SHEs Organized

Home from body work and feeling balanced again. Decided, in a burst of energy, to make challah and Shabbat dinner tonight - and let dh know so we'll be on the same page. I stopped and picked up stuff for lasagne - my recipe makes two pans and I'll put the second into two smaller pans for the two families here that have had babies recently.

I am going to give myself about 10 more minutes of computer time, then start the challah in the breadmaker and nap.

OKay, do you have any idea yourself why the water witching works? I've always been curious.

Also curious here...

I'm also trying to move things around into slots of time in the next two weeks.

Waving to everyone! I'm having a major dig out here today, the kitchen needed help, plus time spent on the dining table and ~sigh~ you know the drill, bathrooms exercise walk while it's cool... stuff to do w/ out kids here that I can focus on so I did outside stuff while it was cool, then some yd. work ... I like having a free day Friday; but with chores and such I've just been home all morning playing a bit of catch up but it does look better and I'm breathing a bit of a sigh of relief.

It's been hot and we will have more of the same 95* next week. One nest box needs some repair so will try to have h. do that tomorrow. I may have the baby tomorrow do not know yet.

Waving to y'all...

I had a sleep study done last night and now need to get busy around the house.

Harmony...remember I have had a very difficult time feeling fatigued for a long while. And have had some significant weight gain that hasn't been explained. My PA is a remarkable gal and has worked like a detective trying to figure out what is going on with me. A few weeks back she ordered a sleep study. Since it has been 6 years since my last one, I agreed.

Went in expecting nothing, simply because my symptoms are similar to before. After answering a battery of questions and being hooked up to a begillion leads, I was given two different breathing masked to try out. This was to show me how they worked should I need one during the night. I was asked about my sleep eating habits...like what did I tend to eat and if I knew the time of night I was getting up. It usually occurs around 1:30 or so during the night. Though I've never walked at any other place other than my own home, my tech assured me she would be alerted by alarm if I decided to take off while sleeping.

Around 1:30 this morning she came into my room to wake me up....said I was having too many episodes of apena, not breathing, to please her and needed to put a mask on me. Using it was a struggle at first. In theory the mask forces air down your nose, throat and air passages to keep them open while you sleep. It also forces air into your lungs so they expand to full capacity. Best to say I felt like I was smothering. It was me under water with the life jacket on again. First few breathes were fine, but by the 6th or 7th I really had to forcefully push the air out of my nose in order to breath. It was scary to say the least. I had to focus so not to panic.

The tech told me that it takes people 20-30 minutes to adjust to the breathing. Once I could convince myself I wasn't really going to die I was able to breath better, but it was extremely difficult. I finally was able to fall asleep. Sometimes I was aware of the machine breathing for me and other times I was able to sleep.

This morning when the tech woke me up she said...I think we've just discovered why you've been feeling so bad lately. And though she could not professionally diagnose me, she knew I didn't want to wait the 5 days it would take to learn what the outcome was. She felt confident that I was suffering from sever apnea.

I don't snore by the way, but there are other reasons that promote the apnea. I am beginning to see a vicious cycle ahead of me. I think if I can loose these 20 lbs that I have gained that the effects of the apnea will decline. However feeling as exhausted as I do, the thought of exercise, which I will need to do to loose the weight, seems near impossible. I hate the idea of using that Cap machine...its noisy, uncomfortable and makes me look like Hannable Lector. Not a sexy thing...but I am willing to try it for a short period of time so that my energy will come back and hence I will feel like exercising again. And that will help me loose the needed weight and then I wouldn't have to use the machine.

By the time I got home this morning...it was 6:10 am...I felt as exhausted as ever. I stayed up drinking coffee, but that didn't help. Took a shower to wash to gook out of my hair and then tried to sleep. I was so conscience of my breathing that I was hardly able to close my eyes. Finally I got up, ate breakfast and watched tv. Am now just beginning to feel like myself so I want to get a few things done before its evening again.

Maybe you are having a difficult time with your sleep as well and just don't know it. I would never in a million years guessed that this was directly linked to my fatigue. After all I go to bed and get between what I thought was 7-9 hour of sleep. Who knew I wasn't breathing for a good part of that time. I am always amazed at how my body chooses to work or in this case doesn't.

Cowinkie - your sleep study experience is a lot like mine - I have moderate sleep apnea and at one point my O2 sat was down to 79%. I'm trying to get a dental device that will hold my mouth/throat in position so the breathing passages don't collapse - you might consider that route as it is less invasive than the CPap machine. I've had issues, tho - they send you to your own dentist and I don't think my dentist is very experienced. I'm thinking I should just go around him and have someone else make one as his didn't work and isn't adjustable. Sleep doc said that generally they are made to be adjustable so the comfort and effectiveness can be fine tuned.

Challah is in the oven and the lasagne sauce is done. Ds is home from the last day of his work and dkids are upstairs getting along. Nice to have them both home and for us to have Shabbat dinner together. I'm still trying to fit the pieces together for next week - dr appts for kids and dmom, having kids + dmom have lunch together, getting dd back to school and to defensive driving course, then the following week getting dd 3 1/2 hours south of here for court, then back to school (two hours north of here) by that evening.

Dh just walked through the door - he's been in a state today because he has misplaced dd's checks from her summer camp employment; he had said he would take them to the bank for her and I think he had her endorse the back of them. I feel pretty sure they will turn up, but I took the opportunity to ask him to bring home the copy of dd's speeding ticket. As I said, I'm not sure where the original is, LOL.

LOL, I was pretty sure they would turn up - dh just found the checks folded up in the corner of his wallet. He called me this morning early saying he didn't have them and wanting me to ck the pocket of the pants he wore yesterday. No, sorry, not there.

It's kind of fun because he works himself up so about it, while I usually just take the position that whatever it is will turn up. He's gone to the bank now with the checks.

It's almost 5 and Kathryn hasn't posted yet. I wonder if she's ok.

I saw Kathryn's light on not long ago?

I'm alive. Just didn't peek into the village today.

Didn't sleep well (too humid) and dh woke me up right at 6. Bless his heart.

Got out of bed at 8:30. Didn't exercise. Did strip and remake bed and eventually s2s. Then I worked on the upstairs. And worked on it and worked on it. It was hard to stay focused and my speed of work was really slow.

But it is done. Dh's closet floor (only 30" wide) was a mess. I pulled everything out, vacuumed up the dust bunnies and moved most of the items onto the upper shelves. When he decluttered his clothing, he got rid of everything on the upper shelves. With all the other junk up, the shelves on the floor could be used for shoes. His closet looks bigger now.

Those upper shelves also held other things that were in the exercise room on dh's dresser before it got moved. Both the exercise room and our bedroom are now arranged and the exercise room is deep cleaned (our bedroom only got a deep cleaning in one corner.)

We are getting rid of a lot of stuff - electronic scales, boombox, exercise ball (only one of three), shower rod cover (why it was in dh's closet, I have no idea!), etc. etc. One large laundry basket of things, plus the boombox and an end table were taken to the basement. The laundry basket (which was tucked under the exercise bike) held some projects that needed to be worked on, including hanging up 3 photos on the wall. Ds has a giant (4' x 3') photo of NYC which I had him move up to see how it looks and it looks fantastic but I'll have to get dh's help (and permission) to hang that.

Kitchen weekly chores are done as well.

While doing that, ds was distracting me because he wanted to buy his ticket so I kept stopping to work my computer. I found a better price than he had so we 'pulled the trigger' and he now has his ticket all the way through to Melbourne. And I picked up dd's flight back to Vancouver, including paying for a seat for her next ds (there's no guarantee they'd be seated together otherwise.)

I now owe ds $1500 because he's cashing in on promises I made to him and his Christmas present from last year (the welcome package and a year's service to support him with mail forwarding, tax returns, bank accounts, while he's there.)