Friday was kinda rough, today was better, looking forward to tomorrow
Friday was a pretty rough day. I got one piece of upsetting news from the neurologist – during my sleep study EEG, there were “several events” that he wants to cross correlated with *another* EEG – this one a 24 hour EEG. That produced a lot of intense frustration for me. On the one hand “several events” is pretty darn vague. Is several 5? How about 10? Maybe 20? And what the heck is an “event”? Is it something that would make him think that my condition is better than he thought or worse than he thought? Too many unanswered questions, and of course by the time I got back on the phone with his nurse, he had left for the weekend so I won’t hear anything until Monday.
Another bit of upsetting news from Friday – I had a biopsy done on a rather ugly mole, and it turns out it’s cancerous. It’s a basal cell carcinoma (which I think is Latin for “big ugly mole”) and is technically malignant, although they almost never spread to other parts of the body. Normally I would not have found it that upsetting, since my goal was to get it removed anyway and this just confirms that it was a good goal. But put on top of the other news about more EEG tests…well it just kind of sunk me into a pit.
I’m feeling better today though. The day started pretty early – our neighbor shot a doe and called to ask if we wanted it. We all like venison, so the day started pretty early with skinning/gutting a dear, but it was a good time all the same. We also had some folks over that are buying a couple of sheep from us, and they were really nice.
Tomorrow I get to do another sleep study. It turns out I have sleep apnea after all, so tomorrow they will be putting me on a CPAP machine and getting it adjusted to me. I’m really, REALLY looking forward to this. I’m extremely hopeful that I will actually start SLEEPING through the night again – something that hasn’t happened since the seizures started.
Trying to stay positive!
Donald Reece said,
November 14, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
Beau you are going to like your cpap machine when you get it. You will feel like a new man. But don’t get too worried about the EEG events. I had several too and they had me scared something was wrong with my heart. After further EEG tests were done, the doctor concluded my heart was very healthy. Your oxygen dropping is what caused the EEG events. As soon as you get you new C-Pap machine, all your health issues will be over.
Richard said,
November 15, 2009 @ 8:50 am
I have no good words of advice, other than hang in there. Will say a prayer for you. Tell Allena and the kids I said hi.
MO'B said,
November 15, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
I agree with Donald, hell I had like 49 events an hour when I had my done. He just wants to review the tapes and make sure you don’t have systemic apnea (which is an uncommon nervous system problem) as opposed to obstructive apnea which is what 99% of us have. If you had systemic apnea all this time you would be in much, much, much, worse shape than you are – its very unlikely you have that. Also you would have been awoken by someone in your sleep study standing over you screaming “CLEAR!” ;)
I use the nasal pillows and fin them much better than the jockstrap on your face they will usually default to. ;) Hang in there!
Beau said,
November 16, 2009 @ 9:25 am
Thanks for your inputs guys – Don and Mike, I especially appreciate the definition of “event”. I’m kind of sensitive to vague terms regarding my brain lately ;)