise, I didn't find it unpleasant at all to just wear. But that was only wearing it for a few minutes. Having it on all night may be another story, but I think knowing the problems I've got I can 'tough it out'.
For those interested, the machine is an AutoPAP with data recording and a humidifier. I have an over the nose mask, which I decided to try before the over the mouth mask just to see. Right now there's an even chance I'll have to trade it in, but if I do I do, and if I don't this one is definitely a little more comfortable.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 01:44 pm (UTC)Good to catch up through your update. My Dad has had a cpap for quite a few years now and it changed his life remarkably. Good luck with it! In terms of time outs, the best advice I've gotten (from books and a social worker) is that timeouts aren't effective consequences for behaviour, they are only effective as "breaks" when parent and child are both beyond reason. :) I only give timeouts to myself these days. ;) Good luck with the parenting journey!
re: slavedriver
Date: 2009-04-25 04:25 pm (UTC)