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jimsjournal

An August weekend -- 08/07/10




Ah, August when the blackberries are ripening...


And you can pick them and eat them...


==> Note: The following picture is totally unrelated to the previous pictures. The following picture is about sleep testing and is not about an allergic reaction to blackberries. (I guess the juxtaposition startled some of you guys.)


This is what I looked like when I woke up this morning...



I spend the night in the sleep study clinic at our local hospital having a sleep test to see if I might have sleep apnea. (The severe kind of snoring where you may actually briefly stop breathing.) Nancy has been telling me that my snoring is getting worse and that I might have sleep apnea. I talked about it with my doctor and she suggested seeing a pulmonary specialist to find out... and he said the best way to find out is to spend a night in the sleep clinic.

So that is where I slept last night... wired from head to foot (well, actually only head to lower calf, my feet weren't directly involved... although I did have to wiggle them, etc. during the calibration process). There were sensors all over me, plus a heart monitor chest strap (and another strap around my stomach, but I have no idea what that was measuring). I couldn't believe how many were glued onto my head and behind my ears. not to mention on my chest and back and arms and legs. And all those wires led to a plastic thing that then plugged into the circuits that led to the technician's control room. That way, the plastic gizmo could be unplugged so that I could, for example, go to the bathroom, and then just be plugged back in again.

The calibration testing consisted of me lying in bed following the instructions of the technician from her control room: wiggle my feet, move my eyes left and right three times without moving my head, move my eyes up and down three times, blink five times, breath in deeply and hold it for ten seconds, etc

Okay, now try to sleep like that

Usually, when I feel I am falling asleep, I tend to roll over onto my side (usually my left side) but last night I couldn't do that because of all the wires without calling for the technician to lift and rearrange some of the wires so I could roll onto my side.

So my sleep was a rather interrupted sleep as the wires would restrict my movement and I would wake up (and, twice I think, I managed to disconnect the sensor on my left calf in my sleep and the technician had to come in and reconnect it). I was rather glad when 5:30 a.m. came and the test was over and I could get disconnected and get dressed and come home (and take a shower to get all of the glop out of my hair that had been holding the head sensors in place). And, needless to say, I've been a bit off all day -- in fact, after lunch I went upstairs and took a long nap.

Today has been a beautiful day -- low humidity, warm without being too hot, bright sunshine in a cloudless blue sky. No clouds, but lots of helicopters over head...


Today was LeapFest -- an annual parachute competition held in this area featuring teams from the US Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force plus international teams from Europe, Asia, and South America. All day long there is the constant sound of multiple big military helicopters overhead carrying teams from the staging area to the drop zone. It always reminds me of the Woodstock Festival when all weekend long the skies over Monitcello were filled with private helicopters flying the performers in and out, state police and sheriff's department helicopters patrolling, and huge National Guard helicopters bringing in food and water.

This is also the weekend of the Newport Jazz Festival -- what perfect weather -- and there will be thousands and thousands of people visiting Newport for that -- but then there are always thousands and thousands of people visiting Newport in the summer, not to mention all the thousands and thousands of people who are visiting the beaches here in South Kingstown and Narragansett all summer. (They really only bother me when a significant number of them want to drive on the same road I want to drive on at the same time that I want to drive on it.)





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